June/July 2016 Lite Challenge Results
In the previous Lite Challenge, Guilders were asked to create a map for an imaginary novel. This month, the sequel was released and another map was required. Bogie had some very specific requirements for the map, leading us to believe he may be moonlighting as a romance/horror writer(!)
The commission:
For my new book "Death Came Calling" I need a map of a village or small town. Make the whole map so it will fit on an 8" x 11" page and it should have a nice border around the map with a legend that provides some details about the map.
There should be a crossroads, a town square, a tavern or Inn, a handful of personal residences and a few shops. Pond or river is optional. Now the tricky stuff, the town should have a SECRET that shows on the map, such as a grotto, or a hidden cave behind a waterfall, a druid's grove or small stonehenge, or even a crashed alien space ship. AND the town was just recently attacked and partially destroyed by forces unknown, natural or otherwise. Maybe a tornado ripped through town or a wildfire, or a horde of orcs sacked the town, or two dueling mages couldn't control their fireballs, or the whole Aliens vs Predators vs Arnold thing happened here. I would like one or two nice illustrations on the map so it will catch the eye if someone is just flipping pages.
For my new book "Death Came Calling" I need a map of a village or small town. Make the whole map so it will fit on an 8" x 11" page and it should have a nice border around the map with a legend that provides some details about the map.
There should be a crossroads, a town square, a tavern or Inn, a handful of personal residences and a few shops. Pond or river is optional. Now the tricky stuff, the town should have a SECRET that shows on the map, such as a grotto, or a hidden cave behind a waterfall, a druid's grove or small stonehenge, or even a crashed alien space ship. AND the town was just recently attacked and partially destroyed by forces unknown, natural or otherwise. Maybe a tornado ripped through town or a wildfire, or a horde of orcs sacked the town, or two dueling mages couldn't control their fireballs, or the whole Aliens vs Predators vs Arnold thing happened here. I would like one or two nice illustrations on the map so it will catch the eye if someone is just flipping pages.
We had a variety of entries including a hand-drawn town map with a hidden spaceship, a cliff-side village with a mysterious tower and an idyllic village with a most unusual Inn.
Once voting commenced, it became obvious from early on that there was one clear favourite. Our congratulations go to Snodsy for a decisive win with map 'Death Comes Calling Along the Silk Road'. His map depicts an oasis in the desert which, despite thriving for centuries, is now succumbing to a strange pestilence, cause unknown. You can see the WIP thread here. Snodsy wins a second silver compass and the satisfaction of scaring the Community Leaders!
July/August 2016 Lite Challenge
Next month's challenge is up and running and hopefully there'll be less bugs this time!
The new challenge is "Map a Bandit Hideout". Bogie says...
This time the challenge is for you to map a Bandit Hideout. Any kind of Hideout, any genre, any location, any scale. You could do the classic fantasy Bandit Campsite in the forest, or a small cave complex, or a small village they have taken over, or a pirate's cove, or a space pirate's asteroid or a regional map showing locations of Bandit Hideouts on the trade routes or a group of three mountain trolls who have been stealing ponies from dwarves and have a nearby cave.
Use your imagination. Use your skills. Have some fun. Win a pile of Bandit Loot,,, OK, 1 silver compass. Still worth it!
Use your imagination. Use your skills. Have some fun. Win a pile of Bandit Loot,,, OK, 1 silver compass. Still worth it!
The challenge runs till mid-August and you can see the current entries in the challenge folder. Let's see some banditry!
Advertise at the Guild
Currently, the Guild is primarily funded by the generous contributions of our members, with a little advertising revenue on top. We need a reasonably powerful server and a whole lot of bandwidth to run the site effectively, and that costs. Over the past year, we've initiated several new methods for users to support the site, and every donation - whether large or small - is greatly appreciated. Thank you to everyone who has contributed. We wouldn't be here without you.
In an attempt to give something back to our regular contributors, we're now including ad impressions at no extra cost. For a Sponsor level donation ($90 a year/$8 a month), you can have 15,000 ad impressions per month. Supporter donations ($30 per year/$3 per month) get 5,000 ad impressions. The Guild gets a lot of traffic from authors looking to commission an artist, or gamers looking for maps. If you'd like to get your name in front of these people, please consider signing up for one of these subscriptions. You can use the ad impressions to promote your business or your blog or your artwork. More information here.
We also have traditional advertising packages based on CPM/Cost per Thousand impressions. The Guild has a diverse set of users including artists, gamers, book readers, publishers, scientists, software developers and more, and we offer attractive rates to advertisers. If you'd like to promote your product, have a look at our Advertising page for more information.
Like us on Facebook | Follow us on Twitter