Xophe

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• Great Britain

SEVEN entries - and the quality level is as high as ever! Here we go with some write-ups...

AJ’s Prairie Lightning

Such a great atmosphere in this park, of course helped by the music which you always get just right. The map shape is definitely unconventional haha but I like how it contextualises the park and makes it feel like you have to take a journey to get there. I did wonder if the map was deliberately shaped like Oklahoma but then I checked an actual map and so I think it’ just a coincidence haha. Love the path alongside the railway tracks and how the peeps have to cross the little creek. Architecture, foliage and landscaping are all high quality throughout the park and I like the arrangement of buildings to make cosy little corners etc. The coaster layout is fun and realistic and feels very well woven into the rest of the park. And I particularly like the log flume with a launch! Cool idea. The only downside for me is I feel this doesn’t hit the ‘industrial’ brief as explicitly as other entries. Although I guess for that reason it’s refreshing! Well done in any case!

Chamberlain Steel

So much to love in this map! The moving river that gets polluted as it goes through the area is one of the highlights of the round for me. And the landscaping all along the river (and around the map) is top tier - especially the dead trees etc along the riverbank. I like the meta commentary! So many clever details throughout the map too like the coke workers (such a good use of that handyman animation) and the flywheel that’s synced up with the coaster launch - sooo nice! I also love the little scene at the edge with the houses outside the park with people enjoying the low-tech life. This one definitely hits the brief hard. Oh and bonus points for a bespoke soundtrack composed for the park!

Modern Foundations

I really like how the water directs the flow of this map - coming in at the reservoir, going through the dam, along the canal and out into the farmland area. A nice subtle bit of storytelling there that links everything together. The architecture throughout the park is great, especially the main power plant building. Nice ride design too - the drop tower in the under-construction skyscraper is particularly nice. And of course the dive coaster is the star. I’d never have considered using that red/green combo but it works! I think a bit of grime would help sell the theme especially around the city area, and a bit of music would have added to the atmosphere. But all in all a lovely entry. 

Movie Night at the Turn of the Century Club

Wow. This mixes it up! Love the storytelling. A great combination of vision and execution. The actual projectors are super effective to start off with. And then the scenes that unfold are increasingly impressive. The 3rd and 4th are my favourites - the way you’ve played with scale is just genius, and the contrast of the zoomed out views to the enormous scale of the close-up section is a great surprise. Some genius object usage too when you dig into how it all works. The perspective on the last scene where the stuff in the background is actually smaller than the foreground is just so cool. And the little individual coaster cars zooming along with a trail of steam behind them is probably the best fit for the ‘steam-powered ride’ part of the brief! My only complaint is that the soundtrack got a bit drowned out by the loudness of the rides from some angles which was a shame. 

Steel Valley

An LL map with the original carousel music floating through it - what’s not to love? The nostalgia factor in your maps is always dialled up to maximum and they never fail to put a smile on my face. I love the contrast between the natural areas around the map edge and the harsher brick and rust textures in the centre, separated by loads of train tracks. The sheer amount of steam trains trundling around the map makes it hard to forget the theme haha. It’s kind of hard to compare this to the other entries in terms of fitting the brief since you’re using a totally different toolkit. Perhaps this round would have been an opportunity to try some bigger buildings. But I do love the classic Lurker style!

Victoria Mine: Shaft 13
The opening scene with spinning wheels, gears, chains, conveyor belts… The brief is already fulfilled! I think this entry takes the prize for best machinery! Absolutely superb stuff. I also love that you included the brochure with some of the reference material - just proves how well you’ve captured the vibe. Great idea to set this in the present day using the mining backdrop as a museum. The contrast between the modern visitor centre and the dilapidated old buildings and overgrown train tracks is fantastic. And I love all the rusty machinery and infrastructure dotted around. There’s also some very cool stuff buried under the hill that the cutaway view reveals. The only downside for me is that I wish you kept the vertical land edges - it was a bit confusing for me to work out the height differences in the land without those (e.g. my brain couldn’t work out if that upper path was half diagonal or a gentle slope) - that’s a minor point though of course. A top tier map otherwise!

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As for the entry from me and Xtreme - what a pleasure to build with such a pro! The idea was Xtreme’s and I only ended up with a bigger share of the collab because I had an unexpectedly free January which was lucky. It was really fun doing the research for this - a lot of what you see is grounded in real stuff that happened. Hope you all enjoy exploring the map. 

This is wonderful - balances the micro and the macro expertly. And very clean use of half diagonals - looks very natural and unforced. I think having some extra trees behind the castle (so they pop up between the dragon head and the part with all the vertical flying buttresses) would ease the transition to the water that others mentioned. But overall a big thumbs up from me!

Looks like a good start - nice overall layout and structure. I agree with the guys above about adding another layer of detail, both in the foliage (some bigger trees/shrubs) and on the white walls (e.g. layering some other wall or fence pieces over what you have - especially with the invisible colour to get some nice trim details etc). Looking forward to seeing more of this!

Yussss this is exciting!! Really cool to see some of this planning stage - defo good to get these main parts mapped out before going into detailed building (speaking from experience where it can get very messy to undo earlier bad decisions haha). Looking forward to seeing more in due course!

This was one of the highlights of the advent calendar for me - so elegant and classy!