Game & Map Screenshots 10

Posting them here will get you critique on your mapping ability, your presentation and so on. Posting them in Resource WIP Thread will get you critique on the actual artwork and how to improve it.

For the maps: The outside maps could use a little more clumping. If you look at nature, things don't grow completely randomly, the tend to clump up a bit here and there. Don't fill in the space with random things, start with the reason for your map, add a little extra organic flare to the shape of things, then go in with the details. Use them to draw the eye to important places. Since these are maps made to show off your tiles, make up a fake reason for the room, something in line with what people would really be using them for. For things like branches, abandoned tools, fallen rocks, and so on, think about where they were dropped from. With clumps of growing things, think about why it would be more advantageous to grow in that spot vs. somewhere else. For the inside maps, some of the same things apply, but your rooms are too big and too square. Make rooms the size of the big things you're putting in them, don't make a space and then randomly try to fill it up with stuff. Divide them up a bit and show other rooms too.

I also managed to finish a battle background today too, so now I can show this off.

It's starting to look like an actual game now

Oooh, that background is incredible! That's some insanely pro work right there, friend!

@Faherya I used Tiny16 for my first released game a while back and man, they're so good! Your use of them is just excellent, the seasonal changes read really well and I get a mix of Dragon Quest and Harvest Moon vibes looking at them. Excited to see this develop!

Just an average Saturday night in the city.

So, I'm trying to make the RTP look more... "interesting", since I can't draw or purchase DLC:

Today I got some time to spend on my game, so this should be the overall feeling of the maps, It get a little laggy cause the map is pretty long and the same with the picture, maybe the rest of the maps will be the half of this one. Comments on how to improve are welcome!



@TakeHomeTheCup In the highest rock wall you got a line of rock tiles that are brighter than the rest, it correspond to a top of the wall tile I guess, and the entrance of the cave seems to shiny, unleast the interior of the cave is shiny it should be darker I think. Apart of that is looking good.

Try using more layers and events. Also there is "shift Mapping" techniques and there are some layer scripts too.

@TakeHomeTheCup A couple of general things.
The entrance to the cave uses the tile which normally signals 'daylight' to the player i.e. it is used when you are inside a cave/tunnel to signal that there is daylight beyond that point and so is your exit. On an exterior map you would normally use the dark entrance to indicate that there is a lack of sunlight beyond this point, so it's your entrance.

I would suggest that you find a couple of empty tiles somewhere on your B-E tile sheets and put your single trees there in addition to their normal location. Put them, say, half a tile up. They will now take 2 tiles on the sheet. You can then use the 'moved up' version in 2 important ways. First, when you want to put a tree near to the edge of a cliff. The default position means that the tree's roots are hanging on the very edge of the cliff, which doesn't look good and no tree in that position would last long. Second, you can use one occasionally to vary the dead straight line nature of the default position. Having a bit of irregularity will make the map seem more natural, and a bit more visually interesting. Use an event graphic for the top bit if you want it to overlap another tree.

Another way to add visual interest is to take your default tree and do a slight hue/colour/brightness/whatever edit on it so that it looks a bit different from the others but not so much as to clash. Put it somewhere on your B-E tile sheets. Then scatter a few of them on the map to add variety.

I personally would have had a few more levels in a couple of places, so that it might take 2 ledges to reach the same height as the top level instead of a uniform one.

hey. how are you guys?

This time im trying to do something special.

WIP battle system

@Faherya omggg that looks so good and nostalgic style, love it.

Game Jam map in progress. Working on a transition from beach to forest. That's a really hard one to try and blend together. I went heavy on the lighting and shadows because in game it's going to have Terrax Lighting.

@OnslaughtSupply While I am not arguing for full realism (which would be foolish) I do think you are trying to make the transition too quickly. There should be a reasonable depth of much sparser trees because thick woods do not grow on sand, and you still have sand as your ground. I would do sand, giving way to sparse grass and scrubland, followed by a few trees as the ground changed from sand to soil and only then a forest.

@Kes: Hmm, sometimes the transition from beach to forest happens very suddenly though:

@gRaViJa You're right! It is more abrupt that instances I've seen. The only thing I would say is that at the line of transition, there are fewer tall trees and more low level scrub/shrubs than in your example, so maybe switch a couple around?

@Kes see I put a good amount of small patches of grass and faded it real gradually but most is covered by the canopy of trees and small bushes, hmm... I think your right. Thanks.

A screenshot from my project.

@Lee Sang
Wow, that map must've take some time to make! The trees would seem to be just minorly more detailed than the characters and the objects, and there's apparently some higher trees in the background unseen based on the shadows. It certainly would be interesting to test something like this, or see some moving image about the character animations, to get a feel of the gameplay and how well the grids are working.
All in all, looks like pretty professional stuff. Did you draw everything from the scratch or are there some external resources in this one?

Yes, I draw everything from the scratch. I'm so proud of myself. *Hug myself*

A shot of a lobby in my game~