On today's special episode of Week in Review, I'll be reviewing the entries to the Cave Hanger Contest over on PMC.  Please sit back, relax, and enjoy the show.

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Toping the excessively long list of structures this week was a build titled Divinity, created by DivineMedicus.  You may remember him from back in May when he won Week in Review for The Fear of Space.  Now, four months later, he’s posting his final build to cap off a PMC carrier that stems back far before Week in Review even existed.



Divinity is an amalgamation of structures, terraforming, and organic work.  The structural component is a massive palace, composed of dozens of high-reaching towers.  It’s an array of stunning detailing, conical roofing, flying buttresses, and unique architecture.



Divinity is not composed of somber tones, but rather a bright combination of blue and orange hues.  It’s extremely vivid and saturated in a cheerful array of uplifting color patterns.



Flanking the castle is a series of floating islands, each adorned with massive trees sprouting amber leaves.  This portion of the project emits an identifiably autumn feel to it, and it’s especially noticeable when compared to the spring-like color pattern on the palace.  It’s as if the castle is immune to the seasonal changes occurring around it.



And, of course, how could this build be complete without a gigantic dragon, and a winged demon warlord standing atop a mighty pillar?  I’ll tell you this: DivineMedicus knows how to design wings.



All in all, this isn’t a bad note to go out on.  In fact, it’s quite a good one. We can only hope DivineMedicus is in a better place.  Oh, sorry, my mistake.  He’s not dead, he’s just not playing Minecraft anymore.  So long, dude!  Thanks for all the stellar work!  ;)

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In the past, terraforming on Week in Review has always been characterized by rigid mountains, dips, valleys, and cliff sides.  This week, we’re changing it up a bit.  The best terraforming of the week was Little Swamp, created by Owls.



Little Swamp is not a landscape of extreme altitude changes.  It’s completely flat.  Instead of taking advantage of a 3-dimensional space, this map makes maximal use of its 2-dimensional surface.



The whole map is made up of splashes of clay, grass, water, and foliage, strewn together in spiraling, splintered patterns.  When you look at an overhead view of this map, there’s a sort of elegant, ‘modern art’ esque fell to it.  It’s brilliantly composed, and it looks beautiful.



The plant life in this map is exceptional as well.  The red and white custom trees, lily pads, and flowers bring the whole landscape to life.  In the center are three large water lilies, which serve as botanical garden centers.



Turning the giant lilies into modern, architectural marvels was a great idea, and adds an element of interactivity to this map.  The clay walkways that swirl about are also lined with modern lamps, which illuminate the map at night.



At first glance, Little Swamp looks to be a completely natural phenomenon, but upon closer inspection, it becomes clear that this is more like a high-class public park.  There’s a lot of subtle infrastructure that makes this terrain fun to walk about, but it doesn’t take away from the natural beauty that saturates this map.

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The best organic work of the week was Dragon Lady, created by Craftological.  This is probably one of the most ambitious humanoid figures I’ve ever seen on PMC.



It’s not a particularly large figure, it’s just a complex one.  Nothing in this build is safe or conservative; instead, it’s all very tricky to execute.  The arms and legs are all bent, and folded at extreme angles.  The fingers and talons are clenched and rigid.  The wings are outstretched and partially folded.  And the tail curls and twists in spectacular fashion.



It’s not easy to execute all of these shapes and forms, while still maintaining the anatomical integrity of the figure, nor is it easy to design long pluming hair and perfect facial features.  It’s amazing how spot-on every joint and limb is.



And just for extra effect, Craftological added 3 glowing orbs, that are placed perfectly in correspondence with the position of the arms, and the tilt of the shoulders.  It’s simply flawless in every regard, and I doubt anyone could have done this better.

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So far, there have been many blogs submitted for the Cave Hanger Contest here on PMC.  Some are straight forward; a scene detailing a confrontation between Steve and his monstrous attackers.  Others invent backstories to give the plot new direction.  And still others break the 4th wall and explore scenes of humans playing with toys, or an internet connection failing.



Of all the submissions I’ve seen from others, my personal favorite was Diorama - An Awakening, written by Destiny Gene (formerly Tech Zero, but he’s wanted by the FBI for reasons unknown, so he changed his name and went into hiding somewhere in New Mexico; true story).


Diorama was one of the first entries to break the 4th wall and explore an all too familiar scene where somebody's little brother screws up a stop-motion video, and is subsequently beaten to within an inch of his life (that’s not actually in the story, but that’s what I would’ve done had my little brother committed such vile heresy).



It’s a very well written story, and very creative to boot.  I predict this will definitely be among the top 5 when all’s said and done.  That’s quite impressive, considering that Tech Zero just won the Penthouse Sweet contest last month.  He’s on a role.

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Thank you very much for stopping by!  If you liked this blog, don't forget to toss me a diamond.  Be sure to chuck some diamondy goodness at the map creators as well.  Good luck to everyone who entered into the Cave Hanger Contest!