Our Geomorph Map Contests were a lot of fun last summer, but prepping for GenCon and catching up afterward caused us to put it on hiatus. Now its back!

The next special ingredient is mini-maps. Instead of a 10×10 design with two corridors on each side, this time we’re going for a 5×5 design with one corridor at the center of each side. We’d also like you to enter them in groups of four or six. (And you can enter up to 3 times with 4-6 mini maps each.) You may also key them or add a mini adventure if you wish, but that won’t be judged. The sample pictured here is by Matt Jackson from our “Encounter Decks 3” product–which is a map and adventure outline on each of 54 trading/poker-size cards. They may be square 5×5, or circular as in the sample.

Entries are due at 3am US Eastern time on technically September 30. (Which is late, late Wednesday night/early Thursday morning.)

Create a map that if it were gridded would be a 5×5 grid where there are corridors leading off from the 3rd square of each side.

You can use whatever art style you’d like: color, black and white, line art, realistic art, and everything in between. The map can have an underlying grid or not. Style/artistic-ness counts for a lot, but so does an innovative, interesting design. The winner will likely have a nice style and be innovative.

The images should be a standard image format (png, jpg, gif) and at least 250×250 pixels, but you can make them larger, within reason. (If you happen to be doing a 3000×3000+ pixel battlemat version that’s fine, but send us something under 1000×1000.)

Email it to joe at inkwellideas dot com with a subject “Geomorph Contest.” Create your filename as explained above.

Feel free to share the maps however else you want. Please add a link to the current contest’s blog post (for the first week, this page) and/or if on social media add the hashtag “#GeomorphMapContest.”

The winner will be announced a couple days after the contest ends. We’re still working out the process to choose a winner. More on that in the next contest update.

Anyone is welcome to enter whether you’ve had maps published or you’re just starting out.

You may enter up to three designs. Each design must have a shrine element or theme.

Use one of the licenses noted below.

Submit your entry with a filename as described below. It helps us keep track of all needed info.

Licenses

Here are the licenses you may use for entries to the contest:

All creative commons licenses we’re using are version 4 (hence adding -4 to the abbreviated key names above.)

Filenames

While you’re free to give the file any name you want for your purposes, when you send it, please use the following filename format:

name_of_map__author_name__website__license.extension

If you don’t want to name your map, just use the secret ingredient for the contest in place of the name. The website is optional, but some folks want their website mentioned, and I’m happy to do that. To make that work though, drop the “http://” and convert any punctuation to another underscore. Use the abbreviated license names noted above. For example:

volcano_temple__joe_wetzel__www_inkwellideas_com__cc-by-4.jpg

shrine__george_p_burdell__www_facebook_com_burdell__all-rights-reserved.png (if your website is http://www.facebook.com/burdell)

I know that makes for a long name, but it gives me all the needed info in the filename. Furthermore it makes it easy for anyone else reusing the tiles to keep track of your requirements for reuse.

The winner gets a free electronic copy of Chubby Monster Games’ Moleskin Maps and a set of our DungeonMorph Dice. We’ll even pay for shipping. Yes, even outside the US to Europe. Canada too… up to $20.