Game & Map Screenshots 7

[Tsukihime]

Having some trouble putting together side-scroller maps using stock tiles.


It just looks *really* flat.


Any ideas on how it might be improved?

 

[Ultimak0]

thanks @necro, better? i think so.

 

[Kes]

@UltimakO

Better, but I think you might want to consider how to use screen tints as well.  At the moment I find the colours of the trees startlingly bright.  A long time ago I posted a map I was working on (only got the WIP, not the finished version) which was using autumn colours.  I put both the editor version and the in-game screen shot version to show the difference use of tinting can make.  It also shows a different way of tackling the question of the grass colour.  You might find it gives you a few ideas.  It can be found here.

 

[Ultimak0]

@ksjp17 i see what you mean, looks great with the tint, i'll have a look into that, great map btw. thanks.

 

[Kenen]

Experimenting a bit with enemy state icon placement.

By default, you can only see one icon at a time, and icons display for each troop member at all times. By incorporating them with Yanfly's enemy HP gauge, you can see lots of icons, as well as easily control their visibility.


Edit: fixed url.

 

[Sated]

@Tsukihime: The stock tiles aren't supposed to be used like that. It makes sense that they wouldn't look right. You'll probably have to make some edits to get them looking just right.

 

[Kaus]

Another update to my animated HUD Battle Screens. 

-Considered some suggestions here

-The Fight Escape being slight visible when not selected.

-Turn Indicator Fixed.

-made the stars trail slower.

(read youtube description for the others)

Im open to suggestions and constructive criticisms ^_^ 

 

[symmetry-evans]

Having some trouble putting together side-scroller maps using stock tiles.

It just looks *really* flat.

Any ideas on how it might be improved?

Is this maybe what you're thinking??

 

[DarknessFalls]

@symmetry-evans Your maps look like they belong in a 2d side scrolling world, the look cool.

So, I have finally, after a month finished it the Massive Map a lot of you have seen me talk about. I talk way more in depth about in the post, but, 3200 photoshop layers (separated by sections of the map), tested passibility, tested, pretty much everything. Hidden treasures, hidden path ways that are not so obvious at first. The water depths on this map are not the same as the water depths in the actual game, you'll notice this with a log and skeleton in the water as a possible "issue", its not.

Spoiler

This is the only large map I will every do for this game, at least of this scale. its 75 x 125. its detailed, its beautiful and its playable and you spend a CRAP ton of time here. Enjoy the eye candy  

Started on November 14th, and finished on December 15th.

 

[Ronove]

@Darkness: Those roofs aren't beautiful.

Edit:

Your map doesn't look very engaging. There are many boring bits which I feel you could have just split the map up into smaller maps to avoid them 'cause what player is going to return to those empty bits over and over again? They'll just be slightly peeved they have to transverse from the top to the bottom should you have a quest doing that. It's a large map for sure and I'm sure you have lots of plans for it, but I don't see a reason it needs to be that large especially since you have not utilized all the space. What about nooks and crannies for secret areas? I don't think large maps work in graphics like these. There's not much you can do to make it interesting. I think smaller maps are the way to go because then you have more focus and can do more in smaller spaces than you can in large. I don't know if it will lag once you have all the events and the like there, but I'd be wary about that.

 

[DarknessFalls]

Hahahaha I know but that's ok.

Lots of things aren't beautiful. Thanks for the feed back looking forward to more in the future

 

[Tsukihime]

Is this maybe what you're thinking??

Spoiler

The second one would be closer to what I would like to go for, assuming they can only walk in the middle of the stone path.


In my design, you pretty much walk in a straight line. The map itself would be linear, rather than being a 2D surface where you could move straight, backwards, left or right, and jump up or fall down.


A simple example would be something like this:

Spoiler

But it doesn't have to be that simplistic.


With better layering, you could make it look like this without sacrificing the basic mechanics.

Same idea, except with a different look.


Or this

Which is visually more complex, but the mechanics are pretty much the same as that mario one up there.

 

[Ronove]

@Darkness: Maybe I should have explained why they weren't beautiful. Roofs don't work like that. Nor do some of the buildings for that matter (looking at you, greyish roofed building in a staircase shape). The blue item shop near the top would work better if you had some slanted roofs but isn't as offensive as the bottom grey roofed building. But hey, your game, your building rules I suppose.

 

[DarknessFalls]

@Darkness: Maybe I should have explained why they weren't beautiful. Roofs don't work like that. Nor do some of the buildings for that matter (looking at you, greyish roofed building in a staircase shape). The blue item shop near the top would work better if you had some slanted roofs but isn't as offensive as the bottom grey roofed building. But hey, your game, your building rules I suppose.

Thank you. I appreciate the feed back This will help greatly.

 

[Kes]

@Darkness Falls

I agree about the buildings. No one in their right minds would construct buildings that shape. You have also done a number of roofs incorrectly. If this had been done in the editor, people would be telling you to learn how to do shift-click mapping.

Could I suggest you also look at the way you have placed some of those trees. Proximity to houses is a bit weird in places. You have cut off the left edges of a number of them where they abut a cliff, but as we are looking straight atthem, those edges would not be cut off. That only happens when part of the tree is behind the cliff/house/whatever. It does not happen against straight line cliffs or walls. You are messing up any sense of perspective doing that. In addition some of the groupings of trees are so unlikelu that the player is probably going to assume they are errors, rather than an aaesthetic choice, e.g. there' a group up on a ledge with a river/stream which is just a physical impossibility.

I have to agree with Ronove, I think many players will find that quite a boring map to walk around in, for the reasons given.

 

[DarknessFalls]

Thank you, I appreciate the feed back. This is going to help me with the changes you all suggested

I look forward to any more feedback.

I see your point about he houses and the roofs and the trees.

 

[Kes]

More specifically on tree placement, look, for example, at the larger Inn near the top of the map. All those trees tightly packed around it, especially at the back, would cut out any natural light. Try to imagine getting your building materials in and the construction work done while leaving those trees intact. Nope, they would have been removed. Now, I know perfectly well that in a game we are not aiming for perfect realism, but I think on aspects like this a certain plausibility is required.

 

[DarknessFalls]

That is completely true thank you.

You're feedback has helped me realize how more real the map should be, fantasy or not

 

[symmetry-evans]

@Tsukihime I completely understand what you are talking about, but you won't be able to do that with RTP unless you do it the way I suggested. I don't really see a problem with them being able to move 2 spaces up and 2 spaces down instead of merely side-to-side, but if you are totally against it, then you are definitely going to have to draw a whole new tileset! And you'll also need to figure out how to make "jump" and "duck" commands for your characters.

@DarknessFalls I like the playground and the camp. I do agree that the map could be broken down into smaller maps. If you create simple events on the edges of smaller maps, then moving between small maps won't feel much different than moving around a larger map. The benefits to you would be that you can edit individual small maps instead of having to edit your giant map. My question is, why did you need 3,200 layers to make this map? I think for the most part it could have been made using the editor and events.

 

[Iavra]

Experimenting a bit with enemy state icon placement.


(snip)


By default, you can only see one icon at a time, and icons display for each troop member at all times. By incorporating them with Yanfly's enemy HP gauge, you can see lots of icons, as well as easily control their visibility.


Edit: fixed url.

I'm not an arts person, but i really like the simple style of the battle HUD and the color coded icons. May i ask where you got the windowskin and the icons from? If those are comissioned or M+ only, that's fine (hint: Please make Member+ payable without a credit card )