Game & Map Screenshots 4

[cabfe]

Yes, it's less blue and looks better now.

I've also reduced the shadow of the balcony by a 1/2 tile shadow, just above the statue's heads. That was a little too much before.

 

[Mr. Detective]

This is really weird. I've had this map for over a year and didn't notice anything until today. For some reason, it feels kinda dark to me, which is unusual.

This is how it looks like with a higher tint (13, 13, 13, 13).

Do you guys feel anything strange or unusual in both screenshots for a daylight map?

 

[monkeyintartan]

This is a screenshot of 6 maps pieced together in photoshop.

Do you think I should keep it as 6 maps in game or combine them all to look like the picture and remove the transfer player events so that the player walks under the tree line between areas??

 

[William MC]

Some suggestions here would be nice. I'm trying to make it look as if my ninja character gets down into this hole on the first map to be spying on the baddie in the basement level shown in the second map. But I have him climb up and down this rope to enter and exit the scene. (The idea being that a rope shows that some sort of expertise was used in getting to such a point.

I added the vines as an alternative idea of how he could get in but I don't like that as it feels too easy for a ninja to just use a premade way of sneaking in. I thought of using events to make a rope graphic hang from the rock down into the pit, but I'm worried about how to make that natural looking to the player once he descends, aka I want the rope to seem as if it came from higher up.

Please any ideas on how to make these two maps feel connected via the pit?

 

[Engr. Adiktuzmiko]

IMHO, the vines looks a bit out of place, if you wanna pursue the vine, better put additional vines or those green moss like thingies... I do like it better than the rope...


if ur going for the rope, I think you should make it have that fading too at the top part

 

[C-C-C-Cashmere (old)]

@Monkeyintartan It'd be pretty cool if you could combine all the maps. Keep the original small maps, and create a large one with them all combined. See if it lags or not. If it doesn't, then test both of them and see which one feels better for you. It's all about how it feels. Because large maps have this bonus of the feel of exploration, and the largeness of the map. Whereas with small maps, you can compartmentalize them into different views, and people might be genuinely surprised at what they see on the next screen. For example, the lily-jumping puzzle may or may not serve better as a separate map. Then again, see how it fares in testing it as a combined map, and then compare the two. Because it's all about how it looks in-game, not on paper.


@Mr_Detective The tint didn't really change much for me, but it does look like a fantastic map. If I was to pick one, I would pick the lighter one.


@cabfe Looking great. By convention, most carpets should be either completely rectangle, or fit to all the edges of a room. Is the balcony supposed to be hovering above the rooms? Because I just tried to connect them with my mind. It seems weird that a balcony of that size would be floating without support. Even if there's columns underneath, I can't see them, so my brain thinks it's impossible.

 

[monkeyintartan]

@ William Mc if you make the top of the wall that the ninja climbs the rope down from thicker ( so add extra black at the top) then have the rope fade at the top and the bottom. What you could do to make it look a big more skillfull is have him climb down the rope at the right side then using eventing make him hop from window to window as if he was climbing across them.  

 

[mlogan]

@Mr. Detective - I think the first one looks just fine, and believe me, I am the first to blast a too-dark map. The second actually looks a bit washed out to me. Maybe it's your monitor that is making the difference - a setting accidentally got changed or it's starting to go out?

 

[cabfe]

@Mr. Detective:

The first one looks great already. It's a standard daylight. The second one is more like a sunny summer light. How's the rest of the maps? Is the time/day allowing it to be so bright?

@monkeyintartan:

I don't mind smaller maps, especially if you have random encounters. Changing map resets the counter for the enemies, allowing more time to explore

But they seem to be a little too dark. I'd need to see in game to be sure though.

@William MC:

The way the rope is tied on the second screen, it looks like the ninja came from below/is going down. Shouldn't the knot be higher?

@CashmereCat:

Are you talking about the balcony from my first attempt or the last one following mlogan's advice?

 

[C-C-C-Cashmere (old)]

@cabfe Oh. I didn't see your amended version. But now I think that the stairs should be one tile longer to fit with the elevation of the rest of it. Also I like the old version with the three carpets rather than the version that mlogan suggested. That or make the hallway in mlogan's suggestion wider, because two just seems too small. Also I don't like it when carpets go behind walls like that. Just a personal preference. Unless you can walk behind that, I don't want to be a part of it.


Edit:

Me making the in-game puzzle console for Lexical Node. Try to figure out what it all means. Hint: It's a spoiler.

 

[Soliah]

@Mr. Detective

I'd prefer the darker one, seems it has more contrast.

@monkeyintartan

I think this map is just well designed, but as a player I don't like to load a new map every few steps: I would regroup them.

You made a mistake at the bridge in the upper right, you let the cliff border. Also a transition which is not correct under the two water statues.

And finally, some statues don't seem to fit there. Why are they alone? A "human"-construct should always be in some logical place.

There, my first map for you! The entrance of one of my temple, lost in a deep forest.

I didn't had all the overlays that may be needed to achieve the correct effect, it's just the raw map.

I don't know if the overwhelming number of trees is a mistake or not.

 

[cabfe]

@CashmereCat:

Make the stairs one tile longer, toward the bottom? Wouldn't that make it odd to have stairs starting inside the corridor?

Oh, and yes, you can walk behind the walls so there's no problem here.

I've widen the corridor to accommodate the 3-tiles wide carpet.

@Soliah:

Nice looking forest and an interesting way of letting the waterfall disappear!
By the way, is there a reason why all the flowers are blue?

 

[C-C-C-Cashmere (old)]

@cabfe I don't think it'd look terrible if the stairway went one tile into the hallway, especially now that you've widened it. It's just that right now, the stairs look like they're on a 60 degree angle to the floor. They look too steep to climb! That or it's an optical illusion. Because the stairs are almost as tall as the wall, and they don't stick out as far as they should if they were on the 45 degree incline. Also, I feel like that shadow below the balcony should extend all the way on top of those statues. Since the balcony ends right on top of the statues, right?


Otherwise I really like the concept. It's actually looking kind of like Ib.

 

[Ksi]

Nah, it's the way the steps are made. A friend and I hashed it out recently using diagrams and we both came to the same conclusion. The steps have to be at a 45* angle or they wouldn't look as they do or fit together so easily. That means that there should only be as many high as there are walls, even if it looks a little odd to some people. The big issue is in the sprite representation. It's weirdly done so that the steps and their overshadow is the same height, thus marking the steps as said 45*. This would make the wall like so:

 |\

 |  \

I know, steep, but if you had it like so:

|\

|  \

     \

Then the 45* angle wouldn't work. And you can't just say 'oh but it's at a smaller decline' because then the stairs wouldn't be evenly distributed and fit together from the side as they'd have to to make that angle and keep the same amount of steps per tile. (Also, being able to walk up it from the side when it's supposed to be as high as a wall? Weird~ It's weird but that's how it was made so... basically you'd be better doing ramp stairs on the side instead, but that requires editing/custom so...

It's fine as it stands. Matter of taste, and in this case it's passable.

 

[C-C-C-Cashmere (old)]

Ah, right. After thinking about it that way, you're right. Interesting.


Maybe it's just an illusion caused by the shadow not being over the statues, though. If the shadow was over the statues, then it'll probably look more realistic.

 

[cabfe]

One more tile for the stairs goes like this:

Spoiler

(There will be shadows over the statues but right now I'm only editing inside the maker. 2nd pass for parallax is for later, when it's final).

 

[C-C-C-Cashmere (old)]

To be honest, for me, the one more tile looks better even if it's physically impossible. It looks like it's more natural. I think half a tile would be optimal though. But I am being wayyyy too picky.

 

[William MC]

Thanks guys for the feedback, I have an idea how to improve it and I'll post a pic of the fixed map soon.

@ William Mc if you make the top of the wall that the ninja climbs the rope down from thicker ( so add extra black at the top) then have the rope fade at the top and the bottom. What you could do to make it look a big more skillfull is have him climb down the rope at the right side then using eventing make him hop from window to window as if he was climbing across them.

That sounds like a great idea! Thanks for taking into consideration my desire to show the ninja as skillful. I'll do my best to make that jumping idea work because I really like that.

Thanks everyone for the idea of fading the rope at the top too, I'll do that.

 

[Soliah]

Yup, I even consider making them purple, it's story related.

@cabfe

Stairs are a real pain in... If you look at the top half of them, they look like they go closer to us from the upstairs. If you look only the bottom half, they look like they go away from us from the bottom of the wall. Problem is: the bottom of the wall and the upstairs are on the same line, so I agree with Cashmere.

 

[Euphony]

Assuming that every tile in a map is always a 32x32 square regardless of which direction you face, a staircase like that should actually be two tiles longer than the wall it's against. Imagine you're standing in the map and looking at the staircase from the side, and it becomes much easier to figure out.

One tile longer than the wall looks fine, though. Much better than the first screenshot, in which the staircase is, well...a wall. xD