Septeber '26 Recap: The Enduring Circle, 'The Bear Map' & Growing the Team

Oh man, September was quite a month.

A lot was going on in my private life, but there was also plenty happening here, in our little corner of the internet. I’ve covered the most important thing for you below, and if you keep reading, you’ll also find out what Patreon has to do with my wife. ;)

I’ll start with the big one, because there’s no point in making you wait for the most important news.

New Enduring Circle has officially launched.

Until now, I’d mostly mentioned it as this little list tucked away somewhere on dranskybattlemaps.com - a place that recognizes my Patreon veterans, long-time supporters, and absolute legends who have been with me almost from the very beginning.

Now, there’s more to it. A lot more.

The Enduring Circle now gives you -my wonderful Patrons - something tangible. A map, or even an entire location, simply for sticking around.

Let’s take a closer look at it, because I genuinely think the idea is fantastic. More importantly, it finally gives me a way to properly thank those of you who have been here for such a long time.

As a Patron, you now get something that immediately shows you where you are and what reward is waiting for you. We all play RPGs here, and those of us who still play cRPGs will know exactly what I mean:

Everyone gets an XP bar:

It shows how long you’ve been supporting me and which reward you’re working toward.

Below that, you can see all the rewards themselves - and once you meet the requirements, you can simply claim them.

Building this whole thing took a serious amount of time, and in practice, it also meant creating entire locations from scratch. I’ll probably remember September as the month when Unreal Engine, followed closely by DaVinci Resolve - where I do all my post-production - were basically open non-stop.

But I don’t regret a single hour spent working on the new version of The Enduring Circle. This is one of the best ways I can think of to give something back.

The project is pretty big, so I’ll keep expanding it with rewards for the next milestones. If everything goes according to plan, the reward for one full year of continuous membership should already be ready in October.

Alright, moving on to 'The Bear Map'

This month I also finally finished a map that had been buried deep in my drafts for quite some time: Shrine of the Bear Spirit.

Just like with my recent releases, it follows the idea of creating a complete location rather than a single battlemap.

So alongside the standard maps and POV scenes, Champions also get an intro video for the location - a short cinematic you can use to set the mood before the scene begins.

https://dranskybattlemaps.com/battlemap/shrine-of-the-bear-spirit/

And what’s next?

October will involve a bit more work on the system itself - the kind of “invisible work” that isn’t particularly exciting to show, but makes everything around the maps work better.

There’s also another change happening behind the scenes.

I’m slowly starting to bring my wife into the whole Dransky Battle Maps project. Yup! :)

Our little team is growing, and along with it, so is the amount of work that needs to be done - accounting, organizing map packs, preparing files, parts of post-production, and a hundred other smaller things.

The funny part is that I’m discovering that delegating my work is actually much harder for me than I expected, even though I know her help will make a very real difference. Am I a control freak? Just a tiny bit, maybe...

But then again, Dransky Battle Maps started a long time ago as something that was supposed to give me a bit of extra pocket money. Money I could reinvest into the project while still keeping a little aside for various important “guy expenses.” looks at the Oculus

Today, it’s turning into a proper little workshop, growing faster and faster thanks to all of you - and it has reached the point where I genuinely need help keeping all the moving parts under control.

And I think that’s a good place to put a full stop on September.

Thanks

Thank you to everyone who is here with me - those of you following the project, visiting the site, checking out the maps, and of course, my Patrons.

Thank you for the support, and thank you for being part of this journey. That means a world. <3
Cheers!
~dransky

P.S. Looking at the shoutout for the new Champions, I can tell that 'Jeffrey' has bacame oficially the most popular name among the Patrons :)

Explore Dransky Battle Maps
🗺️ Browse All Maps · 🏆 Loyalty Rewards · 🌐 DranskyBattlemaps.com