Park / The Alchemists' Guild (and their arrest for heresy)
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28-February 23
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In this third and last semi-final, we have four wildly dfferent micro. One consists entirely of music, another entirely of light; there's studies of the mind, and studies of matter...
The Melting Orchestra
WhosLeonWhen You Wish Upon a Star...
Xtreme97The Alchemists' Guild
Babar TapieTemptation of St Anthony
mamarillasVoting Rules
Attention: one of the parks involved (When You Wish Upon A Star) has had an OpenRCT2 Official music file included which didn't export, causing the save to be unopenable for people who don't have those installed. You can find the music files in the zip below, please place them in your object folder to open the park:
downloads: 148
pogchamp
Wow great work everyone
mama: I don't know who St. Anthony is but I still found this to be pretty evocative with the music. Your sculptures here are relatively simple but in a stylized way that makes them more intriguing. Very cool scene
Babar: this transported me completely into your world. Everything is exquisitely detailed and interesting to look at, even without peeps or rides I find it all very inviting. The room with the skeleton overhead is my favorite, I'm feeling some definite Hogwarts inspiration here in the different spaces. You manage to make the map feel much larger than it actually is, great job
Leon: sometimes I have trouble reviewing yours and AVC's parks because you both manage to so routinely create beautiful scenes. You are by far the scariest player in the entire contest. This is a fascinating lil park, your ice melting drip effects are highly effective with the audio. I love love love the scrolling sheet music, super creative use of trains. And on top of it all you've managed to fit a coaster, which I thought would be impossible for this round
xtreme: I thought this was tremendous. Sometimes driving home at night I can see casino facades in the distance and only their lighted outlines are visible, this is an awesome execution of that visual. The way you've managed to portray a fully fleshed 3d shape with negative space is just chef's kiss. Amazing amazing amazing
Amazing work in this round, reviews to come. But this will be a tough vote here.
1. leon---I mean, what am i even supposed to say. this is stunning. curvy, detailed, inspiring... the custom rides for music notes and players rounds out one of the smoothest RCT parks ever. Just so effortless and beautiful. The park makes me think of Russian ice slides and the origin of roller coasters. excellent
2. babar---I had to scour this map for ages in extra-zoom mode. its just filled to the brim with beautiful details---telscopes, potions, cute little witch peeps, etc. just so lively and so fleshed-out. that little golden sub is stunning. (great music too. loving this music meta lol)
xtreme---simplistic but still magical. I mean, its hard not to feel something about that song and the iconic disney castle opening shot. It makes me think of rainy sundays in front of the VHS player, watching the jungle book over and over. i loved walt disney strolling in and then eventually the rest of the peeps
mam---those elephants rule. really a cute little entry. so much art stuff this MM! the scale feels a bit wonky but i'm loving all the creativity
all fantastic parks but imo leon takes it fairly easily again.
leon: spending a lot of my life in orchestra, my face lit up watching/hearing this. The sheet music is SUCH a good idea, all of the movement here is perfect and obviously very thought through. I've marveled at your 225 tile micros and how you manage to seamlessly fit a full layout in without having it either dominate or buried, and you did it yet again on A HUNDRED tiles, with a suspended monorail and drop ride thrown in there too. all around just incredible, almost frustrating to see the seeming effortlessness.
babar: i feel like this competition has really helped you come into your own style, which feels adjacent to the style Tolsimir and Hobarroo developed in their 2019 micros, but the next meta evolution. Its absolutely PACKED with details but i would not use "chaotic" or "busy" as words to describe it, and I think thats a huge accomplishment.
Xtreme: really clean and simple idea and you pull it off perfectly. makes me nostalgic of watching fireworks at disneyland as a kid.
mamarillas - thought this looked familiar and sure enough not only is it dali, but you really made it look a lot like the original. i've always wanted to see more dali in rct, but his style has never played well with the grid of rct. with how far the games come, hoping to see more, and you did a great job representing those elephants in game. given the level of the other entries, i think this lacked the content to compete with the others, but its still excellent.
also goes for all 4 entries, but good music choices that added a lot to the entries. glad we all have to become bedroom audio engineers in this era of rct.
the preview pic for xtreme's entry in this thread is kinda unfortunate but i can see why it's happened lol
four really strong entries again, but i found this one easier to order than the others.
my first place goes to ice music palace - strong concept, very evocative and feels atmospheric while also being quite limited in terms of colors. some really cool repurposing of rides/things to create new things and take them off grid. perhaps not as strong as your previous rounds but did enough to take top spot for me.
second place for me was warm brown mansion. this felt like a perfectly contained little diorama, it could be one of those super detailed little plaster ornamental scenes. strong colors overall, lots to find and everything came together perfectly despite there not being a ton of story like we've seen in other entries.
third and fourth for me are pretty interchangeable, looking back. i like them both, but both of them fall slightly short of the other two.
dark lights castle was a great idea, can imagine the idea coming to you and it's executed really well. ultimately there's maybe just sliiiiightly less to see than in the top two entries. really great concept for a 10x10 though, nice.
weird elephant statues was really cool, but they were the best parts for sure. outside of that, there isn't a ton to look at, and the coaster just kinda distracts actually. having said that, damn those statues are really cool, i can immediately tell what they are and what you're trying to do.
again, four amazing entries, thanks so much guys i enjoyed them all a ton. cannot WAIT for another round of this madness.
1) The Melting Orchestra by WhosLeon
-Concept:+++
The verticality is great once again, you've created so much depth with all the different heights you're building at. Like with your previous micros, the coaster flows excellently through the architecture and has some interesting interaction bits with the the free fall tower. Also love the moving music notes above the monorail track and how it curves together with the train. Great harp and organ pipes to cover off the bottom of the piece. The palette and colour scheme work nice together and the music and dripping ice cso tops it off. Can't wait what you have in store for us in the finals!
-Content:+++
-Quality:+++
Overall; Geez man, it's impressive how you can keep churning out this quality work each time. I've set the bar for you so high after your first 2 amazing micros, but you keep nailing this high quality level just with whatever you touch. It's just unfair
2) The Alchemists' Guild by Babar Tapie
-Concept:++
-Content:++
-Quality:+++
Overall; You have a very recognizing and original loony (in a good way) style. Impressively clean alchemist guild building with some nice height variations in front of it. Love all the little sculptures throughout, such as the flying airship and carriage in front of the entrance gate. Nice colour scheme, and the palette works well to create this goofy atmosphere. Lovely architecture and Fisch rock work integrated into the front plaza. Great underwater bit and the interiors are a ton of fun to explore as well. With all this quality work and content the abundance of a ride/ride movement wasn't felt so hard. And finally, that custom music is so well chosen, really drags you into this fun and goofy atmosphere.
3) When You Wish Upon a Star... by Xtreme97
-Concept:++
-Content:+
-Quality:+++
Overall; Very risky going for a set piece like this, but you've managed to create a wonderful atmosphere with the fisherman lights popping out like never before and your immaculate architecture skills. Lovely firework show on top of the castle as well, never looked so good in RCT. Just content wise Babar and Leon had a bit more, but quality wise this matches them if not better. Set pieces are just too risky in a competition like this. It was a very nice viewing experience though, perfect Disney atmosphere, feels like being there just watching this!
4) Temptation of St Anthony by mamarillas
-Concept:++
), so I can relate to how hard it is to translate it into RCT, but you've done a very delicate and subtle job. It's so elegant and true to Dalí's style. Very nice sculpturing of the elephants and horse, and a great colour scheme with fitting relaxing custom music.
-Content:+
-Quality:+++
Overall; Me and AJ also had this Dalí concept in previous H2H (didn't work out
Dang, great work guys.
Leon: really cool scene - and the movement and kineticism of the entire entry was great. Love the ornate backside of the structure. Really get a sense that everything is melting.
Xtreme: I'm a sucker for Disney and might have to use this music now! I think what would've really elevated this would've been gradients to the lighting or at least more colors. I think some purples/whites could've helped.. but all in all very stunning scene.
Babar: Really cool mansion. Lot of tiny details to comb through. Really fun and creative. Wish you had more named staff to tell some more stories.
Mama: Pleasant, just not as much content as the others. But I appreciate what you were going for quite a bit. Those elephants are trippy.
OddmentsAlchemyLab Offline
This round is amazing. I had a tough time separating them. These are four very different, very conceptual, and expertly executed parks. I struggled with my votes and swapped them back and forth a lot before committing to them and then immediately doubting myself. In order of viewing:
1. Xtreme97. This is a logo piece, suitable for framing and flowing with nostalgia. It's so "simple" in its line-art style that it ends up being quite soothing to watch. I think this will endure for quite a while as a statement piece and it has serious pop art legs. And the spiral slide - LOL.
2. WhosLeon - How??? I stared at those milky drips for 15 minutes trying to figure them out. I assume I have a new, unusable coaster type. I felt like I was in a park in the clouds. Solid concept - magical execution.
3. Babar - I love this one. The architecture is powerful and the scenes in each room as you spin is fun to follow. If I were any good at this, I'd wish to build like this.
4. Mamarillas - I didn't notice that you'd remade a Salvador Dali painting until I clicked on the image included with the download. It's very literal as an interpretation which is amazing for an isometric environment. I wish there'd been a better way to portray the paintings protagonist. The flashing camera felt a bit touristy, but then again, it'd make for some interesting pictures. I'd say this is the best Dali recreation since Gary Larson's "Persistence of Wiener Dogs." Gutsy undertaking and fantastic result. Bonus - best ride in the round.
I don't know - these are all gold to me.
Such an incredible round. All four parks are absolutely amazing. Orchestra is nr 1 for me, for it's composition and creative theme. I went back and forth quite a lot on Disney versus the Guilt for second. Guilt is filled to the brim with details and it's amazing how you made this work from the outside, as well as the inside. But in the end, for me, Xtreme's creative use of negative space just captured my attention a little bit more. Mamarillas translation of Dalí to RCT was gorgeous to look at as well. Loved the elephants.
The Melting Orchestra. I liked this one the best because it had good theming, a good coaster, and the creative theming with the musical notes among the harp and the melting snow. A lot of good different types of content overall, so it gets my first place vote.
The Alchemist's Guild gets my second place vote for the stunning architecture even if it doesn't have much movement. It's some of the best architecture and theming that I've seen in the game. If it had more movement I might have given it first place.
When You Wish Upon a Star gets my third place. It is beautiful to look at, even if I'm not a Disney fan anymore. It just doesn't have as much content as the other two I ranked higher.
Temptation of St. Anthony. I like it but it's a bit low on content so even though I like both the painting and your interpretation, I have to give this my last place. Good work though and I'm interested in seeing more of your work outside of the contest.
Leon - He did it again ladies and gents, someone better stop him soon. Just kidding, but what a fantastic micro here! Almost made me question the rules since this feels soooo big for a 10x10, just packed with content. The moving staffs made my jaw drop and then you still had the freaking humongous harpoon, the melting snow which worked so well with the custom music and finally a fantastic coaster layout travelling around the map. Honestly, there is nothing to fault here imo. We knew you were going to be dangerous from the get-go but man have you exceeded (at least my) expectations...
Babar Tapie - My favorite entry of yours this contest. Architecture looks fantastic and the underwater section works so well through the use of the transparent fading walls! As if the front didn't have enough detailing, we turn the park and my god are the interiors amazing. The hanging skeleton, the greenhouse, the witch doing math... just to name a few things that all look great. Definitely got close to Leon imo.
mamarillas - In love with the sculptures <3 . Hadn't heard of the painting before but man what a great recreation you made here. Great idea, great execution, great micro!
Xtreme - The overview looked hella confusing but it all made sense once I opened the park. So much sparkle and so clean looking. Love the subtle fading out of the path. It must have been quite tricky creating a 3D castle shape with just the lights and some blacktile blocks, but you did a very nice job at it!
1. Leon: Can we as a collective community just crown you the best parkmaker already? There is no way in hell this is a 10x10. The concept is wonderfully artistic without being excessive or hard to grasp, and the execution is so clear and readable. The contrast between the reddish-brown buildings (of which the upside down one thoroughly has my heart) and the ice sculptures carries this one so hard. Can we talk about the ice sculptures by the way? Unbelievably creative and so well done. The moving sheet music on the bottom is nothing short of genius. Just wish it went the other way so the time signature wasn't mirrored from the first angle. I'm shocked you managed to fit two tracked rides in this 10x10 space without losing readability or making things awkward. Last round I mentioned your micros being a bit samey, but this is such a refreshing departure and just something truly special. Honest to god one of the best micros of the contest, might even be the best. You're gonna win this whole damn thing.
2. Xtreme97: Straight out of a Disney Adult's sweetest dreams. This is just enthralling. I'm not even a Disney fan but every time I open this micro I can't leave. I have to stay the entire song and just take everything in. We've definitely seen Cinderella's castle done time and time again, but this feels less like a recreation and more like recalling a fond memory of spending the night at Disneyland watching the castle lit up. The monochromatic black and yellow instead of a direct recreation just hammers it in. The little stardust effects around and the fades and subtle crunch. God. Just plain magical. I can't not vote for this.
3. Babar Tapie: The first thing I noticed when I opened this was Plantasia and I immediately started freaking out. Love that album to bits. Let's brush that to the side though because this is stellar. Gorgeously detailed and whimsical with some of the best interior work we've ever seen. So many little scenes to get lost in, and I love the idea of the world's first roller coaster being built inside. The hanging skeleton is also next level. Cool to see you working diagonals and half diagonals into your vocabulary as well; I remember that being a talking point in the Discord. It's so hard to not love this; everything you'd expect to associate with the name Babar Tapie. You rocked every last tile and made something truly special.
4. mamarillas: Am I the only one who looked at the attached painting before viewing? It gave me an extra sense of appreciation for this micro and what you set out to recreate. Dali would be proud for sure. Your translation of oil on canvas to isometric objects in a black void is near seamless as I'd expect. Love the attention you paid to the big building on the rearmost elephant, titties and all. The plaintive Satie score is a nice little cherry on top. I feel you could have paid more tribute to the original painting with a different blacktile color, though; black is a far cry from the Egyptian sands. The coaster layout works, but take away the coaster or even recolor it and it feels like there's more cohesion. Great effort though; you had a wonderful run.
2. Babar Tapie - Man is this fun! For such a static scene (and you know I love my movement!), it still kept my attention for so long trying to cutaway to see the beautifully rendered interiors. This is hands down your best work so far: highly rich in detail, very well composed, the same creativity we’ve come to expect from your work, from the aesthetic down to the detailed sculptures and multiple interior rooms. I wish we could have seen more movement here but as is, you narrowly pulled off my second place vote. Great great stuff!
3. Xtreme - WOW what a stunning micro… I had a similar idea to do a micro in deco trim only as a sketch, but you executed this better than I had imagined. Not only does the music and the castle bring back huge waves of nostalgia, but the micro is just damn pretty to stare at. I narrowly voted Babar over you simply because the amount of content and detail kept my attention for a lot longer, but this is just magical.
4. Mamarillas - What a great idea and really nicely done too! Your sculptural skills are second to none and you once again proved it here - those elephants are perfectly translated from the original reference into the game, and they look fantastic. I definitely think the coaster wasn’t needed, and would rather have seen you brought life into the park through more surreal, atmospheric means (which would be appropriate for the concept). I think the building itself is where the quality falters slightly, focusing on some more detail and micro composition in the building would have elevated this further. Still, I’m glad you had the chance to make it all the way to SF with some really impressive work.
1.) Babar Tapie - so much impressive detail in this! The main color of the building clashes with a few spots, but the architecture is gorgeous. I really love how detailed the interiors are. Each room seems to have a clear purpose, thereby propelling the narrative. And little tasteful touches like the telescope or green house really make this atmosphere come alive. I love it, I'm just missing something more dynamic in the scene. It's not a big problem with how much detail you have, but maybe something like a Da Vinci-inspired ride would have helped it a bit. Nice job.
2.) whoslean - This became really tough here because its phenomenal, but it's not my favorite of yours from MM so fars. The idea alone is phenomenal and executed to perfection. The atmosphere was amazing, especially with how dynamic this all felt (as one might expect for something based on music). The musical notes moving at the bottom was one of the coolest things in this round. It's hard to believe that this is 10x10 when this feels so much bigger. I did, however, find that the architecture was a bit monotonous. Overall, I loved it, but Babar had it slightly beat for me.
3.) xtreme - super clean, and just oozing nostalgia with that soundtrack and shimmering lights. This is the most evocative of the entries here, but it only takes a minute before it gets boring, which is a shame because I think that feeling betrays how impressive it is that you got the massing and scale done perfectly! Nice job as always, wish I could have you moving on because your work is always some of my favorite in MM.
4.) mamarillas - wow, the sculptures are astounding. I thought that there was no way that you could pull off anything like that painting, but you crushed it with this. The atmosphere feels like an art gallery, but there's only so far that can go. Amazing work, but your opponents were some of the toughest there could be. I only had this behind Xtreme's because his had more detail. Love seeing how far you went in this MM though.
The Alchemist's Guild: Thought this was zoomed out for a second when I first loaded it. Amazing hyper-details everywhere, it's so lively despite being static.
When you wish upon a star: What a cool effect. A simple concept with great atmosphere and execution.
The Melting Orchestra: A creative and interesting concept with some amazing work in those ice sculptures, also a lot of nice ride interaction. The moving music is also a cool effect.
The temptation of St. Anthony: Some impressive sculpture work to interpret a pretty difficult style of painting in RCT.
This was a very interesting semi compared to some of the others, in that I feel like 3 of 4 micros went for a more simplistic and visual approach than what we've seen in earlier rounds of the contest. Rather than being chucked full of stuff (except Babar) these felt more focused on providing beautiful landscapes and visuals that were really captivating. Funny that most of them came in the same group, and a stark comparison when you look at these versus some of the entries from, say, SF2 that changed and evolved the more you explored them.
Leon - Overall, a beautiful concept beautifully executed. You've managed to wrap rides and activity in there, while zeroing in on a really well organized idea. This somehow felt like Leon does AVC in the way it was crafted (and just visually). I did feel in places it was maybe too much of the same compared with your previous rounds that managed to be cohesive yet provide a diverse array of ideas. This has plenty of ideas, though, it just seems like there was less to 'explore' so much as more to just visually absorb. Not a major negative, particularly when we had less space, and it really lets the impact of these visuals shine, but I think some of the other semi parks found ways to make a little space feel like a lot more.
Xtreme - Similar to Leons but pared back further, this was a great idea and beautifully executed. The music, the deceptively simple complexity of the structure, it all comes together to create a wonderful micro. Similar to the previous round, this feels like a little trinket that I'd buy at Disney and put on a bookshelf just cause it makes me happy to see. That being said, the pared back nature comes at the price of exploration, and there really wasn't much to do with this than gawk at the beauty. I thought maybe some interiors or a ride or some extra element would show up, and I think they would have helped. Similar with Leons, I can't fault the beauty of it, nor the boldness of going simple in what has proven a very content heavy MM, but I feel like compared to your previous rounds this was just missing that extra element to really hold my attention.
Babar - The odd-one-out of the group, and maybe at the best of times? Where the other three went simple and bold, this was FILLED with stuff, and in the best way possible. I probably spent more time exploring this park than I spent with all of the others combined, and I'm honestly torn on that. The sheer amount of detail, of small vignettes and things explore made this such a fun park to spent time with. The execution holds up with the others, and on maybe a more personal level, it was fun to see someone using a LOT of the same groups of new objects as I have in my micros and yet in an entirely different way. The reason I saw I'm torn is, I think this park had tons of small beautiful moments but was a little less harmonious as a whole, while the others focused on a single idea turned up to the max. It puts me in a pickle, because I don't think 'more is more' necessarily applies to MM, so much as pushing boundaries, and where to rank this amongst three very different approaches is a challenge.
Mama - If I was moving to the final, I'd be more butthurt about this entry, as Dali was my final concept (and might still be, in some form in the future). As with others this round, very simple and yet very successful. You've captured the reference material but translated it into rct in a really effective way. I do think it could have used something more to ground it, as the painting itself is filled with this huge landscape and the absence of even a ground or maybe a different color for the blacktiling made this feel a little distant. I also would have loved to see more of your interpretation of the source material into something new. This is probably just me being harsh cause this is what I did with all of my micros, but I always focused on using the artist as the jumping off point from which I can expand and put my own fingerprints on it. This was excellent, but I missed the Mama-isms inherent to your work that I think would have pushed it beyond excellent.
This is probably the hardest vote for me all contest (and I've probably said that before). I am pretty confident in my ranking of 3, but where to put Babar's park has me fuzzed. I've consistently gone back to what I think is the true heart of MM to decide tricky votes, which is innovation and pushing boundaries. I think in that category Xtreme is probably the top thru the use of negative space (something I tried to do more of in my replacement entry). But, I felt like Xtreme's was also the park I spent the least time with and had the least to explore. I've also often taken into account how much time I've spent with a park and how it forced me to engage with it, and I think Babar has that in spades. Visually, I think all the entries are incredible, Leon's probably being the most striking and unique from a conceptual point of view. For me, there is no clear winner here (I don't know the vote yet, but I have a suspicion once I do it will reveal that my thoughts are very different than the vote suggests). That being said, as I've sat with it, I had to give my #1 to the park that made me want to come back and explore it most (both to see what I missed and to draw inspiration from the object usage and construction), and that was Babar's. I gave Leon my #2 vote, based on the creativity of concept and striking visuals, which I think were just a bit above the others. Congrats to all four though, this was such a fun match, particularly as it pushed me to dig deeper into the reasons why I would vote one way or another.