FarmVille Pic of the Day: Have fun getting lost in Aliciafay03's farm maze

Don't let the look of this farm fool you. Because the first thing someone would notice about Aliciafay03's FarmVille farm is that she's got "FARM VILLE" spelled out in an outline of red, orange, and blue hay bales, which I know isn't a big whoop. Hay bales as a design element have gotten pretty stale in the landscaping community. Bales are good for spelling out visual shout-outs, portraits, and the occasional fun art (care for a whopper?), but there's rarely any impressive ones anymore. But look closer at Aliciafay03's farm, and you'll realize that it's an interactive maze.

Originally designed to be a cornfield maze, Aliciafay03 was eager to debut her farm for Zynga's official Farm of the Week contest, so she released her entry before the corn had a chance to grow. This is probably better, cause a cornfield would've obscured all the clever lettering. What we know about hay bales is that there's a cheat for players to harvest crops faster by trapping your FarmVille farming avatar in hay bales -- now here's where the interactive part comes in -- so if you click one end of this farm, your avatar can't go anywhere but to run through the maze!

Have you ever played in a real cornfield maze? Sound off in the comments. 1 Comment

If you have an AWESOME FarmVille farm that you want to see featured on Games.com, please email a picture to editors@games.com, Include a few words about the inspiration for your design and maybe a few tips for people who need an assist.

FarmVille Pic of the Day: Joelr's Floating Farm Illusion is king of the hill

FarmVille landscape designer Joelr is literally king of the hill and top of the heap, thanks to his "Floating Uphill illusion [sic]" farm. With all the awesome 3D looking farms out there, it's easy to forget that what you see is actually flat, and that it takes a lot of creativity and imagination to pull off any kind of depth in these landscapes.

Central to Joelr's bag of tricks is clever positioning. The "shadow" that allows the top of his hill to float is obviously made of black hay bales.The illusion of rounded hillsides is created by putting all the farm plots on a diagonal. Basically, you put one down and keep scooting each one a bit more over than the previous one. When you get enough of these off-kilter, the edges start to appear curved. To give the effect even more of a boost, the fences bordering the hillsides are 'stacked' higher on the top than on the bottom, while the bottom has more pieces. (Remember, there is no real stacking on FarmVille!)

It's all about layers, people -- basic visual engineering. In fact, methods such as this are great, because you can use the same techniques over and over again. There are no fancy items here, aside for decorative purposes. I'd like to see someone rework this so that it looks like a giant UFO saucer beaming up cows.

BONUS: Check out this interview to learn more about Joelr and the creation of this farm.

Are you impressed? Because we certainly are. What else do you think would work for a floating hill illusion? Sound off in the comments. 2 Comments

If you have an AWESOME FarmVille farm that you want to see featured on Games.com, please email a picture to editors@games.com, Include a few words about the inspiration for your design and maybe a few tips for people who need an assist!

FarmVille Pic of the Day: Honoring 9/11 on barbs0803's memorial farm

WTC The SphereLast month, FarmVille player barbs0803 submitted the above farm entry with the caption: "My tribute to 911 Never forget those we have lost". Now seems to be the appropriate time to share it. This 9/11 tribute farm shows the towers on the day of their collapse, complete with fire and smoke, made out of what appears to be Maple, Yellow Maple, and Rainbow Trees that aren't in bloom. The smaller explosions are Outdoor Torches from last June's Tiki theme set. But to the right, barbs0803 has also included two reflecting pools crafted with bales of hay, a design based on the real 9/11 memorial plans, which involves pools built into the footprints of the original towers and surrounded by oak trees. These two centerpieces tell a story of before and after.

On the top left corner, Fleur de lis Trees are made to resemble golden laurels bordering a flag of the Great Seal of the United States. The rest of the farm is filled in by Forget-Me-Nots, reinforcing the memorial theme. It also proves that barbs0803 is at least a Level 90 player, because those flowers can't be planted otherwise. For a final bit of detail, barbs0803 added a statue between the towers, to resemble The Sphere, a sculpture that resided beneath the WTC and was damaged beyond repair on the day of the attack. However, there's one mistake that's immediately noticeable -- the use of Light Poles as antennas on both towers, since only the north tower, Tower One, had that feature.

Here in New York, it's hard to hide from the memory of September 11th, especially with its 10th anniversary on this coming Sunday. Personally, I feel the absence of the towers most strongly when I'm riding west on the Brooklyn Queens Expressway. The twin towers were the most prominent and recognizable part of the lower Manhattan skyline. It's taken the city a decade to build a permanent memorial, which is finally opening to the public after this weekend. For those of you who can't make it, we'll always have barbs0803's farm.

Do you think a FarmVille farm is an appropriate way to memorialize September 11th? Can you identify the parts that barbs0803 used to create the towers? Sound off in the comments. Add Comment

If you have an AWESOME FarmVille farm that you want to see featured on Games.com, please email a picture to editors@games.com, Include a few words about the inspiration for your design and maybe a few tips for people who need an assist!