Haunted Village, Adept (Patreon)

Hey there, Adepts! This week's map is the Haunted Village (30x30), a somewhat grim-looking town which lies on the edge of the Haunted Forest that's been the focus of my recent maps. I suppose the people here probably have all kinds of rumors about what lives in that forest while only a few locals actually dare venture far into it. In short, these people probably have a job or two for foolish adventurers who don't know how scary this forest actually can be. 

1. I've drawn a few village maps in my time, so placing buildings in a somewhat realistic way isn't really a problem anymore, but still I aim to design one with a particularly interesting or eye-catching layout. I wanted this one to feel somewhat structured, but with lots of forest elements mixed among the buildings. Places where I normally would leave as an open road I bridged with trees and grass and I had decided to leave the roads as dirt paths. I think I probably could have fit in a few more natural elements here and there, but I liked the slightly overgrown village vibe I had going and didn't want to edge into 'forest-village', that didn't feel right for the map.

2. Lots of roofs here, mostly. I've got plenty of roofs made from previous maps, but unfortunately they're usually unfit for reuse in one way or another. Either because they're partially cut off at the edge of the screen, overlapped by taller buildings, or just in the wrong shape for my plans, I almost always need to assemble roofs fresh for each map. After that comes the busy-work of populating the map with props, of which I've made tons and tons over the years, though I did make them a little grimier to match the village better. 

Forests are always easy, so that was a fairly quick add-on after I had wrapped everything else up. 

3. Spooky! I wasn't sure how the spooky lighting and effects would look on a village, but I powered through and hoped it would come together eventually. I honestly don't know what I think about what I ended up with, though. The roofs look a little bright for my taste, but I was constantly struggling against them being way too dark. The grass contrasts a bit too much against the roofs as well, but I did what I could to help them blend in, much more and they won't feel like they're part of the same forest any more. I think it's just all the contrast that's grating for me, it's not contrasty in the way I usually like, or maybe it's not fitting the image I have in my head of this grimy little village. Hard to say, I'll need to sort through my thoughts and rethink my approach for my assumed next Haunted Village map.