Island Grid Planning

Each island uses an identical grid of squares (turned 90 degrees and shown in perspective to the view - call them diamonds if you wish but I call them squares to avoid confusion with diamond currency).

You can visually see the grid on an island by placing path stones. You cannot, however, place monsters on path stones, so it is not possible to cover a whole island in path stones.

You will note there are three "extra" squares - spaces that are not duplicated on the other side of the island. When trying to make a symmetrical display, these extra squares can trip you up and make you wonder what you are doing wrong in placing your monsters and decorations. It's not you - it's the extra squares. It might help to place path markers or 1-square decorations on these squares so you can easily avoid them. All islands have the same grid and the same extra squares. The one in the upper left is hanging off the edge of the stage on Shugabush Island, and thus looks somewhat strange when occupied.

For planning purposes, it is helpful to see a "top view" of the grid without the perspective angle we normally see in the game.

Sizes of monsters, decorations, and structures are listed elsewhere in the wiki. You can use those sizes to plan your island. Or you can randomly place stuff anywhere it fits. It's up to you. After all, it's your island. Here is a sample placement of some of the main structures and decorations:



There are many ways you can do your own planning. Vector-based drawing tools are generally easiest for moving things around. Popular vector tools include Adobe Illustrator and CorelDraw. Object manipulation tools such as Visio can make things even easier once you get the main grid set up. Standard graph paper or a spreadsheet such as Microsoft Excel can be used if you turn the map 90 degrees.

Most people have gotten by just fine without using a tool or grid to plan their islands. These tools are helpful for people wanting to do a specific design or figuring out how many monsters you need to complete a design - and determining if you have enough beds for them!