Inkwell Ideas is proud to announce a new bi-weekly contest centered on map geomorphs!

Every other week we’ll announce the deadline and the bi-weekly contest’s “secret ingredient.” For example, the first contest’s required ingredient is a throne and the deadline is April 20th at midnight US Pacific time. To enter:

Create a map that if it were gridded would be a 10×10 grid where there are corridors leading off from the 3rd and 8th square of each side. See the example posted here. For now we’re doing them in this format, which was standardized by Dyson Logos.

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.

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.)

The map does need to use the secret ingredient in some way. In this case that could be a throne room with a throne icon or two or a layout that is somehow reminiscent of a throne. It even can be a non-humanoid’s throne, if you think you can convey that on your map.

Email it to joe at inkwellideas dot com with a subject “Geomorph Contest.” Include in your message how you want to license it. (Pick a creative commons license or tell us you only want it shared as part of the contest. Sharing it as part of the contest means we’ll only post it in posts that show the entries and winners. We’ll note the creator, whatever link you want and license next to each map when we compile them the day after each contest ends and perhaps some interim posts.)

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 on the Wednesday after the weekly contest ends. For the first week, we’ll simply pick the winner, but it may evolve into voting. In fact, the whole contest will hopefully get better over time.

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

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

UPDATE: Matt Jackson created a template for creating these designs, you’re welcome to use it or just look it over for a reminder of where the corridors need to be placed.

The winner gets a free set of our DungeonMorph Dice. We’ll even pay for shipping. Yes, even outside the US to Europe. Canada too… maybe not to Trashkanistan if shipping is more than the cost of the dice.