Game & Map Screenshots 12

I've only just joined the forums, even though I’ve been using MV for almost two years! I’ve been working on this for a while and finally got round to posting some screenshots. I'm much more of an artist but I’m pretty pleased with how I’ve worked some stuff around. The enemy figures are moving!
If you have any crit, I'm all ears.

Just plotting how the lush Elven lands is gonna look, map is subject ot change.

Wow this looks so cool! I love the style!

Thank you, I can't take credit for the style, thats all down to the MegaTiles packs I found on Itch. I think they've since become a Komodo partner so very likely on the site for sale somewhere.

I really like the style you're going for above, its got that quirky vibe to it and some of the monsters G-G-Ghosts image (cutscene cutin?) looks genuinely top class. I get an almost Omori vibe off the on map stuff (You're probably sick of people telling you that)

Thank you so much!! A lot of the visual style was inspired by Omori, I'm glad you can tell.

Greetings. I have a reference and a map that I tried to build from it. Personally, I think that it turned out terrible, but it's hard for me to understand what and how to fix it. I would be grateful for any advice, ranging from technical details, and ending with courses for artists.

Hiya @Deathless_Koschei Just letting you know I moved your thread into this existing one for map feedback. I think you'll get a lot more help here! :)

@Deathless_Koschei I see this is your first post, so welcome to the forum.

I think the underlying error with the map is that you have tried to imitate your reference image too closely for the assets you have. Principally it's a matter of scale.

Start with the windows. The ratio of wall to window on the reference image is much smaller than in yours. Your windows are tiny. It would probably be easier to make the buildings smaller so that all your assets are in proportion.

Next, if you look at where you have been trying to create crenellations you will see that you have ended up with weird looking lines where the autotile function has taken over. This also happens when you try having a wall a couple of tiles forward of another one. To fix that you need to use shift+click mapping. You can find a tutorial here. Don't be put off by the fact that it was made for VX Ace; the method is the same for all engines.

The other big thing is the roof and crennelations. It is very difficult to do this the way you've been trying. You end up with a lumpy roof which works (only sort of, imo) in the reference image, but with RM assets it becomes even more difficult. It is not difficult to have slanted roofs, so that you could have the overall shape. Candacis, somewhere on her thread, has a wide selection for you to use. I'll see if I can find it for you after posting this.
[EDIT You will find her thread here. It's in the first post, in a spoiler called Roofs. It seems she even includes a tutorial in the zip file.]

However, that doesn't solve the problem of what to do with the brickwork. Many real buildings which have this feature just have ordinary slanted roofs. You could have something like this example where the stone work is trying to give a vague impression of the sort of building you've been trying to make. Be warned, there's actually quite a lot of work involved in doing something like this.



A more common approach is simply to take your wall up higher than you need, using your autotile, and put the roof on top using tiles from one of your B-E sheets. This is what I did here.



Then there is the question of how to join the slanted roof to the main roof. Candacis' tiles do that for you. Even if you don't use them, looking at them will show you how to do that.

My takes:
1. Looking at it, my first gut instinct is the structure is way too tall. Personally I would shave 1-2 rows off the walls and make it a little squatter.
2. the windows are a bit too small compared to the doorways. They look like little portholes in comparison. Some sprite edits to stretch them out a little would help fill space a bit.
3. I think the roof ends ending with a flat corner is very strange looking, but to fix it you'd have to sprite edit some new sprites to give them a proper Gable or Stone edge like what the reference has. Kes gave much better advice on that than I ever could.

@Ms Littlefish
For the first few seconds, I thought my post had been deleted. Excuse me for thinking bad of you :blush:

@Kes
Thank you very much for the detailed answer. I thought that my main problem was my perfectionism and desire to transfer the image from 3d to 2d exactly, texture to texture, but now it seems to me quite an achievable goal. However, I'm still not sure which is better, modifying the default textures, or copying them from minecraft and making a tileset out of them. I already tried to implement the second option, but in the end I came to the conclusion that it was too much work. Although I could try to cope with such a volume of work, but the intermediate results did not suit me, since the geometry and the play of light and shadow could not be compared with the standard rpgmaker textures. I will definitely study the material you recommended. Thanks again!

@Deathless_Koschei Nah, no worries. It's legit kinda weird finding your "purgatory" posts on this forum software when they were in the queue initially. :)

Just keep in mind a lot of the RTP is built with the characters being around one tile tall in mind by default, while Minecraft the characters are two blocks tall. So proportions on things are gonna be a bit off without editing.

Thanks. I saw some rpgmaker games with 2-tiles height characters, so i tough i can figure something out by using scripts. But you are right, if i keep going this way, i'll have to modify textures anyway.

@Deathless_Koschei Something to bear in mind - if you rip tiles from Minecraft you won't be able to post your maps here because this site does not allow piracy. Also unless every single tile and object comes from there, the difference in style etc. will be glaringly obvious.

I use taller characters and I would not have buildings of that sort of proportion. You mention scripts to solve the tileing problems that might come with that. Scripts won't help you, it has to be done in your mapping. What is important is the height of your doors. I personally think even with the chibi sprites one tile high doors look weird because they always clip the top of the sprite's head. Two tile high doors work better., and once they are done it gets easier to see how other things fit in. Avery has an excellent tutorial on making doors. You can find it here. She also has a great many mapping tutorials. This thread lists them.

Hello, I'm new here and I would like to share my new tileset with you

Would anyone be interested in a tutorial for a simple parallax map like this? I have already recorded the video but my voice in English is really bad so I probably will have to find someone to do the narration for me. But if there aren't any then I will just upload a timelapse then.

mehh

@superkoopa at a glance, I like the bottom pic with warmer tones better! :wub

Here's some random shots from the Cube Trail, another of my upcoming projects (I need to do some major rebalancing, then I can release a demo, I swear!)