Game & Map Screenshots

[PixelLuchi]

@Lone Wolf: No, I understand. Some of my tints can be a bit... rich at times. But I guess that's part of my mapping style. ^^ I should probably just lighten up the overlay, and it'll look all right.

A WIP of a desert town I'm busy creating. I hate mapping such desolate places... I love my greenery, you know. But I figured I need to have some

variance to my towns.

 

[esby]

Luchino, I don't understand why it's so dark and cloudy if it's a desert.

Updated this map

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Any better?

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And an interior map from it.

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[EvilEagles]

@nex: It's a desert town, not a desert XD and yes it's so much better now. I like the newer version of the town a lot. Also the house

 

[sabao]

@nex: It's a desert town, not a desert XD and yes it's so much better now. I like the newer version of the town a lot. Also the house

I don't understand why it's so dark when it's a town in a desert.

I always figured these types of locales would come off brighter, perhaps even overexposed. Or you could be going for something else here; maybe it's in the middle of a sandstorm (a fog may better depict this), or it's almost sunset (a little more orange may help).

Then again, looking at your other works you do seem to use a lot of overlays. It's used to great effect on some of your other stuff--I understand that you use it sometimes as a contrast for when you put glows and lights into your object and that's fine. On others, not so much. Your maps are gorgeous, don't get me wrong, but looking at them makes me feel like I'm watching a 3D movie: it's fun and pretty, but the colors lose a lot of vibrance because the overlays are dimming it out.

 

[PixelLuchi]

Hmm... I think this version should look a bit better. Truth be told, I've never really mapped desert towns extensively ( or desert-like areas, tbh ). I always find them so drab and dull. But I need to at least try, right?

I ditched the overlay, brightened up the screen and added a harsher sunbeam.

 

[EvilEagles]

That seems better Luchi. Maybe just try to break the 2 straight lines a bit?

 

[Bird Eater]

@Luchino-chan: You might want to add more cracks to the roads, as the houses look pretty beat up, while the road looks very intact.

@Nex: I find it hard to say which looks better, as they look both look very different to me. They're both pretty, though.

 

[Ronove]

Luchino, I would love to see some sand! Otherwise, I think you did a great job. I would just center that well a bit more in the intersection of road. Looking lovely though! And learning to map sparsely can help you in your other maps that are full of vibrancy. Nothing wrong with a little variation and now is a good a time to learn as any.

 

[Chaos17]

@Nex : I prefered the beach version.

@Luchinno : much better, though, now instead of nighfall it's sunset time.

 

[BulletPlus]

@luchino: I preferred the darker version much more.

@nex: those are really good maps. keep it up!

 

[RavenTDA]

Nice maps as always Luchino-chan. I find the brighter one is better imo. I agree with Ronove that there should be some sand in there especially on those higher elevations with the rocks. Perhaps the rock tops could have sand on top. You could also add in sand dust along the roads and between the cracks a bit. Another thing to keep in mind a lot of people have this idea that the desert is empty but really there's only one desert that's without life that everyone always associates it with. There's actually a lot of plant life. Not the normal kind people are used to. Try search on google for a few images. When I started to make a desert map, looking at that really helped me. Btw, you can also try adding patterns to the houses instead of twigs and branches. Like a painted pattern on the stones. I've seen a few people do that as well as I think it's in some other tilesets. You could also add in a bunch of those canopy things to the side of houses. They're kinda like the same material as the tents. I figure there will need to be lots of shade in a sunny town, although it depends what you're going for. Right now the town looks desolate and run down. So if that's what you're going for, you got it down. Hope that helps you.

 

[Lone Wolf]

Hmm... I think this version should look a bit better. Truth be told, I've never really mapped desert towns extensively ( or desert-like areas, tbh ). I always find them so drab and dull. But I need to at least try, right?

I ditched the overlay, brightened up the screen and added a harsher sunbeam.

Much better than the darker version. Those tilesets have so much detail, darkening everything is kind of a waste. I'd say make the sun rays a little brighter, actually, and you'll convey the heat of a desert better, and create a nice contrast with your moodier forest maps.

Would you understand what I meant if I said to use an additive overlay instead of a subtractive one?

 

[Leumas]

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Wow, I absolutely adore how the maps look, especially the re-do, it's amazingly vibrant and lively although I do believe a bit more detail could be added such as foliage etc, particularly the nearer to the cliffs. The interior map is fantastic, I love small inside rooms that look cute and comfy.

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I think this is much better than your previous one, it really needed lightning up, also there are some stray pixels above the hole in the roof.

Just a map dump here, nothing particular, I just like dumping maps:

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[PixelLuchi]

@RavenTDA: Yes, my intention was to create a run-down desert outpost.

@Lone Wolf: Yes, I do understand additive and subtractive overlays. I've messed around with them, and I only really use the latter to make my maps darker (i.e, for night scenes ). All my overlays are additive, in fact. Just... dark. I need to lower the opacity on them.

@Sam/Leumas: You've come a long way in your mapping, that I can see. ^^ Just that Mack sprite looks kind of odd next to Luna's tileset. I love that last map. And I only noticed those stray pixels in my maps now... ><

This is probably the final version of the town.

Brighter and hotter, now with shade. ^^ Oh, and there is sand on this map. Just not visible.

 

[Leumas]

@Luchino-chan, thanks haha, ignore the sprite it was the character at the time I wanted to take a screenshot and I was too lazy to change that but hey-ho. I'm really liking the look of your map and I think it may have been unintentional but the speech box suits the map well, haha.

 

[OceansDream]

Playing around with cliffs!

 

[Chaos17]

@Luchono : I like the warmth of your screen.

@Ocean Dream : these are nice cliffs and I like your grass, it looks almost natural.

 

[PixelLuchi]

@Ocean: That's real pretty! Is that your own tileset?

Some old and new screens:

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Going to get a lighting tutorial up sooner or later. I must stop procrastinating...

 

[Lone Wolf]

@Lone Wolf: Yes, I do understand additive and subtractive overlays. I've messed around with them, and I only really use the latter to make my maps darker (i.e, for night scenes ). All my overlays are additive, in fact. Just... dark. I need to lower the opacity on them.

The trick with subtractive overlays is to make them the inverse color of what you want to appear in game (since you're literally subtracting the RGB values). So make the patches you want to be clear black, and the dark patches shades of light or dark grey. It gets really tricky when you need to start using purple for green, or blue for yellow, so it's probably best to make the image how you want it to look, then invert it as the last step. It's also fairly pointless to mix alpha blending and subtractive blending on the same image, since the point of using add/subtract blending is being able to skip the costly alpha blending calculations (it's like using algebra in place of basic math). If you knew all this already, then these tips are just for everyone following along at home.

 

[ShinGamix]

not really a screenshot but my *NEW* Animated title screen.

It looks a lot better in motion.

@Nex I adore this map! and the little room too

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How did you do those grass edges and that pathway into the cave. Those are very nice!

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oh goodness both Celianna and Lunarea are both viewing this topic right now...I am a little scared