Land Overview (With Technical Layout)

 Land Overview

    When I was working out how the layout of this land was going to work, I started by asking myself a few questions. What was already confirmed to exist in the town and forest in both Forest of Fear and Cities That You MUST Absolutely, Positively, Stay Out of to Avoid Being Eaten Alive!!!? What would I need to add to allow utilities to blend into this expanded world? What additional offerings could I integrate based on what has already been established? Who was still around? Who is gone? How would a changing world affect the story of this town?

    This is the solution that I reached; by splitting the land into two sub-divided areas (Howling Hollow and the Forest of Fear), I was able to capture two totally different tones in a single story. I wanted to work within the confines that I've already established (such as making sure that this vision could generally function on a day-to-day basis), so I also took this time to shape both the on-stage and backstage facilities. I will confess, however, that some areas are more developed than others (LycanCoaster, for example, should feature backstage bathrooms). Let's take a closer look at this layout, shall we?

    A majority of the locations are centralized in the town of Howling Hollow itself, including all of the food & beverage locations, a majority of the shops, two walkthrough experiences, some shows, and the entrances to two of the land's rides. Since I had already determined during the production for Forest of Fear that this town was laid out in a grid pattern, I doubled down on that and set up a very simple grid, using the smallest configuration possible. Earlier on, I was going to have the grid be more complex, but not only would this have made wayfinding more difficult, it also created wasted real estate that I was then going to have to fill with facades and filler locations.

    Just as suggested in the previous topic about design language, the Forest of Fear itself is an entirely different entity altogether, and the layout presents that to a T. I didn't have to invent as much for this half of the land (since open spaces could just be filled with trees), but some of the decisions that I made make a world of a difference! The single path through the forest is organic and curving, juxtaposing itself from the town, with the locations shooting off from that single road. All of the rides in the land are located here, and while two of them have their entrances and queues in the town, this is where they take place. I'll be covering the individual rides in their own posts, but keep in mind that since the forest is where most of this land's personality stems from, you'll see more of the forest unfold at a later time.

    I don't want to spoil everything yet, but there is a story reason for everything in town, who owns which businesses, what each building used to be, and why everything that is here is here on this one specific day in 2023. Until then, I think it's time that you all met the strange and eccentric characters that call this land home.

Up Next: Meet The Characters