This is a little web-based random landscape generator that showcases and pays tribute to the aesthetic genius of Heroes of Might and Magic III (1999) terrain sprites. A game I loved in my youth, I was always charmed by its almost Hudson River School-esque depiction of the natural world.

The ultraminimalist original prototype, with only a single terrain type, can be viewed here.

I am interested in how we might might remember and honor the labor that went into decades-old games, how we might preserve the incredible work and artistry that went into them once their audiences age and dwindle.

Stripped of marauding heroes, waiting monsters, glittering resources, and architectural points of interests, we are left with these quiet topographies, vistas of a countryside that does not exist but is infused with a sense of place, teeming with life.