Game & Map Screenshots 12

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Started by slimmmeiske2 1772 posts Page 8 of 89 View original ↗
  1. Greetings! I'm polishing up my game, but have relatively little mapping experience. I was wondering if anyone here would be able to offer pointers on how to make outside maps look more natural? I can feel that some things are "off", but can't quite identify why exactly.

    The first two maps are well-traveled wilderness connections between a foresty area and a more hillsy/dry one, the others are the outskirts of various towns.

    Any thoughts or advice would be super appreciated :kaoswt2:

    Mineralis+ maps
    field-kospistan-2.pngfield-kospistan-3.pngfield-droton-1-large.pngtown-cantania-2-2.png
    town-droton-2-2.png
  2. Haven't mapped in ages and this took me longer than I'd like to, but hey. At least I can still map with bad vision :p already fixed the missing tree shadow. It tends to stutter at the end because my pc suddenly threw a pop-up at me in the background (thank you, epic game launcher... sigh).

    [embedded media]
  3. @mmKALLL I'll just comment about the first map, as that has a number of issues common to the others.

    You seem to have mixed up the different terrains in a not very logical way. If the ground is soft enough and rich enough to have those strong earthy patches, it is unlikely also to have patches which look sandy. Given the general lushness, the sandy (desert?) patches look out of place. I would stick to earth patches. Your cliffs are brown, but suddenly there's a patch of grey rock under the camp fire. As a general rule, try not to mix lots of different terrains in a smallish area unless you have a very good reason for it.

    That lower bridge has no logic to it at all. It looks as if you have to walk over your crops to get from one side to the other. Why would anyone plant crops like that? You can't weed them without either running to the upper bridge, cross over, run down again to get the crops on the other side - still leaving you to walk over them to get to the crops in the middle. Maps cannot be ultra realistic, but they do have to have a reasonable degree of plausibility. I'd put the crops somewhere else. A useful thing to do with all maps is to ask yourself : " Why is it like this?" Maps tell a story without words, so what story do I want it to tell the player and what story is it actually telling?

    Your hills are not that high, (scarcely taller than your tent) so it is unlikely that you are going to move straight to desert, complete with dried up grass and cacti. This is especially the case where you have a broad river gushing down - that would naturally irrigate the ground. I'd have the tops mostly grass.

    It is, I think, very difficult to mix autotile trees and more naturalistic trees and shrubs on the same map.

    You have a broad river moving at some speed as it comes down from the hills, which suddenly narrows to a single tile width and is shallow enough to have what look like stepping stones to get across. This fails the plausibility test.

    What the map lacks is coherence. It feels like a lot of elements have been jumbled together in order to give it "variety". Things don't seem like they fit together in any obvious way.

    Don't be discouraged if you haven't yet got the feel of how a map should go. This only comes with a lot of practice, and studying how other people do things. Try and work out specifically why something looks good, not just why something doesn't work.
  4. Made the second floor of this palace area! Just wanted to share it with you all :kaojoy:
    Map002_copy.png
  5. @spillycat I like it. Especially the fact that you do not have to change map for going trough a door ^^
  6. @BCj, wooow, looks super natural, balanced, harmonious, etc. etc.! :kaoluv:So cosy! Water animation looks a bit aggressive, but that's probs a tileset issue? Also, from a defender's perspective, I'd cut down those trees next to the wall pronto, don't want scallywags sneakin' up on me wall! :biggrin:

    @spillycat, gorgeous palace, honey! :wub So airy, so rococo! The right end of the corridor looks a bit cramped tho? If I were the architect, I'd put a bigger space there, maybe an oriel?
  7. Yeah the water does move a bit fast, but it's a tileset thing. I'll have to see if I can edit that.
  8. I'm looking to get back into doing RPG Maker stuff, specifically mapping because it's the one part of RPG Maker that I enjoy the most. I would very much like to improve at it as I look to actually start a full project in it.

    I want to work on the areas that I feel like I'm already decent in before I get into the stuff I'm god awful at like houses.......

    Anyways, any feedback is appreciated!

    Spoiler
    Map004.png

    Edit: Attempted to fix the spoiler tags
  9. Map099.png
    @Ninjypuppy I quickly made a map of a similat location to show you some things you might want to reconsider:
    The river itself is nice, but you might want to add something to cross it, especially since there are stairs and paths around on both sides, but no bridge or so.

    It is good that you have multiple layers, but you can break up the wall a little by adding some extra "steps". This will fill more of the map and also look more natural.
    As that leavy extra grass has a very strong texture I'd break it up and scatter it more, too.
    Personally, I'd go with the normal path, but that is preference I guess.
    Also I'd try to highlight the depth of the map by having some objects behind other objects, like trees behind other trees and so on.
    Since there are mountains, I'd add rocks and pebbles to the clutter, as they are likely to lay around in such an area

    Maybe my example and the explaination can help you a little, you can find more infos on mapping in my blog tutorial(s) as well:
    Tips and Tricks: Mapping Cliffs | The Official RPG Maker Blog Mapping Forests | The Official RPG Maker Blog
  10. @Avery

    Very much appreciated! I did have a way to cross just nothing too visual. Just a simple jump event but I will definitely look to redo some stuff and see how it turns out. Thanks for the feedback!
  11. I think I've completed my second set of town tiles. This time I was doing patterned roofs with simple buildings, rather than the other way round as I did for the first set. Nightmare. Not only trying to get everything tiling seamlessly, but also because I discovered that MZ has problems rendering some tiles in the editor. At first I thought I'd totally messed up, but then saw that in game everything was as I expected it to be. In the map shot (in a spoiler, as it's big) ignore the 'cracks' in the wall towers, they are not there really. Nor are the strange mortor joints in the town wall - too heavy between some stones, non-eixistent between others.

    This town is the administrative centre for the region. The High Council meets in the building top left. Most people work there.

    Silverley town.
    Silverley.png

    To give a better idea of what things look like, here is a screenshot. Doors are temporary until I decide what I want to put there.

    screenie 01.png

    At the moment there are no NPCs, as I've not yet done the sprites.
    Any feedback would be welcome.
  12. I like the roofs! But the walls/windows seem a bit pale compared to the roofs and the floor.

    Edit: the tint washes them out.
  13. @BCj Thank you for that. You are right.
    With a lot of juggling, as some of the houses I made into presets so that I could reuse those portions easily, I've darkened the walls a bit. I didn't want to make them too dark, but am unsure if I have made a big enough difference.

    Here is a screenshot where the left side is the original and the right is now the slightly darkened version. What do you think? Sorry it's a bit blurry, but I was doing the shot at speed and so used the snipping tool, not so good as real screen shots.
    screenie 02.png
  14. Right looks better to me, it "pops out" more.
  15. @BCj Great. Thanks.
  16. Working on a small open world no-battle adventure. You are a young sorcerer who must pass your final exam. The game has different quests, NPCs and many secrets.
    Using map item
    Screenshot_1.png
    School
    Screenshot_2.png
    Abandoned house outside
    Screenshot_3.png
    Abandoned house inside
    Screenshot_4.png
  17. Not really showing off, but I'm just interested in seeing which characters look best with these tilesets. Please pardon our old friend Alex for testing purposes.
    1655186527716.png
    1655186610478.png
  18. @BloodletterQ, lower is def better, honey! :kaoluv:Upper picture just looks like poor bloke's been hit by a shrinkin' ray! Trees look mighty small either way tho? Can ya make 'em maybe three tiles tall?
  19. Remade the cave tiles (and cliffs in general) to look more original. Took a lot less time with the practice I got from the previous ones.
    cavescreen02.jpg
  20. @Weremole That looks much better. I do have one suggestion but I'm unsure if it's in keeping with the aesthetic you're aiming for. However, here goes. Might it be an idea if the tile immediately in front of the cave exit showed some of the light from outside falling on it? It seems odd that no external light falls into the cave.