Game & Map Screenshots 11

@huubz I like the way you have used your tiles, and the music is very fitting. The lightning effect is very well done.

The only thing I would like to suggest would be around the question of timing. Visually, the lightning looks like it is some distance away, over on the horizon. Therefore there should be a slight gap between the lightning and the sound of the thunder, if you can manage that.

@Kes Thanks! I agree with the timing, will have to tinker with it when I get to finish the map :LZYcool:

And I just noticed that I'll need to change the direction where the water and clouds are moving to match the rain :LZYdizzy:

Remake goes well. Map 1 / 5 done.

@Tw0Face Suitably claustrophobic.

@Tw0Face Reminds me of Doom, LOL.

@huubz Interesting effects. I'm not sure why, but the mountains in the background kind of remind me of a painting, so I was very surprised when the lightning came.

I haven't posted in a mapping thread in a while, so I figure I might as well post some stuff I've been working on. This map is huge because it's split into compartments. I drew everything on this map by myself. You can post feedback, though I'm not sure if I'll get around to it if it's too big.


Also just remembered it looks a little empty as it is right now because the board game tiles are going to be part of the tileset.

I'm finally done with the new exterior of Mountain Village, it's roughly 4 times the size of the previous version. Ignore the offset doors, waterfall, and the empty gaps up top (those are the end of the player's line of sight).

Redid the skill equip scene to be more graphical and less blocky.

Shoutout to SkottyTV and Itaholy for their window skin designs!

You can follow me on twitter to see the custom designed battle system etc.

@cthulhusquid I like the layout. What I think would help would be to have some variation in the cliff heights. The only break in that solid vertical wall is the small variation where the waterfall comes down. A few more changes in height would make what is otherwise a solid, not very interesting, block feel a little more organic.

@Synrec That is a clean looking design, nothing superfluous except for just one thing. Presumably the 3 "No Skill" slots indicate that I can equip more than I currently have. Therefore there are going to be 3 more lines to the character's sprite. I wonder if that might make it look a bit cluttered. As the slots which are already equipped have descriptions plus icons and those not yet used are clearly labelled "No Skill", I'm not sure that the lines add anything to the player's understanding of their current state.

The lines are mainly aesthetic tbh. They show that you have skill connections whereas the circles you see originating from the lines also indicate when a slot is active. It's mainly to give a kinda spiritual modern feel to align with how the main character is a rune shaman in a modern era.

First draft of my next town. I continue my efforts to have each town look different from the others. I'm not a fan of cloned towns.

In a spoiler, because it's so big. The building top right has no chimney for a reason. The 'eye' that you can see in 3 places is story related. Because it looks a bit dismal without lighting, I've also posted a screen shot so that you can see a bit better what it will look like. This is me running around testing passabilities.

Any suggestions gratefully received.

@Kes
A really beautiful town. Guess it would be nice to live there. Maybe... Depending on your story.

Only thing a realized: All doors have a kind of special single tile in front of them except for the house on the top right (the one without the chimney). Not sure if it is by accident or intential.

@ElCheffe Thank you for your kind words.

The door you mentioned is deliberately different from the other ones. It does have a step which is narrower than the others, but maybe it needs to be the same size to be noticeable. Here is a 'snip' shot of it - so a bit blurry - and as you can see, it's there.



I think that perhaps what I'll do is make it the same colour as the stone - the other houses have a grey step because the walls are grey brick.

EDIT
And done. It does look better, so thank you for pointing it out to me.



AND EDIT AGAIN
I just realised that we were talking about 2 different things. Yes, I forgot to put the tile indicating a door you can walk into.

Been working on the reboot of my abandoned RM2K3 project from years ago, importing the tiles into MZ for this one. Already got the airship and the first forest area done. (The darkened screen is because it's later in the day and rather cloudy weather...)

@Kes I think what @ElCheffe meant was that all doors have a different ground tile leading up to it, except that door. If that's deliberate then it's fine :)

@Milennin I like the maps, but that looks a bit too dark for cloudy weather to me.

Thanks. There's story reasons behind it being so dark, well, beyond it being cloudy, lol. (that being darkness being spread around the area by the local dark lord...)

Hello everyone,

I'm trying to animate trees in MZ trying not to have a jerky effect, I can't figure out a pattern that would work for most trees.

I tried to animate 7 different trees without success, using 6 to 9 frames and multiple layers. I'm using galv's character frames plugin with a speed modifier of 0.75.

This last one seems to be good but I feel it's still jerky. I use speed X2 slower and 6 frames.
Does the movement feels normal to you ?





I tried to animate that weeping willow many times without success. Could someone show me the right technique to do it ?

I resized it so I can put more frames on the forum.

Looks pretty nice, for a small town. I did have some small suggestions, though.

1. There's smoke coming out of some chimneys, but not all. Are these cooking fires, personal fireplaces, communal fireplaces? Since I see the townsfolk all have hoods, is it a windy but sunny day? I try to make the outsides of my buildings match the interior layout as close as possible, down to the placement of chimneys.
2. I'm surprised there aren't any guards patrolling the walls. I'd add a couple, and make the wall a bit thicker so they can walk along it.
3. I'd personally place the street lamps in more natural places, like next to doors or along the major streets. For instance, two on either side of the big building archway would feel like a good "welcome" to the town, drawing people through it.
4. Is the eye thing the centerpiece of the town, or the garden? If it's the eye thing, I'd place benches on either side facing outward, with gardens on either side that people can admire or walk near, and shift it some to the left. If it's the garden, I'd place the eye thing near the building with the eye on it, and make the garden bigger so it's more centered in the town. Alternatively, you can place the garden in the L-bend where the water pump is, and move that near the Inn where it would get the most use.

Looking for opinions. In general, which looks better? The small sprites or the big 2x sprites?

Other comments welcome, though assets are still drafts/placeholders (thus the duplicate sprites).

@Featherbrain As someone who often moans about having actor battlers looking tiny against enemy battlers, my instinct is to prefer the larger version. However, the tails do look a bit pixilated., so you might want to smooth those out a bit. Other than that, I like them. Well done.

@cthulhusquid Thanks for your detailed feedback.

There are no guards because one of the issues facing this town is that numbers are dropping and so they no longer have enough people to sit in the watch towers (walls are not meant to be patrolled, hence the number of towers) except in times of danger (but, as our hero points out, how will they know it's a time of danger if no one is keeping watch?).

They are personal fires, and not everyone has a fire lit during the day, so not every chimney has smoke. And, like you, I try to match interiors to exteriors.

I'm going to follow your suggestion about moving the well, you're right, it would be better up by the inn.

The garden and eye have moved around like a pair of nomads during the drawing of this map, I've still to find a combination that I'm happy with. But spurred on by your comments I shall have another go.