Digital Thursday

Here it is the triumphant return of Digital Thursday! I know it has been a few weeks since I did anything all digital like, but this is a free blog and I am a tired man.

Anyway… the Cartography Guild has a monthly mapping challenge, and I am endeavoring to do as many of these challenges as I possibly can. I am attempting to create a nice fantasy mapping portfolio so I might be able to make a little extra scratch in these difficult economic times. I entered last month’s challenge and did pretty well (yea me!), but last month’s challenge was more up my alley style wise. I am stretching myself here and attempting to do a style that I haven’t ever done.

The challenge this month is to take the above shape primitive and…

Try to convey some of the character of the place you are mapping. You can choose any genre, and any size settlement. You must stick to the fundamental plan as far as possible and the layout must be recognizable in your entry.

I decided to set the time frame of the map as something kind of steampunk-ish and put it in a swamp. I chose a swamp because it allows for more levels of interactivity. There is a swampfloor/water level, the walking surface level, and a structure level. I really wanted to play with this idea of levels even though the lower to middle levels don’t seem to make much logical sense. For example there are holes in the decking that I have no idea (as of yet) why they are there other than to look cool.

I have a few things left to do to the image:

1. I need to make an airboat and inert it into the upper left
2. I need to create the bow of a 1890’s steampunk tug-boat and have it poke into the lower left corner.
3. I need to differentiate the rooftop levels a bit more
4. There are some shadow fixes that need to happen
5. Some of those roofs need chimneys

If I focus on it tonight and tomorrow night, I should be able to work through the issues that seem to be cropping up.

Anyway… without further ado, my contribution to this week’s Digital Thursday.
It is “due” the 25th of October so I need to work work work to finish it out.

To recap:
I have sketched out about 3 air-boats, so that should be nice and fast to do
I could really use some sleep though
There will come a point where I hit the “good enough” button and call this map quits
I hope that happens after the above laundry list item 5
Speaking of laundry, it is time for me to wash some clothes as well
It seems I am wearing the last of the clean underwear
Was that too much information?
Well, it was not too much useful information, I can tell you that much
Listening to Ikea by Jonathan Coulton
Have a great weekend