Game & Map Screenshots

[mlogan]

@ Luneth - for the most part, I like your tiles. The trees are a bit off to me. They look unbalanced, as if they are slighty leaning or the wind is blowing them or something. Also, the outline is so much thicker than any of the other tiles, it looks a bit out of place. But keep up the good work.

 

[Indrah]

@Shablo5: Way too much empty space in there. Also grass/floors don't fade like that :I Other than that, design is ok.

@Kaelan: Looks nice and simple, if maybe a bit TOO simple (but I gather it's not finished). Pretty elegant and simple.

@Lunesh: The trees are...oddly shaped. THe middle section is odd, going from pijnty type to tybe style to the bottom. I'd make them more cone style. Weeds are hard to see and differentiate among the grass tiles, maybe shade them or give them stronger borders?

---

Could I get some feedback on this? It took me most of a day (8-9 hours for this, this is why I hate parallax ;M

It's the entirety of the "world map" for a single game. Each visual location can be visited. (The map is evented, you can't move around freely so mucha as choose your location).

(Nobody will know or care about this, but this is part of Rumen, the vampire country from the Arum Universe :3 )

 

[Psyker]

@Indrah - Wow that looks really nice. I'm fairly jealous I haven't been able to make something that nice.

 

[Celianna]

@Indrah: that looks really damn adorable. I love the little fences you used! I'm guessing there's some kind of magical reason why the lake with trees in the lower right corner is untouched by snow? Because it looks really strange at the moment like that.

 

[Indrah]

@Celianna: Yeah, that place is special and magical and all :3

Aaand I just spotted an error in there. Some trees are floating smack in the center of th mountains. Dooh.

 

[Celianna]

@Indrah: ah, I see, as long as you have a reason you're parallaxing this, right? I recommend sharpening all the mountains and trees (but not the buildings), it'll look much sharper and cleaner then. Like this:

Spoiler

 

[Shablo5]

@Shablo5: Way too much empty space in there. Also grass/floors don't fade like that :I Other than that, design is ok.

You're right. I need to work on integrating grass with dirt and stone.

Will you be shrinking the player for use in the world map?

 

[Indrah]

Either that, or will use a subsitute to sigmal location (an arrow, an icon, a small player face token; something). In any case, it won't be a full size sprite for sure.

 

[SOC]

Aside from the path looking way too "well kept," me purposefully leaving out water, and leaving the very "well kept" cave in for loyalty to the original idea of what my game is based on, how does this look for a quick little "plains path fork" map?

Spoiler

 

[Indrah]

@Soc: To put it simply, too bare, too regular, too boring. If you want to keep to a very simplñified style I'd adjust the size of the map so it doesnt look as desolate. Otherwise, break off those straight lines, and add decoration. There's too much random, aimless empty space.

 

[RavenTDA]

@Indrah

I really like how everything is surrounded by the mountains and the towns aren't squares but rather look like mini versions of the shape of the actual town. Seems like the whole thing is more accurate that way. It came out really nice and I think it was worth the time.

@SOC

Try grouping the plants together. Right now everything is really spaced out and kinda all over. It's always best to place plant together rather than like that as plants usually grow in groups instead of one every few tiles. This works especially well with ground stuff like flowers and tall grasses. Try that out. Other than that the cave is very square. Its fine but you might want to back away from squares and such when doing outside things other than cities and roads. Only things that have straight-edges and square shapes are usually things made by people because nature is usually all over and random.

Anyways... something from me for a change. ^^; I feel like I'm always in the same spot in my game :\ At least now I have actual screen shots and not mock ups. But I'm really starting to lose my patience at how slow I am at getting anywhere.

Spoiler

Title screen:

Prologue:

My message thanks to BlueScope:

More of inside the castle:

Outside the castle:

And a WIP I'm working on now:

 

[SolarGale]

@RavenTDA

Wow love your maps, the message window and the images! The font looks slightly tolkien in style.

Your project looks really interesting. :3

 

[Samven]

That tileset is really pretty. o _ o Yeah, great maps!

Edit: Anywhoo, since mapping isn't really my forte, I figured I should post something up and get some critique to help improve. This here is just from a four-town/four-dungeon test game I'm making with the trial run of Ace just to get to grips with it and see what it can do over the normal VX. Nothing too flashy. This screen's meant to be of an old town that's built into the mountain faces. Kind of like what that one Pokemon town did with tree-houses but with cliffs here.

Any critique that anyone can offer is very much appreciated.

Spoiler

 

[Genii Benedict]

@RavenTDA: Wow. Just, wow. The amount of detail you put into your work is AMAZING. I'm with SolarGale - all of the graphics are great! I need to research how to make changes to the message window, as that is one thing I really, really wanted to change myself. (If anyone has a link, or some instructions, I'd really appreciate it!)

I am constantly amazed at the detail levels in some submissions. It's awesome.

GB

 

[SolarGale]

@Samven

That map isn't bad at all, though it might just be me, but shouldn't the cliff to the right of the centre one, should have a shadow on its left edge.

Also maybe vary the dead foliage more, or spread them out. However I do like how they're more common the closer you get to the lake. Maybe so animals?

Pretty good none the less.

 

[C-C-C-Cashmere]

@Indrah Ooh that looks purdy. Very nice mountains that don't look squarish like VX should. Is it navigable by walking on the world map? Or is it just a text choice?

@SOC Yeah you could decrease the map size by maybe 1.5x. Also utilize shift-mapping to the best of your ability to make it not look like you've just pasted a bunch of tiles in random places. Everything must have its purpose, yeah?

@RavenTDA Your screens are amazing. You've got nice lighting effects, a beautiful tileset, just beautiful. The WIP map should have some, like, vendors and stuff or beggars. It would look nice with some wooden stands with item shops in them, in my opinion. To make it look real bustling-like and stuff. But otherwise, superb.

@Samven Your screen is pretty good. You use the RTP quite well, and it feels legit. You could add a tint to the screen, maybe a kind of vibrancy of colours, accentuate the browns in the sand. Otherwise it looks just peachy. Actually, you might add a few pots outside for people to store their goods in. Would fill the space between the path and the cliff. Just a suggestion.

OK, now for my screenshot:

Spoiler

The above is an in-progress planning of the world where my game is set. Basically, you're a chicken roaming a deserted village, gobbling up seeds wherever they are placed. This map actually consists of about 15-20 maps with the size 17x13, and there's a kind of seamless transition between each map. I plan on having up to 1000 maps, because I created about 20 in about 2 days, so 100 days is a good goal. Once you have collected all the seeds, you can leave the town.

It's kind of meant to satisfy those with a wandering spirit, and want just pure exploration. But it also caters to those item junkies that have to collect every last seed, and will explore every nook and cranny of the place to get it. This screenshot does not include the dungeon in progress, and interiors.

 

[SolarGale]

@Thatbennyguy

It might just be me, but it looks like you're missing quite a few shadows on those cliff tiles in order to give the sense of depth, either that or you're not using them as cliff tiles, and in that case...

 

[C-C-C-Cashmere]

@SolarGale

Oh. Actually, it's not like that in the individual maps. I just copied and pasted the maps onto a larger one, but this excluded the shift-mapping that I used. In that case, the map isn't totally representative of what it would actually look like in-game. The zelda-ish map mechanic is kind of strange that way. But thanks for the feedback!

 

[Shablo5]

I need advice. On this:

How the Frick do I not make this look like ****? >.< I just want to bash it with a club until it sinks into the water >.> I Hate how this looks. The bridge, by the way, if you didn't get the hint.

How do I improve this?

 

[SolarGale]

@Shablo5

Ahh I can see how hard it will be to make that bridge look natural, at least the edge meeting at the sand anyways.

Maybe add some form of support pillars on either end of the bridge, that way we can have a sense of height as well.