Desert Shrine, Adept

I'm back again with a new one, the Desert Shrine (24x24)! This map is a nice and simple asymmetrical map, which are my personal favorite. Centering on a small central platform, we've got a recessed trench to one side which is a perfect place to get some cover when out on the dunes, with a stretch of open ground to the other side. While it's pretty barebones, I feel like they realistically would make up the majority of actual deserts, which probably don't feature open tombs every 300 feet. 

For you guys I made a winter version! I added a nice array of trees to the edges of the clearing, feeling that it seemed right for the wintery one to be set in a forest. I made sure to match the colors and palette of the Barbarian Village, so you shouldn't have any trouble using these two together!

1. I started off with a somewhat different layout in mind for this map, which ended up changing for several reasons. Primarily, I felt like the ruins and ledges were starting to feel a little too similar to a handful of forest maps I had made over a year ago. It's been a while, but I didn't want to keep treading the same ground- I'd prefer to make maps that seem unique and don't feel like they're iterations of the same concept

So, that left me redrawing the ruins and cutting the rock wall to the far left. It wasn't until I was shading and coloring that I decided that I would need to remove the wall nearest to the north side of the ruins. I thought it actually was going to be a fun addition to the map's flow, but with that wall there I kept struggling to express the changes in elevation between the walls. To make sure that I wasn't wrong, I called my wife over to identify the higher and lower sides of each wall- that was the only one she couldn't figure out.  

2. I actually drew a handful of different ruins before I settled on this one. My first pass looked like the top of a pyramid with the capstone replaced with a dark hole into the interior. This seemed like a fun and interesting concept for a map that could maybe lead into a pyramid dungeon dive, but I realized that I wanted to make a winter version of the map as well and that wouldn't feel quite right for the environment. 

Another new thing I tried for this map are the stretches of rocky ground near the ledges. I haven't added these since my first desert map, the Desert House, where it didn't feel quite right in hindsight, but it felt appropriate for this one so I gave it another go. I do like how it allowed me to slip in a little more variation in color and lighting, so for that reason alone I think I'll consider it an improvement for now.

3. Desert colors are always nice and satisfying, as long as I try to keep a decent amount of contrast between everything and lay into the vibrant yellows and oranges, it comes out fairly well. I do tend to go a little hard on the vignette for these maps though, which sometimes bites me in the butt. In fact, just as I was writing this I took a peek at the full-color version for the first time today (I finished the map yesterday) and realized that I had made the vignette way too obtrusive, to the point that it was the most eye-catching thing about the image. As much as I didn't want to, I quickly jumped back into the PSD, altered it, and repackaged my ZIPs with the new version. 

I really ought to know better than to export a map just after I finish it, I need to force myself to step away for a while so I can come look again with fresh eyes.