Welcome back to another edition of Life as Luke. When we last left off, you were flouting your father’s advice to become a plumber/electrician and instead spending all your time making maps with the Earth Maze tileset. This has led to you being courted by one Tyler to become the lead level designer/mapper for Something Classic. Fierce negotiations ensue.

Negotiations
Being a self-centered, what’s-in-it-for-me brat pays off big. Only after Mire promises you the moon and the stars and the super-massive black hole at the center of the universe do you finally seal the deal. Then you pack a suitcase and catch the first bus to Nashville, but not before flaunting your success and telling your old man where he can shove his copper wire and plumber’s wrench. Hahah!

The Big Time
Ironically, though you are the creator of dazzling Earth Maze temples of breathtaking size and beauty, you yourself work, sleep, and live within the confines of a six by six foot cell (or cube) at Something Classic’s rickety Nashville office. As it turns out, there will be no moon or stars unless the game turns a profit. And even if that happens, the super-massive black hole you asked for in the deal will probably consume them. @#$%!

Worse yet, two Canadian programmers are responsible for implementing the puzzle elements of your brilliant level designs, and their pig-latinesque English makes every communication a nightmare. You just wanted to build beautiful levels, but now you’re mired in detailed spec sheets and test cases. You fantasize about home… Mother has made your bed with freshly laundered sheets and the refrigerator is full of Chipotle chicken burritos and…

Get a grip! You’ve got maps to make!

Sketching
You sketch out five or six ideas for the underground town you’re working on and then pick the most interesting one to refine further. Since you know the Earth Maze tileset like the back of your hand, you can confidently create designs on paper that you know will be achievable with the existing tiles.

Making the Map
Again, you know the tileset well, so you have a great feel for how much space each part of your design needs. When you open the ImpactJS map editor you sketch in only two elements to start.
1) Passable ground tiles
2) Water (to define the space better)

Not too shabby! If this was the 8-bit era you’d be halfway done! But that golden era has passed. You were born too late.

With a wistful feeling in your heart and a barebones framework on your screen, you begin to lay down the basic details.

Out of the deep, jet-black darkness a world of rough earth and heavy rock emerges!

You enclose the world in a jagged frame of stone, sealing it off from the soulless scream of empty space! The first tendrils of detail creep across the hard-packed floor.

Your new world is bright and clean and new and super uncool. You need to distress the hell out of it like a pair of brand new denim jeans if you actually hope to attract people. Get out your blade scar that hard red stone!

For the coup de grace, you splash that map with some color and details. A stone pillar here. A stone pillar there. All while telling yourself that no Minecraft-esque map-making algorithm will ever replace you! Not with a map like this, no sir! You are an artist!

Well, that’s it for that map. It’s time to take a break and wait for inspiration to strike before starting the next… not! Genius is one percent inspiration and ninety-nine percent perspiration! Time to get back to work!