Game & Map Screenshots 12

@Madelinj
I think something else that would help would be for you to look at how you're doing your cliffs. Just going straight up is not interesting. Instead, think of putting in a little plateau from time to time.
Here is a screenshot from an old game of mine. You can see how the occasional half cliff breaks up the monotony. I've had to reduce it in size, but if you look at the bit by the first log and tree stump you can see what I mean. It also makes changing heights for the player much easier as you can see if you look towards the top..

This is an old thing I was working on in RMXP. It was much less like an RPG and more like a weird little exploring game with different cities and neighborhoods and stuff. (Basically all of my RMXP projects utilize FPLE and Mode7 extensively.)

Here are some maps I made for another mini OC game
Cute is the top theme >w<

@SnowHermit Looking very nice and I love that last image of the bedroom!

Coastal village. About 95% done I reckon. I know the galleon shadows don't match the rest of the map, because that was built as a separate asset. It needs a few bits and bats adding and a couple of tweaks but meh...

@Lomaxient That's a nice looking map. I do, however, have a query about it. It's most clearly seen with this building:


That building cannot have a back half because it is slam up against the cliff face. The only shape it can have is a wall down from the ridge of the roof, leaving just a front room.

The simplest solution that I can think of is to move the cliff face back a tile, something like this:


The other buildings will have a back half, with the back wall flush up against the cliff, but I think you can get away with it. It would, however, be something to bear in mind for future maps.

Thanks for the input, but I actually disagree with this. The back facing slope of the roof is actually already accounted for. The peak of the roof is ever so slightly lower than than the top of that tile, and peeking out above you can just make out rear facing slope. This is more obvious on the weapon shop where the sides of the roof are also slanted and the form of the roof is more apparent.

I think more than anything it's just a little bit difficult to read it, especially because the hay roofs sort of blend in with the grass, the sides aren't tapered and the central peak isn't sharp.

Also love the map @Lomaxient, but have another problem with it, the train station. There is no way to turn around for that train on suhc a small station and there's no more railways from the other side of the station, so it looks weird in this situation.For obvious reasons you can't lead the tracks to the right, so maybe make it look visually as if the tracks continued up into the cave above?

Part of the opening. Let me know if it’s too intense.

Excellent point, one that I have considered myself. I think to resolve this problem I shall add turntables on the interior for the terminating stations. Obviously the internals of each building will be unnaturally larger than the externals to accommodate. I might make the external station slightly bigger too. There's a bit of wiggle room in that regard.

Not at all too intense for my taste. You get a like just for the slaps. Haha!

Love it! Can you tell what tileset is this?

@BloodletterQ By the end of the sequence I had had more than enough of the typing sound. I wonder if the music might be better slightly quieter? At the moment, it comes across to me as more melodramatic than it needs to be.

Although I was following very carefully, the lack of any direct indication of who is speaking left a couple of ambiguous points.

@BloodletterQ I cranked up my volume because I didn't hear anything at first and got a nice startle from the music, lol. Agree with Kes's points.

Good points, Kes. Can lower the volume and maybe soften the voice sfx in Audacity after work.

Tilesets are by Garakuta and characters are Time Elements if anybody asks.

Music is from a Takayuki Amanuma pack. I hesitate to find another composer and keep the tracks because the different samples used would be jarring.

Also the theme for the Dominion is too militaristic and knowing what happened in the woods affects the main character badly and plays in some of his nightmares.

I’m also curious about how dark the implications of this scene might be.

@BloodletterQ I think the implications are fairly dark. It seems to me like she's being dragged off to be subject to some kind of invasive black magic ritual. I would say that I feel the scene would be more powerful if the dialogue were a bit more concise.

I would wager that the samples used in the music are pretty close to stuff you could rip from SNES games and the like (if you were talking about hiring a composer for something original).

Anyways, just wanted to run by my adjusted volume.

Text boxes are over the speaking character, so I'm not sure if I should also include name boxes just for clarity as Kes suggested.

@BloodletterQ Zombie will shamble into the discussion. Just watched the most recent video. My laptop volume was on 20 and I had to turn it down to 10 and it was still plenty loud. Not sure what that means since I usually play with the sound almost completely or totally off.

I can tell who is speaking with the placement of the dialog boxes. Names, however, reinforce the identify of speakers, if that is important, and gives players a constant reminder to help them remember. Again, if that is important.

Just so you know, this little tip has massively influenced the design of the wasteland maps I'm currently working on. It really triggered a light bulb for me. Seems so obvious when you spell it out.

@Lomaxient I'm glad you found the suggestion useful.

This is supposed to be my main menu. Do you find the menu appealing? I look forward to feedback