Thursday, January 20, 2011

I'll take a stab at it

So lot's of people have been posting 'One-Hour' Dungeons.  Dungeons that they sat down and drew in one hour.

And I decided that I would take a stab at it.  After all, I love maps, right?

So I gathered all of my supplies: a black Pilot G-1 0.7mm gel pen, a Fine Point black Sharpie, a straight edge, and a sheet of graph paper.  I had (so I thought) set aside one hour of time in which to draw.  Conditions were perfect.

Conditions were perfect.  (Inside joke--anyone know 'Flight of the Concordes'?)

That is, except for the sleeping baby in the other room.  But she was going to sleep for a lot longer than the one hour that I needed, right?

I sat down to start and this is what I came up with in 43 minutes.


(Why did I stop at 43 minutes?  Well, the sleeping baby woke up and started to cry.  Stop, calm the baby, scan the above picture, and put it away.  I put it away, because I felt that it would be inappropriate to look at it until I was ready to finish it.  (It's a one-hour dungeon isn't it?)  Several hours later, I pull it out and draw for the last 17 minutes.)

Here is the finished dungeon:


Overall, I gotta say that I am happy with it.  I really like how it looks visually--aesthetically.  It's also a lot better than I thought that it would turn out considering it is all in ink--no way to make changes, erase, or revise.  Definitely not the normal way to draw a dungeon.  From a dungeon design standpoint, however, I don't really think that it is that good.  I don't particularly like the layout of it all that much.  And frankly, I think that the ample use of caverns was a cop-out.  They are much easier (for me) to draw when hurrying.

One last thought.  In this case, I didn't really have an idea of a 'backstory' for the dungeon.  I just sat down and started drawing, stream of consciousness.  I wonder if it would have turned out any differently if I had any ideas about it before I started.  Something to think about for in the future.

9 comments:

  1. Dude, the left edge of the dungeon looks eerily similar to the dungeon on the cover of Basic Maps.

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  2. Which is utterly wacky, because the dungeon on the cover of Basic Maps was drawn almost three years. Some strange forces at work, I suppose.

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  3. It's nice when the madness spreads across the blog-o-sphere!

    I think you were trying too hard to fill the paper. Where you left off at 43 minutes has a lot of potential, it just needed finishing off, where you took the remaining 17 minutes to fill the page. I think you might have been happier had you allowed it to be a smaller dungeon.

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  4. David-- You know, of course, that, now that I look at it and think about it, you are absolutely correct. Perhaps I need to go back to that 43 minute mark, rip the page in half, and try to finish it in a better way. Since it's ink, that is the only way I can do anything with it.

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  5. Or you could print out the scan of the one you did at 43 minutes....

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  6. I need to start using a straight edge when drawing my maps. I freehand everything, and the straightish lines just don't look as good.

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  7. I dunno, Dyson. Your dungeons have a nicely organic look. Using a straight edge might not be a clear advantage for your style.

    Nice map, Nick. I don't know how you guys can do these without penciling first. It would make me too deliberative.

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  8. Dyson--I'm going to agree with Paul on this one. You don't need to change a thing with your maps.

    Thanks, Paul. I appreciate it.

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  9. I'll give a proper one-hour-dungeon a shot later this week - probably Tuesday.

    I do like this one, although the additional material added in the second part of the run feels somehow different than the original work.

    As for working directly in pen, that's how I draw 90% of my dungeons - no roughing, no erasing, 0.7mm gel pen to paper and damn the torpedoes!

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