Game & Map Screenshots 11

@jonthefox
I don't consider myself a mapping expert, but hopefully this helps.
Before I jump into details, I always like to approach the interior design with "Who lives here?" or "What's the purpose of this room?" as this creates the setting and expectations for the room. You of course have standard room which are open and empty, which can feel a little less interesting and easily get overlooked, often interpreted as "filler rooms" by the player, hence the thought process.

Now, for the main chances. I added another tile for the path to the stairs in order to add detail and decorations to the entrance to set expectations. Most people want to present themselves well and often show that they are better than they are, especially to strangers.

Following that, I pushed the stairs one tile back from the wall to create depth. I always felt stairs having the same height and tile placement as the wall to lack perspective, which is personal preference, and there is nothing wrong with doing it the other way. After all, there is no right and wrong as we all have different visions for how to do this. To cap this off, I added a little fence to trail upwards to further add to this.

I added curtains which was mentioned by @Kes (which, btw, is gods gift to this thread, always a helpful little bird), in the same color as the carpet to follow the color theme. The desk and bookshelf was placed to follow what you did on your map, with a little clock toggled in there to add to the personality of the owner. Following that, you have a table by the fence with a bird, some wine bottles and a letter on the floor (with wine drops under the letter). The bird cage was just random and fit the table, but also eludes to what the person here might be up to.

The room itself presents someone who presents themselves as someone of high tastes, and as you go up the stairs, looks a bit into academics or studies. The cage might be interpreted differently by each player, while the one thing in common is the wine bottles, with the added touch of the letter doused in it at the floor. Perhaps everything isn't as it seems after all?

Light source is on the table by the entrance, desk and windows.

edit:
Could probably have added a carpet or something on the first floor as that feels empty now P:
Unlike the pots being tucked to the side, I like to put things in center to occupy the space, and leave it empty on the side to create the illusion of it being "full", yet also spacious. To not leave it too empty, I added the droplets and letter (droplets will still remain after the letter is removed).

Thank you everyone for the feedback. and @h0tWalker Holy MOLY!! That looks so much better and really shows me how to do those things to improve my mapping. Thank you so much!!

@jonthefox I agree with you that it is a nice enough map, but it might be worth thinking about a bit more so as to extend your mapping design repetoire. Here, the design question is one of context.

The map that h0twalker produced is of a very different type to yours. It is the room of someone who is comparatively wealthy. That ornate vase, the picture, the swanky writing desk, the rich curtains all go to indicate someone with money to spare. Your original looked like it belonged to someone of more average income. One or the other fits the rest of the house, they both can't. So have a look at the rest of your house, and think about who lives in it. Is that person/family wealthy or not? Every map tells a story, whether you intend it to or not. Does the story of the wealthy individual fit into the story of the rest of the house and the NPCs living there?

Secondly, does that room still work as a bedroom? h0twalker wrote:
But - who expects strangers to walk into their bedroom? Who tries to "set expectations" in that context? Take the bed out and it becomes a study, where those questions might be answered with a Yes. But that is not what this is supposed to be. It no longer looks as if it functions as a bedroom, but as a study with a bed in it - and would someone wealthy enough for those furnishings have their bed there?

Finally, they have repeated what Shaz pointed out (and I agree with her) - no one puts most of an expensive carpet under the bed leaving only bare boards to walk on. Whichever style you go for, your original or this, that carpet would be much better, imo, to be moved into the centre of the room where it can fulfil its function.

@h0tWalker you also got the stairs wrong.

The only way a 2 tile stairs would fit a 2 tile wall was if it is a strange steps glued to the wall situation as in the left.
If we assume that the stairs have an angle of 45°, we have a situation as in the right, I translated 1 tile to 1m to make the math more understandable.

If your wall is 2m high and your stairs should be usable, it has to protude into the room to some degree - here also 2m to get the acceptable 45 degree angle.
So what we see from our maker perspective is something that has the legth of the green line.
Now for the math:
a^2 + b^2 = c^2, with a and b being the short sides, since the angle between floor and wall is 90°. And a = b here, as both are 2m.
so:
2^2 + 2^2 = (green line length)^2
=> squareroot of 8 = green line length
=> ~2.83 = green line length
Which is pretty close to 3 tiles, making the stair much more believable if you add another of these tiles at the bottom.
Otherwise I always see what is on the left of my example instead of a usable stairs.
Eh... I hope that was understandable.

The pot with the huge plant next to the bed seems to be a bit weird, I would not like having plant parts in my face or bed when I lie there. Also the wine drips and the letter in the otherwise very tidy room seem off, unlike that is a plotpoint (like someone was abducted while holding it and drinking wine right now), it does not work for me in a clean environment. If I spill my beverage, I try to get rid of the mess as soon as I can ;3 The person living there probably does not want to have stains on the wooden boards.

Other than that, I 2nd with Kes.

Posting it here too, 'cause I like it pretty darn much:

Not gonna lie, I wasn't satisfied with the stairs, my lil raid group had a break so I quickly put it together in-between (hence the little edit add ons). That said, I felt it was gonna be one longer, but felt like it wasn't 100% right, and was leaning back and forth on it till I landed on it. Really appreciate taking the time to explain it properly :>
The plant smells nice though... and.. and... uhhh... fresh air? :(
The guy living there might have gotten a letter saying that his academic views aren't good enough for "Academic Weekly Magazine" and as he poured himself another glass, had the bottle fall over as he crumbled the letter, tossing it at the ground yelling "I'll show them academics, and they'll all regret the day they turned down <Your Name Here>!" as he slammed the bottle back on the floor, walked a bit tipsy over to the stairs and out of the room / building. Or so one might imagine from that little mess in that tidy little place. It's the little things :D

So, my project is Little Red Riding Hood, except adjusted for the modern world.

Here is the granma's house where the Little Red Running Shoes will run into the Grey Wolves operatives:

Ground Floor



Attic



Basement

A Port Town of my current project.
The red "art" in the the middle is a fountain, the screenshot saver doesnt want to show events. :(

Finished the idle animation for our Gladiator class :cutesmile: What do you think?

Don't get me wrong... it's NOT perfect at all, but I am happy how this turned out :) even if you can't see much in this screenshot. i just wanted to share
The grass is a little off too but I don't know how it could be better.

Edit:

I fixed it! Thank you to everyone who gave me tips! Maybe I'll change the tree for the other one but for now it's wayyy better.

I really hope that door on the left house is not the front door :D

I wouldn't want to swim through the lake or shimmy on the wall to get to my door.

Also, just logically speaking, I'm not sure if there is much reason to have a well when you have a perfectly fine water source already in abundance. But worry not, I also made wells like that. But not "stranded" in the middle of the lake though.

I am also not a very prolific map-maker, but at the very least you deserve some credit for filling the map and make it look lively. Blank spaces are no fun to look at.

I do share @ScorchedGround concerns about the front door aswell as how is anyone getting water from that well? xD

That said I do like the fact that the houses have depth and seem proportionally sound.
And there isnt much 'dead-space" :)

yep, it is the door! haha I'm not really great at making houses, but i had this idea that the houses you don't need to go through are not acessible to the players but are to the villagers (so you won't have a lot of doors saying you can't enter). Also I'm glad you notice that i tried to fill the map with as much as i could (I was kinda worried it was too much or too little information).

Just a tip but you could also do that by placing NPC's infront of their houses, crates blocking the way, etc. Anything really that doesn't make players wonder how the NPC actually gets home xD

oh thank you! Yeah I will take that well off but for now i don't know what to put in the place, so for now i will just let him be :kaocry:

Connect that piece to the field and smack a tree on there xD

(Preferably a large non rtp tree)

That is a better idea yes, i don't know how I didn't come up with that before lol
Thanks for the tip i'll put a little path to the house then!

even if it's a bit to much water, I'm no mapper as well, but I take my
time to make it good looking.

there are some really nice mappers, but if you have fun making those
maps and fit the story you create, who cares?

maybe there is a side door to enter that house or you need a person
that makes a bridge for you, but it looks good, maybe not the best,
but specially not the worse though.

just have fun on mapping and the game you create, that what most
counts for everyone :)

@Momonica I've merged your thread with the Game Maps & Screenshot thread.

I’ve been doing a lot of mapping for the project I’m working on, and I think it might be starting to get to me. I used the (almost) bog-standard Outside tileset, but none of the tiles I used for ground in this town were intended for use as ground.