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Hedge Legends Artwork
Making Hedge Legends Artwork
Selecting Block Palettes
Challenges
For each Quadrant I made 2 sets of block palettes. The wall palette included 1 leaf type, 1 stone like structure block, 1 hazard block, and up to two filler blocks to add texture. The floor palette included path blocks, 1 grass like block, 1 structure like block, 1 stone like block, 1 hazard block, and up to 2 filler blocks to add texture. Making set palettes this way allowed me to make sure that palette blocks were not over used while also adding building rules to make the map more cohesive.
When deciding on what blocks to include I did a lot of testing of colors to make sure each set made the Quadrant clearly its own. By having wide block palette ranges it pushed me to expand my normal building range and use more blocks I wouldn't normally use. This in turn made the map feel unique and have its own style which I really enjoy about it. It still captures that Minecraft feel we all enjoy, but in a new and interesting way.
It was hard to set a block palette and limit myself in areas. For example, if I used cracked nether bricks in the Nether Quadrant pathways, then it made it harder to build other structures with it. That being said, it does in fact make the Quadrants feel more connected. For example, if I do build a nether brick themed building in a module the cracked bricks on the floor start to tell a story with the build. Maybe the structure is falling to ruin, what caused it to break apart and become part of the floor, ETC.
These block palettes subtly implant lore into my builds. I made sure to carefully pick my palettes due to this. I knew what blocks I wanted to build structures with and by using bits and pieces from each in surrounding areas like the paths and walls, it tied the Quadrant together.
Having Quadrants Tell a Story
Challenges
When an environment can tell a story without any explanation, then it is a great environment. This is something I took to heart when making Hedge Legends. I wanted each module to have a piece of a story the players experienced and walked through. I didn't want there to be a hard story, but instead soft bits that ties a whole Quadrant together, something that says that this is a Quadrant Boss's Terrain.
To do this I kept fairly close to Vanilla Minecraft Biomes and design to show key themes of a Quadrant such as a miniaturized Nether Fortress for the Nether Quadrant. However, I did implement my own block palettes and designed them in a upgraded Vanilla way so that players saw things that felt new and exciting.
It was not an easy task by any stretch of the imagination to make 4 Quadrants with different shaped modules that softly tell a story of that Quadrant's Boss. It took me 6 months to plan out, design, and build all 81 modules to create this effect. However, it turned out wonderfully. It was hard to make terrain tactical and great to look at due to the repetitiveness of the maze and reversely symmetrical map design. However, I found clever ways to make similarly shaped modules feel so different that players wouldn't notice that two modules are technically the same shape. This was mainly due to me going outside of my comfort zone and trying out interesting environment designs. This mixed with my multiple block palettes made the map feel very unified yet diverse.
Hedge Legends probably has the highest number of unique blocks used in a PONG Build Team map other than the Space themed Lobby World I made back when I joined the Minecraft Build Team.
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