Cats + Cartography is a series where I post a map I’ve made along with a picture of one of our cats.
The holiday season is here! To celebrate I want to show off a map I made for Birch + Bat’s holiday adventure Night of the Nutcracker, which is available for purchase on our main store page.
The Stahlbaum Inn is a two-story inn, tavern, and family home that provides the setting for a magical recreation of the events of the Nutcracker ballet. Players start out as guests at the inn, then they must trek across it as toys at night.
These kinds of maps are some of my favourites; filled with little homey details and everyday objects built into the terrain: counters, tables, chairs, a pine tree. Made back in 2019, this map (to me) is a turning point in my cartography style. Here I took the time to create all new map assets and I started to get the hang of texturing walls using brush sets rather than by texturing them by hand.
I’m pretty happy with how the map turned out, and it was a great learning experience.
I encourage folks reading this to pick up Night of the Nutcracker to see the second floor map, as well as all the custom creatures and playable toys there are to choose from.
Here’s a shot of snaggle-toothed Matilda taking a Christmas nap.
