Game & Map Screenshots

[Necromus]

Just a town i cam up with, it's a bit brighter normally (conversion - filesize issue) and looks a lot better with clouds.

Also has no NPC or animals, just the layiout basicly.



What you guys think of it? Especially related to http://forums.rpgmak...g-proportions/.

 

[Raine Fallon]

Voiceferoty:

Agreed...the exterior map itself (atleast for me) isn't to bad, a little more detail and some events to create atmosphere and it's going to look nice. However the houses need work, im not the best RMVX mapper, so all I can say is try and try til you get it right haha

Hyde: Agreed databasing is a hideous and time consuming RPG Maker phenomenon that people tend to forget...

 

[vociferocity]

okay......is this any better? I am 100% conflicted on the way the houses look (after like five towns of identical houses I've become so comfortable with this 5 across 4 up style that anything else is ridic difficult. sigh, getting into ruts sucks. I like having the exterior shape of the houses matching the interior shape, though), but I playtested the town and I think I really like having everything smushed a little closer. in the editor it's like "eh it looks kinda prettier with space", but it feels nicer as a player knowing where everything is and not getting lost in giant swathes of grass.

also I haven't really gone over it with a fine-toothed comb, so there are probably tile/shadow errors all over the joint haha

 

[Ksi]

Vanilla's the way I roll.

 

[Chaneque]

@Necromus: I feel that all the houses, the walls are just too high. Lower the walls by 1 tile.

 

[Necromus]

Hmm, would have to shorten the roof aswell, else the proportions would look weird imo.

That would make them seem rather short overall tho :/

 

[Ksi]

Not really. Roofs should be longer than walls are high.

 

[RyanA]

Not really. Roofs should be longer than walls are high.

I think it it usually looks better to have roofs two tiles high, but change to fit the shape of the house, of course, if going with small windows :3 Anyway, good screenshots guys. Now for some evil >;3

Liberty - First, I think the road needs to be more interesting, with so much empty space on the road, I think it needs a little more detail to stop it from looking plain and empty. On the left, inbetween the red roof and green roof houses, there's like a floor of gray there, I'm not sure what this is but to me it looks a little out of place, I'd consider changing that for grass. Now, for the stone roads going to the houses, I'd consider replacing the borderless path for the bordered path you use for the rest of the road, then you could also shift the grass under it. I'd also make the bottom wall a tile higher and the wall's roof a tile shorter. Finally, I think the roofs of houses need to be a little smaller and the houses to have a few more windows on them, maybe :3

Sorry for the block of text ;3

Voci - Are you familiar with shifting? I think your grass in the town needs some of this where the grass meets the house. I also think there should be a little more grass in the town. I'd also shift the fence, where there is the little farm, so it looks like it goes behind the house with the red roof. The two angel statues, I'd move them infront of the church rather than near the graveyard, and I would place another kind of statue in the middle of the graves, with a dirt path going between each grave, rather than having them bunch up. I'd also put a fence around the graveyard that joins to the back of the church, although I'd put all the graves infront of the church, as that's how it is here in england and that's how I end up mapping them x3 There are quite a few more things I'd like to see you change, but I can't figure out the way to word them at the minute, so I'll have a think about that then post again ;3

Again another block of text, very sorry x3

Necromus - Alright, I have two main problems with your map. Number 1! I think the house walls are a tile too high. Make them another tile high for a second story or take a tile off just for one story. Number 2! The houses look so similar! Change the shapes of houses, change the walls and roofs so they look a little different from each other! Number 3! (Wait wasn't there only 2?) Put more breaks in the forest! And add grass in the forest breaks with flowers and butterflies and other pretty things :3

This one wasn't so big, sorry (not really) (>w<)b Anyway, good maps guys, I hope my advice helps a little bit :3

Edit - Wow I wrote so much XD

 

[Ksi]

Liberty - First, I think the road needs to be more interesting, with so much empty space on the road, I think it needs a little more detail to stop it from looking plain and empty. On the left, inbetween the red roof and green roof houses, there's like a floor of gray there, I'm not sure what this is but to me it looks a little out of place, I'd consider changing that for grass. Now, for the stone roads going to the houses, I'd consider replacing the borderless path for the bordered path you use for the rest of the road, then you could also shift the grass under it. I'd also make the bottom wall a tile higher and the wall's roof a tile shorter. Finally, I think the roofs of houses need to be a little smaller and the houses to have a few more windows on them, maybe :3

Sorry for the block of text ;3

Firstly, thanks for the feedback, but I kinda have to disagree with a few things.

There'll be some NPCs walking around once complete but I don't really want to block off the main thoroughfare so I might only add a few things here or there to the roads. The left area - I'll change it to the other grey part, maybe add some dirt or something to break it up since it's a well-trodden area and people over time have cobbled certain places where a lot of traffic gets to. Hence why I won't change to the bordered style for the borderless - it shows places where the initial town plan deviated and was worked on by the people living in the town after most of the houses were built/rebuilt/expanded. And I'm not a fan of too many windows - houses tend to be balanced when it comes to placing windows on them and I try not to put any on the edges because I think they look tacky. I'll try to add a few more, though. Lastly, I have to very much disagree about the roofs. Roofs should be larger than the walls are and having only two tiles is kinda ridiculous and doesn't add much to work with in the way of making things look different to each other. Especially when the inside is oh, so much larger than the outside. I try to keep a 2/3:1 ratio when it comes to this so most of the time, to me, larger roofs are better. (Not saying that humungo roofs are great, but in this case, they're fine.)

 

[RyanA]

If that's your roofing style, then roof away I look forward to seeing the evented version ;3

 

[McTricky]

Bada-boom?

 

[Jaide]

Spoiler

I'm playing around with some of Amaranth's trees, trying to get them to work with most everything else I'm using graphic-wise, but I don't feel like they're quite there yet. Anyone more graphically inclined have any tips for me? I'm using Photoshop CS.

 

[Lunarea]

I did the same thing with the trees, Jaide:

Spoiler

What I did was add more green and red to the colors (via the Color Balance), made it darker (-Brightness, + Contrast), as well as changed the trunk color. Another thing that really helped is softening it a bit with Gaussian Blur (0.2).

 

[Jaide]

Ah, I think color balance is what I need to play with. I messed with the Brightness and Contrast and softening it up a bit, but I hadn't really played with the colors yet. That's probably the ticket. I was actually looking at your screens for inspiration, Luna. XD Thanks!

 

[Lunarea]

RTP greenery is a bit on the warmer spectrum, so you'll definitely want to play with red and yellow. FSM greens are more on the cooler spectrum, so they have more blue.

 

[Jaide]

I think I should be okay sticking to the warmer spectrum, as most of the FSM graphics I'm using aren't nature-related.

Spoiler

I replaced my second image with this one. How is it looking now?

 

[djutmose]

Necromus:

I really like the overall feel of your town map. The trees seem to threaten to overwhelm the town, and that gives a great tension and atmosphere to the map. Needs more detail, but a great start.

 

[vociferocity]

@ryanA: yeah I've been shift-mapping a ton. I hadn't thought about making the grass go right up against the house, but it does look nicer. I see what you mean about adding more grass to the town, especially since it's supposed to be kind of a nature-y village-y type place. I have the graveyard set up like that to sort of frame a teleportation crystal, but I don't think I'd lose anything by moving that somewhere else and having the graveyard make a little more sense, gamewise. I'll definitely have a little play around with the fences, see if I can find a nicer/more sensible config. if you have any other feedback (especially about the houses, I'd really love some crit on getting them to look both cute and also distinct), I'd love to hear it

 

[Lunarea]

@Jaide:

Looks much better, now. I like it.

 

[Necromus]

Thanks for the replies so far.

I think it it usually looks better to have roofs two tiles high, but change to fit the shape of the house, of course, if going with small windows :3 Anyway, good screenshots guys. Now for some evil >;3

Necromus - Alright, I have two main problems with your map. Number 1! I think the house walls are a tile too high. Make them another tile high for a second story or take a tile off just for one story. Number 2! The houses look so similar! Change the shapes of houses, change the walls and roofs so they look a little different from each other! Number 3! (Wait wasn't there only 2?) Put more breaks in the forest! And add grass in the forest breaks with flowers and butterflies and other pretty things :3

Yeah i tried the smaller wall style with a bigger roof and i really like it, and i also think they need more diversity, maybe i can find some better tiles for houses.

There are actually quite a lot breaks in the forest, you gotta think about what you actually see on screen. The complete dense forest is out reach for the player, it's basicly just for orientation while mapping, the finished map is probably smaller than that here.

The blank breakes are pretty weird tho, i'm gonna fill them up with grass and flowers.

I did mention that the map has no NPC's or animals yet, i know they're missing

Necromus:

I really like the overall feel of your town map. The trees seem to threaten to overwhelm the town, and that gives a great tension and atmosphere to the map. Needs more detail, but a great start.

Well thanks, but more detail as in what? The ammount of details is pretty high imo, i don't want to clutter the map.