Area in Profile: The Café Lodge

It's been a while, it's christmas-time and that's a busy time. But anyway, welcome to The Café Lodge, my favorite place in The Explorers so far. It's the one and only bar/inn in the village of Playton and is a very popular place for all residents, even from places outside of Playton Village. The bar was firstly a place only populated by adults but as complaints about letting kids inside alone with drunkards and other strangers the owner decided to begin to serve things for the younger ones as well, in the end transforming into a complete new beginning for the bar. This included food and dessert on the menu instead of only drinks, more seats but also some removal of things and that wasn't used that much at the time like a piano in the bar, guards and map-selling.

The creation of this map was made pretty quick. When I created it in August 2008, the imagination in my head was just sprouting and exploding with ideas and creativity. What I was aiming for was fitting much content in a small space while still making room for the character. Making this look good at the same time was a tough job but I realized that it didn't need that much. To focus on individual parts of the map one at a time is important. Once you're done with one, move over to the next one. When you seem to be done, do some small editing, change some graphics perhaps and add some characters (eventing can be done later on, you know) and well, there's the bar. Since August this map has recieved some minor changes and things that have been added but it remains the same and will always be. This is absolutely my best map ever and until I get a proper education or another creativity explosion this will remain my best map. Judge for yourself by the screen at the top of this post, but I hope that I can make a map like this one again. Soon.