Voting in these contests doesn't get any easier, I have to say! But then again, I got a bit too distracted looking over all the entries, forgot what it was I was meant to be looking out for, so had to go back and start again... Just so many amazing contributions.

Everyone who entered should think of themselves as a winner, never mind what the voting may say!

So is this Cat Cartographer 3+?

Yes, CC3+'s text handling isn't great unfortunately, in all sorts of respects, but you do get used to its quirkiness after a while.

Unfortunately, multi-line text entries don't allow anything like as much text as you might wish, so in reality, you're better off getting used to what CC3+ is capable of handling by using its text facilities, rather than getting endlessly irritated and frustrated by what it won't easily let you do, and switching to an alternative text editing mechanic.

One trick I've used a few times is to set up a piece of multi-line text, then copy, paste and edit that for the next text segment. That way, you have a text block already on-screen in multi-line format, which gives you a better idea of how long your text lines can be before you need to switch to the next line down, when typing a paragraph. Doesn't always work easily, as most fonts aren't monospaced (= each character occupies the same amount of horizontal space), so that can cause further problems.

Then there's the whole issue of text not staying where you put it at different viewing and rendering resolutions, which is a whole fresh level of "joy and delight" (not!).

Although I've already posted about this in the contest topic, to round-off this WIP topic too, here are the final versions of Cloven House, without and with its secret Cellar cave, now with added cupboard under the Cellar stairs:

For those who might be interested, and again something that's in the contest entry topic too, I've attached here the PDF notes for the map, which will be in the Atlas version in the fullness of time, for those wanting an early preview of this little haunted house:

Do be aware that there's a hint of "adults only" about a couple of the potential apparitions and other ghoulish elements in these notes. Nothing too salacious, just something to be aware of.

Incidentally, anyone thinking I might have abandoned my preference for random design mechanics in devising my Atlas maps in this instance, might be reassured that there were hints of that in selecting what ghostly items to pick from in constructing this description (I have a long list drawn from numerous past sources and ideas!). Such a mechanism was used less here than in other features I've designed previously, however.

And good luck to all the other contest entrants, especially those struggling to get things finished by the deadline!

Yes, it's coming up to that time isn't it? So here's my final version of Cloven House, firstly with the secret cave hidden, and then revealed:

This will be winging its way to Remy for the Atlas shortly, with its text and PDF notes, but in case anyone might be interested, the PDF description is here as well, should anyone wish to be "enlightened" further on the nature of this haunted house:

Worth noting though that a few comments are a trifle "adults only", concerning a couple of the potential apparitions and other ghoulish elements.