Tiny Clearing, Adept

This week's map is the Tiny Clearing (16x11), a somewhat more open tiny map than the rest of this run. What's more rare about it is that you're getting a Snowy variant of it, almost unheard of these days considering how many building interiors I've made this year. It honestly might be time for a few more though, we'll see.

1. Hm, this is a bit messy. So, we've got the Path version of the map here with a tree fallen across it, which is what the Expert patrons are getting as one of their variants. The Clearing version with the mossy log was one that I came up with fairly late in the game after deciding that it would be easy to quickly assemble and a useful alternative to the one with the path.

The overall layout here doesn't need much explanation- it features a fairly open part of the forest with a handful of props to break up line of sight, mostly rocks though I the log I added later gives you something a little more concrete.

2. Yup, clearings don't have much in them, huh. I try not to lean too hard on maps with simple concepts, but I sprinkle them in often enough that you can’t say I’m being lazy. Despite the simplicity, I did try to make the terrain somewhat interesting—drawing in small lanes that lead around obstacles, as well as areas where visibility would likely be low, such as behind scattered clusters of bushes and rocks.

While it might not be obvious at first glance, I also adjusted the trees around the border between this and step one. After placing them all according to my sketch, I realized that too much of the map was being clogged by overhead trees. So I took some time to shuffle them further out of frame while trying to keep the placement feeling natural—implying that the forest just beyond the edges is dense enough to discourage players from wandering too far off-screen.

3. One of my favorite palettes—the Haunted Forest palette I spent half of 2023 and 2024 working with. I put a lot of time into these colors, and they still hold up. I love the way they work together to create the exact spooky vibe I’m aiming for.

If I adjusted anything for this map, it was reducing the darkness of the shadows and slightly increasing the mist—flattening the lighting just a bit in a way that feels more natural to me. Otherwise, I have no complaints. It’s no wonder I spent nearly a whole year making maps with this palette. It's almost enough to make me want to make a few more.. but I won't because I think I got on more than a few patrons' nerves with the repetitive terrain, haha.