Game & Map Screenshots 9

[Cranky Construct]

I still need to work in shadows later, but I finished making the assets for this area for the most part. Based the wall tileset off of how FF6's looked with the various brick depths you could find in Figaro Castle and other areas.

Spoiler: Demon Palace - Throne Room

 

[somenick]

OK, here I will upload two screenshots. I show them together because they are adjacent locations in the game's scifi world.

Image A



Image B - I reworked (am reworking?) the cave area and its textures / tilesets

 

[Solwern]

@somenick Both of them look rather bad and bland.
*- indicates not too important but should be considered

Image A
1) Too many repeated tiles for the outside walls
2) The brown house on the left doesn't showcase the wall thickness making it look 2D and 'fake'
3) The brown houses have too many repeated wall tiles/the tiles look like they were just copy-pasta'd
4) 2-tile doors, 1-tile characters
5) What is the black thing beneath the windows? It looks too intentional if it is a shadow
6*) The windows can be changed up a bit and not look too similar but that's just my opinion.
7) House on the right has an abrupt cut-off of the wall to the roof with no shadows making it look 2D and fake.
8) The flooring, why are you using two sets of hex tiles? They don't match and sharply interchange making it look unnatural.
9*) You have railings but at the stairs, suddenly wall? I'm not sure what your project is but this looks really weird.
10*) Lack of environmental details makes your map look spacious and boring though this would depend on the game itself.

Image B
1*) Might wanna remove that excess cave ceiling unless you're planning to decorate it somehow.
2) It looks like you used dungeon generator.
2a) Walls are bland.
2b) Floors are void.
3*) The spires are glowing yet fading?
4) The fuzz to the top of the screen, where it meets the ceiling, there's a graphical error there.
5*) Try to create some ambiance with your map and not have it look so plain, ie: floor and walls alone.


These are just what I can see from the stills, I hope your whole game isn't like this.

@Cranky Construct I like the wacky-ish yet solid feel of your map. The crystals add a nice ambiance but maybe try adding some varying colors to your carpet and other mono-purple-color objects? This is just something minor and overlooked based on your game though.

 

[Nutty171]

@Cranky Construct Amazing. Though, as somebody once pointed out in this thread before, traditionally, nobody is allowed to sit in the presence of the king. And I'd imagine that an evil demon king would be really angered if somebody were to belittle him so. Thus, the little seats down at the bottom probably shouldn't be there.

 

[Cranky Construct]

Good thing it's not your prototypical demon king then. Lady's gotta have her generals around, after all.

 

[somenick]

@Solwern I see. OK thanks.

Project cancelled.

 

[Nutty171]

@Cranky Construct Okay, I just found a new flaw! You see how the seats are right next to the wall/ledge? It looks as though the king wouldn't be able to see the generals who are closest to the ledge, or she could only see the tops of their heads. And if they're tall enough to be seen from the throne past the ledge, those seats seem a bit small. And also a very minor flaw, the gray parts of the throne are mirrored, so the shadowed sides of them are all facing inwards.

@somenick Surely this is a joke, right? I see no reason that you would cancel your project for real. It doesn't really matter that much if it's "bad." No matter your skill level when you first start something, you can make it good with some dedication. Take Kyoku for instance. Look at how good (s)he is after 5 months of practice. There's nothing that can stop you from improving except for yourself.

 

[fizzly]

@Solwern I see. OK thanks.
Project cancelled.

You should treat those remarks as a hints and a valuable lesson, not contempt of your work. Even if does not look so good for now, you're still gaining skills. I think you shouldn't cancel your project.

 

[somenick]

@Nutty171 @fizzly It is a joke.

But with me, you never know...

 

[Solwern]

@somenick The only view of your project is from the images presented on this post. I do not know the music choice, the story, the mechanics nor any other challenges which you may have put into it. Since you are probably cancelling the project, then I won't be able to stop you but if you're starting up a new project, you can google some map examples on how to make the mapping and graphics on your next project better.

Take a look at your own game pictures from a third person perspective, would you say it looks ok? Would you be able to look at this and say that everything has a nice flowing texture rather than sharp cut-offs everywhere?

If mapping and tilesets aren't your forte, there are many resources you can use as aids for this on this forum, for free (with credit) or you can spend a week or two and learn to make tilesets in image editors like GIMP.

Graphics is one aspect, not the entire game and even then, that can be improved upon.

IMAGE A is easily improved by using one flooring tile and decorative objects for the floor, grunge type walls rather than repeated tile walls and IMAGE B is easily improved by removing excess tiles which is not interact-able by the player and adding more decorative objects or even just a map overlay (foreground as some call it.)

 

[somenick]

@Nutty171
@Solwern

So... Any improvements this time?

The game is set in a scifi universe. There are no random battles (enemies seen on map, battle initiates upon touch)

 

[Nutty171]

@somenick This is a massive improvement here! There's one tile error on the wall near the upper left corner, but that's an easy fix. I quite liked the glowing lava rocks, though. If you can manage to get the glow right, it would look great! (p.s. you could add an emoji or something at the end, then it wouldn't be taken (as) seriously.)

 

[somenick]

@Nutty171 Hey thanks! Guess I at least now know what type of effect to try to achieve when mapping. About the lava rocks, I'm not completely sure if to add them or not, or how to do it better. Guess I'll have to experiment some. And yeah, saw the tiling error near upper left.

 

[Gletschernadel]

First try of a forest area - what dou you think?

 

[Solwern]

@somenick Now THAT is a hell of a lot better and it actually starts giving off a worldly vibe with it. Keep going dude, if you're adding back the glowing spires try to make them complement the environment.

@Gletschernadel It looks really artistic but too much for a game with regards to the shadows. Next would be the tree cover shadows yet the trees themselves appearing several tiles above the character. Might I suggest to change the tree shadows to clouds?

 

[Nutty171]

Okay, as @fizzly suggested in another thread, I redid the ledges in the Abandoned Mines. Does it look better? Does it look worse?

Spoiler: Abandoned Mines

I replaced the edges with a solid color in this image to reduce the file size to something uploadable.

 

[Caitlin]

@Gletschernadel I really like your map, but I agree with the tree shadows.

@Nutty171 Hmm, nice map can't really think of anything, except I hope you're going to add a tint to the map. (o_o') I, of course, am I tintaholic!

My map for my game... I am already going to alter somethings about the map tomorrow, but I thought I'd show off what I have been doing. I've been busy working on my game, graphics and the like. (^_^)/

 

[Nutty171]

@Caitlin This is actually a map that I made and shared here a long time ago:

Spoiler: Original Post

Okay, this is the first map I've completed for my main project, so make sure you tell me everything wrong with it.

Spoiler: Big map

View attachment 65826

This is the Abandoned Mine. Entry is from the east, there's some treasure you can get by exiting at the east west, and the north is how you progress.
Oh, I realized just before posting that there are no light sources... How do you recommend I handle the lighting? Just hope nobody notices? That's what the Pokémon games do...

p.s. The shadowy areas are where enemies are encountered.

What I'm asking here is how well do the new ledges work?

As for your map, first things first, get rid of those horrendous shadows. MV's default shadows are terrible, terrible, terrible. Especially indoors, where they don't even make an ounce of sense. Okay, now with that out of the way, the stairs that lead to the main part of the room have disconnected textures, and they look as if they're resting on the floor rather than built into it. :/

 

[Gletschernadel]

@Solwern @Caitlin Thank you for your Feedback. You are right with the shadows - its not "natural". Hmm... I wanted to make the map look like "you are in a dark forest with many high trees around" and the leafes add a lot to that (I think). If I tint the screen it looks more natural with the leafes but its reeeaaly dark now

 

[Tsukitsune]

Library map #Timeblazer

Spoiler: Longer.ver