Game & Map Screenshots 11

Thanks! You didn't have to do that, I really appreciate the time and effort it took. It looks so much better, I'll definitely do something similar in my game.

I just finished the overall layout of the map. Gonna do something about those cliffs (more trees and plant decorations) and trees (break them up, leave some empty spaces) later. Probably a road sign somewhere. But this is how it's gonna look like for the most part. Uh... I think I'll remove those cliffs at the bottom, since I plan to have the players walk down a set of stairs on the next map. Or... I can put another cliff on the right as well.


@Bandito I think I might get lost for a bit if I have to walk around that map. Which direction is the player supposed to be heading for? Top? Left? Right? Where are the transition events going to be? Also, on the left, one of the trees is cut off.

@Mr. Detective As long you are following the road made by dirt tiles you should quickly find the next map. I didn’t connect the tiles so it looked more natural but now that I think about it I will do so, so that the player doesn’t get lost, so it should look more like a road.

The transition happen where there two trees with the dirt tiles in the middle. I didn’t to go to the next map because I wanted to get a review of this only this map, as it is the one where the player starts controlling the playable character.

Thanks for the review.
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@Mr. Detective I just looked at your map and I would recommend adding more plant life, like grass tiles, flowers, mushrooms etc. That would add variety to the forest path.









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Edit: New screenshot made on recommendations

This map turned out better than intended... It was just supposed to be a simple path to the next map. :kaoswt:

A farm map this time, courtesy of Kokoro Reflection's Seasons of Harvest Farm Tileset. The ponies in the bottom enclosure didn't print when I first saved the image in the editor, so here's a screenshot instead.
I made sure not to put trees all over the place, as I wanted some open spaces. I have other fields and farm maps, but this one is the one I like the most (though of course there's room for improvement).

@ImaginaryVillain That is stunningly beautiful. It'd be a shame to only pass through once. Seems like a good place for cutscenes, on the bridge or something. Or you could have a "behind the waterfall" treasure.

@ShiningPhoibe Looks good. A few suggestions, though.

First, the animal pen. It seems pretty barren. One thing that helps with making maps is to consider the function of the area you're making, since adding those things will give your players more things to look at.

With this in mind, there are a few things you can add to the animal pen when you think about what the horses need. They'll need water basins or troughs to drink from. Having long grass or hay around would also make perfect sense.

Second this spot over here:


It sorta stands out as being too empty. Considering it's a farm and there's a field nearby, I have a few possible suggestions:
You could put a pond there. The crops will need water anyway, there's no well around or anything, so having a source of water would make sense, and it'd be a good way to break up the large amount of grass in the area.
You could also put a path there that leads to the edge of the map. You don't have to make a map on the other end, necessarily, but it could give the farm a sense that it's bigger than what you see as a player.

edit:
@Mr. Detective Looks a lot better. Sometimes simple is good for that type of map. On the hidden path thing, I was thinking you could do something more like:

(Red line is the passable area under the trees.)
Which would hide the fact that there's a route much better than a straight line

@ShiningPhoibe Looks nice but personally I would move a few things aorund and add a thing or two ;



1 = a stable
2 = the animal pen
3 = a well

Just to give it a bit of a more natural/realistic feel and some visual interest.

Thanks for the advice! I don't really have much in the way of wells or water basins in the tileset I used, but I'll try to figure something out.

@ShiningPhoibe Dunno if it'll help, but here's a farm I've been working on (mostly just RTP on this map):

Also wouldn't mind some pointers on it.

@Htlaets looks pretty good but here some things I would personally do differently :



- I would move the farmhouse itself to the back and move that field up. Farms usually use all the land around them not just at the back of them as they grow in size.

- one of the roads (red) doesnt make sense to me as time efficeny would lead to the farmer making a path (green) more likely

- What's with all the boxes? If you need that many to gather produce a small barn would make more sense...

other then that it does feel lpretty much like a farm so kudos for that :)

Working on my first town map and while I think I have done some good improvements already (the first picture being my original and the second being as it now stands) but can't hurt to see if the more experienced folks have any tips or advice to offer a newbie :)

In particular if there is a better ground tile I could use here. Really hate how deserty the place looks since it is intended to be a mountain (but not snowy) town that produces most of the ore used by this kingdom.

Finally got this convenience store more or less how I want it! This is 100% RTP, with a couple of minor edits and recolors here and there. I might spend some time doing more extensive edits on the shelves later, but I think it will do for now. Feedback appreciated!

I think the generic critique for many (but not all) of the maps here is that everything is so orderly. Sure if someone builds a house or plants a field of crops, that's going to be pretty orderly... Except no field is ever perfect, like that rock or stump in the fields that was too much trouble to take out. Or that inconvenient hill that forced them build their fence all weird. In fact their fence is almost certainly in worse condition in certain areas. It's the little imperfections that really sell a scene.

Also for forests... seriously people build their forests like a city planner did it. All of their trees are orderly and clumped together, and their paths all lead to predetermined areas. If you've ever spent any real time in a forest you'll learn it's very random. Clearings will just be wherever, trees will have fallen over, there's rocks all over the place, drop offs, plants grow in any place light gets past the trees. And you know what? Trees are of varying size as they're not all the same age, nor share the same living setup.

Also you'll find water all over the place because the larger the trees, the more likely they've blocked the light and prevented the water from evaporating. Plus if the water isn't moving it's going to be stagnate with lots of bugs and things growing in it. So water is often tinged green, or even if it's running you'll usually find it darker because of the low light.

TLDR: Be more random? Nothing's perfect. :LZSwink:

@Htlaets
It's actually one of the few maps that's going to get used twice, once climbing it to reach a lookout point, and once coming down... But actually most of my maps are just made for one story scene, then they're never used again. Just nice calm areas between the gameplay areas to handle story, character progression and saves. :LZSexcite:

Here's Granby town! I tried to make the path a bit random, and to make the houses look different. There's a couple fields, since it's an agricultural area. I almost included animals, but there's a fair bit of them in the previous map and it is a town.

I present you with a Wooden Bay. 3rd largest town on the southern coastline of the Esugia Empire. As you can tell by the name, this town's main income comes from wood, wood crafts, and boatbuilding alike. Wooden Bay also has a prospering harbor (not shown on this particular map). The villagers are self-sufficient with growing their own crops, fishing, and even hunting (the hero is a hunter). This map is a starting town and a resting hub between chapters in my game.

Mapping is absolutely not my forte and I was struggling a lot with this one. Any comments and opinions are welcome. :)

That map is very good. It made me sit up and WANT to look at it.

You do need some light and movement to really sell it. A day/night cycle or even a cloud (shadows) layer would really add to the light. The movement would be captured with the NPCs but some particle movement for dust, leaves and bugs would really sell it.

That town is an absolute beauty. You put a lot of thought into it. Only nitpick I can particularly give to it is that there's some dissonance between the look of the town and the description of it as being the third largest town with a prosperous harbor. I'd expect something bustling and city-like with massive lumberyards if I heard the area described to me like that before entering, but it seems more like a cozy sleepy village.

And if I had to describe it without see the description I'd say it's a small comfy rivertown (yeah, I know, harbor not depicted)

... Buuuuuttttt that nitpick would be more of a suggestion to change how you describe it (I wouldn't use its size as a descriptor because then people will expect something denser, and prosperous makes someone expect luxury homes) rather than the map. Those things could be true, of course, just leading with those descriptions taints the player's view on it.

@ShiningPhoibe
I can see the improvement with every map you post. This one's a lot denser than your previous attempts, and the houses are varied in shape and size, which is nice. I also appreciate the fact that you're building houses with a side orientation, the roads being the indicator of where the entrance is.

That being said, it doesn't make much sense for some of the roads to lead to walls of the building rather than their entrance. If someone is going to make a house, they're going to put the door facing the road, if someone is going to build a road to a house, they're going to bring the road to a door and not a wall or window, basically.

Plus side to diverting the roads a bit is that it'd probably break up the empty space you have a bit better.

@hosercanadian I could add that this map is just a base (I added smoke coming from chimneys cause I wanted to see how it looks). :) As I said player's gonna visit this location quite a few times, so naturally the placement of NPC's gonna change and so the light or weather. For this reason, I didn't bother with it for now. But I do understand what you're saying nonetheless. Thank you ^_^

@Htlaets I see... It sounded right at first, but you're right. It does sound like this town is some kind of bustling metropolis. So maybe if I say - third most important place/village? Or - a village located in the south of the empire, excelling in woodcrafts?

Either way, thank you for boosting my confidence. :)

@TheOnlyLlama Of course, I don't know the context of your game, and I don't know if you're going "Elder scrolls little-big town" style or "You're walking through a section of a massive town, and the entire town isn't depicted in the game" style.

That being said there're a few ways you can describe the town as important without giving the wrong impression. You can emphasize that it's a major logging town that supplies a significant percentage of the Empire's timber while "living in tune with the forest", you could say the port has strategic importance, or is a part of a major trade route (though, again, it makes you think the place is going to look like a trade hub), you could highlight the uniqueness of the resident's self-sufficiency and communal strength as a tourism angle.

Personally going only off the map, what I'd put on a brochure is:

"Welcome to Wooden Bay, a beautiful rustic logging town built along the [river name here] river. Idyllic forests frame beautifully maintained fields of golden wheat, maintaining a natural balance that defines this town and its inhabitants."

A monastery im working on:


PS: Can someone please recommend an map image plugin for mz that also renders events?