Game & Map Screenshots 7

That's because it is incomplete. I don't know how many times I have to say, "WIP" >.< some things can't be finished in a matter of hours.

 

@BloodletterQ She did say it was a WIP right under the screenie  

@noctiluca I don't know if this helps lighten your workload and it might just be me, but if I were playing your game I probably wouldn't notice or care (too much) that each of your trees were unique. 
I'm interested in seeing the other colors or shading since a lot the green is kind of mushing together for me haha. I love seeing painted maps, but I have no patience for them so I have to stalk and watch others. lollll

 

Yeah, the green is getting to me, too. It looks a little better when it's cropped to the screen size, but in a full view of the map it's overwhelming me. I want to add some colorful flower patches, and break up the green/brown with some gray stones. Maybe even go over some of the tree leaves in a slightly different shade for some more variation (but the colors of everything change based on the season, so I can't overdo it).

The unique tree thing was a lack of foresight on my part. I drew 6 trees, made them into a brush... it works really nicely, but I'm going to have to go back and remake it with silhouettes instead of outlines for the next maps (all my shading and coloring is done via gradient maps, so filling in with black is a required first step anyway). And yeah, considering how many there are, no one would notice that they're all "unique". It took 2-3 hours just to go and fill all of them in :/

After talking with a friend about it I might have to move the river down a little further to fix the optical dissonance with the elevation stuff I was having trouble with. This is part of the reason why I always hated the top-down view, but when working with perspectiveless 2d, the brain usually associates down=south=lower elevation. But when I visualize things in my head, I think in 3d (so in my imagination, the right side of the map looks like this. but that is a world that only exists in my head.) Other similar problem is how in 2d all buildings have to face the same direction. It makes interesting design a real challenge.

 

Thanks, its just a map render though so npc's birds and stuff are not showing.

 

I am not getting very far with my game at all. I have no time to spend on it, I get home from work completely shattered and I don't really have weekends.


I'm torn now between graphics styles. Using high res graphics would allow me to reuse a lot of the assets from old Afar, and it looks better as the text can be high res without clashing with the rest of the game.


This is what I was going to have:





This is what I am thinking at the moment:





And this is Old Afar:





I really haven't got very far at all.

 

@AmyPond:

I like the first style most. The other two artstyles are great, too, and you can create very beautiful maps with them, but that's difficult and more time-consuming if you want to create a lot of maps.

Time Fantasy is a lovely set and the tiles are cleverly designed and imho somewhat easier to use. Also creating custom resources might be easier in Time Fantasys style.

 

@AmyPond I'm more fond of the first style, the color palette looks more interesting, using purple to shade instead of pure black. I think it would be hard to achieve an HD look with pixel art mapping, every asset should be done with the same level of detail and it has to be consistent. For example, the scale between that house and the castle is definitely off in comparison to the grass tiles.

At this time and age, there are no limitations, so there's no need to keep all your palettes reduced to 32bits or having all the fonts without anti-aliasing. Personally, I don't think it looks bad to have anti-aliased fonts like the one in the upper-right corner of the first screenshot.

 

Which looks better?





The latter one has the status bar stretched across the whole screen, rather than shifting back and forth with the command windows. It gives more room to display stuff—Overcast is labelled (and the text changes colours when full!) and space for two more states—but then the battle command window covers the state icons. (I considered having the command window appear above the status window or at the top of the screen, but that would take a lot more fiddling than what I've done so far.)

 

@lily I'm not sure what the function of Overcast is, so bear that in mind, but just from looking at both and which one I like better, I like the first one.  

 

@lilywhite As it is, 1 looks better definitely, but if you're fond of 2, you might consider using this script, it makes status icons scroll horizontally, so you can see more of them, I don't know how compatible with your custom windows it'll be though.

 

I prefer the first one too, but maybe add the overcast bar changing colour when it's full on that one too? Would definitely make it easier to tell if it's full or not.

 

Well, how often would characters have that many status effects applied? What is the significance of overcast? It kinda bugs me when there's something obscured by another window, so...

If overcast is really important, I think a possible compromise would have the second one but only have 1-2 icons visible, and have the status effects icons scroll/switch or something when there are so many applied at once. but that's extra work and it could potentially look busy.

At a first glance I slightly prefer the first one since it is more compact and easier to read.

 

@lilyWhite the first one

 

good job! 

 

Whoa, thank you very, very much! It is actually my birthday and getting exposition on my project is the best gift I could ever have! Thank youuuu!

 

@Lily. #1 is less cluttered. Less is more in this case.

 

@AmyPond I actually like the first tileset better too. I think it's because it looks a little more stylistic and less literal, idk.

@lilyWhite The first one is easier for me to digest all the information so I'll put my vote in for that one. Side note, when I read "overcast" I immediately thought about the weather and that it was somehow a status ailment. XD

@Bura your tumblr needs more stuff on it. I LOVE that pixel art style in your latest screencap! <3

Umm... I made a thing?

Exterior bare-bones maps (I'm missing all the props and foliage) of the starting area for my new project. Two close ups (day/night) and then a full shot of the whole map... which I realize is huge and I will prolly crop it several more times but it works for now. o3o/ (under the cut cuz they're huge.... ehehe...)

Spoiler

 

^ an isometric game! Yay! Now that it's easier to make them in MV I've wanted to see more isometric maps.

I would've done it myself for my current project, but it would make the controls too difficult to work with to be worth it. Someday though.



I switched to the fall palette because it's so much easier to look at. Details are slowly starting to come together ^_^ And so is a creepy goblin face in the rock. That wasn't intentional, but it's interesting how that happens. I kind of want to keep it just because it's so weird. The water won't be that fluorescent blue when it's finished, though. I know this would probably cause too much lag, but I wonder how pixi's displacement filters could be used to make the water look animated...

 

Been working on my first world map today, not finished yet but I'm looking for some feedback

 

@noctiluca:


The new colours look very pretty! I'd keep that palette. Though the shape of the rocks - which side they face, where high ground is and things like that - I can't make it out. On the last screenshot, is the green spot to the left the top of a hill? Then what is the rest of the brown area? A canyon?
 


Well, you are probably going to add more details, so it'll be clearer.


@bigcalsworld:


Most parts of the world map still look empty and not particular interesting. At the moment it looks like the player could go almost everywhere. Usually world maps are seperated in different regions that can only be entered upon progressing in the story, unlocking new areas for exploring. These regions are seperated by natural borders, like rivers or mountains and are often traversed by caves.


Here's Seiken Densetsu's world map as an example:

Spoiler