Game & Map Screenshots 11

I'm mostly just practicing parralax-ing so yeah it's not super needed for everything except maybe making the non-standard lake (which looks quite nice in it's in game form with water).
Thanks - I'll find a better tree top.

Edit: Although now if I ever want to I guess I can repeat this method to create fields of soybeans. ^_^

@overlordmikey I think you might want to look again at your path. Grass is worn away only where people actually tread. If you look at how the path meets the house, the shape of it implies that people regualarly miss the door and walk slap into the walls on either side. You need to taper the path so that it only meets the door.

Bah, of course - that was super dopey of me! Thanks. I will take that into account when I'm fixing stuff on my path to perfecting my mapping.
So it's not perfect yet (lot's of edges to smooth, the path obviously, ect.) but do the trees look better this way?

Edit: Okay I changed the pic to a more updated one that I think looks much better!

Happy Thursday y'all, I hope the coffee was good. I'm more or less just posting a progress screenshot, there are plenty of issues within the screenshot itself, but I have been working towards density with the buildings and it's starting to feel like I finally found something that works within the set itself.

@Noobk What issues do you see, yourself? It looks pretty good to me, but then again, that's not my main skill.

@overlordmikey Hey, looks good! You could use a little more shading, maybe on the tree trunk itself, to make things appear less flat. Keep it up!

@Tuomo L Wow, it looks amazing. You went all out! I'm not sure what else I could say except, maybe you can decorate a bit more around each of the houses. Could give them each a bit of personality, make them distinct from each other beyond their sign. Other than that, idk, it looks amazing!

Here's a clip of my current combat system progress. Kes has already informed me of the dangers of flashing lights, thank you Kes. Anyone have any other critiques/suggestions? For anything too advanced/artistic, I am hoping to eventually find the assistance of programmers and artists.

@SpicyNoodleStudios the general inconsistency with the buildings, the truck is bare bones artistically speaking, lot's more small things that I know are there.

@Noobk You're right, it looked so clean that I didn't even realize that I don't actually know what any of those buildings are.

Hi everyone, I am new at this forum. I recently started working on my own game. It is still in early stages. I am not so good in mapping. Maybe you can help me out. Here is a map of a village I am working on. I used the standard RTP from MV.

@OniLink24 I would really have to say that's very nice. Rather than critiquing the work, my advice is challenge yourself to take the next step and do small edits to the RTP tileset in a graphics editor, so you can fix some of the imperfections that come with the set. Like pushing the trees up so that they don't line up directly on the cliffs. That would be your first challenge to take on! Very nice work though!

Just a quick note on how water works. You have a large pond emptying into a small pond via waterfall. How does the waterfall keep flowing? The pond up top lacks a source. You could add a small stream that runs down through the village and then maybe have a bridge over the stream. Then the pond at the bottom also needs an outlet, or else the water would overflow the pond because it is constantly being filled by the waterfall.

If for some reason you don't want a stream running up top that goes into the big pond, you could decide that the pond is fed by a spring, but in that case you might want to indicate it somehow on the map. The little pond below will still need an outlet though.

@Noobk I am glad that you like it. I never seem to be satisfied with my own maps so I am always self-critical. But you are right I should focus on how to build on this foundation and to challenge myself to make this map even better.

@Starbird_Resources I didn't think about it much, I only wanted to have a small pond. I thought it would also look nice to have a little waterfall. And my idea is to let the player enter a little cave behind the waterfall. The water will be flowing inside the cave as well. But you are right, I doesn't make much sense that the large pond emptying in a small pond. I have an idea how to fix this. I think I will transform my little pond to a stream.

And thank you both for your replies. I really appreciate it.

I actually like the idea of a big pond emptying into a small one without overflowing the small one, but there has to be some reason for it. It looks "unnatural" but there could be a very interesting reason for it in your game. Just make sure that it's not an oversight :)

@OniLink24 persobally I think you should add a stream or river to the top pond and then add an event for you characters when they first go past the waterfall to go

“oh what a pretty waterfall! But that pond is sobsmall how is all that water not flooding the road? Oh! I think I can see a sort of shadow behind there? Wanna investigate?”

or something. Or leav E it as a compl telly secret area and if people comment on how weird your mapping is you could just be like, did you investigate the stars he waterfall and pond? Your loss. You would have gotten an awesome item/weapon/price of armour.

@Lorenze Your image is not visible to me unless I agree to all manner of cookies etc. Could you please upload it via a different site or directly here? I'm sure I'm not the only one who just wants to see what the image is.

Welp I think I have made quite a bit of progress in parallax mapping although I am less than satisfied with the trees. I like the foliage effect (I used a lovely tile by whtdragon) but the trees still look kinda awkward.

Also my shading could probably use some work. It doesn't have to be perfect, but I'd like it to be presentable.

Am I the only person in the world, who almost never likes the own creations?
I want to give an example based on my first town, which uses FSM Town of Beginnings Tiles by REFMAP:

My first version has a lot of empty space:


And my new version now has trees growing out of asphalt just to cover a bit of the empty space:


Filling up empty space while still making it look natural is quite a big task.

It looks OK for me, no need more to do. Don't be so harsh for yourself.

You might want to make some changes to the wall below the fence surrounding your upper building some parts are 1 tile high and others 2 tiles high.

The new version doesn’t look bad to me. But maybe have trees growing out of the soil?

Do you live in a city where the buildings are side to side with no space inbetween? *Shudders*

It may be that i grew up in a medium sized town (about 150k people) but i feel like if you fill any more space, it will look to crowded and loud. Don't fear empty space. Use empty space strategicly. Empty space in the right places can really accent youur game well