Other worlds, Plains and mapping ideas

[DarknessFalls]

I am curious, for the parallax mappers out there, and even for the non parallax mappers out there. If you had characters travelling to another dimension, another plain or even another world - how would you alter the map(s) to make it feel like "Ya I am on another .....insert what here .... "

has any one one this in the RPG maker community and been able to pull it off? I know commercial games have and sometimes it really hit or miss, with Emerson or reason why your there.

 

[Engr. Adiktuzmiko]

it really depends on what the other world/dimension is all about...

if  the world for example is supposed to be a desolate planet, then I'd go with lots of dirt tiles and maybe add a reddish/brownish tint

 

[DarknessFalls]

What I mean by this is, what are some example of other plains, worlds and places you have created where the player has traveled from one dimension to the other? how have you made it look different, how does it fit into your story. by you I dont mean the poster above me, I mean people who respond to this thread.

 

[Eschaton]

Tentacles.  If you turn plants into tentacles, or give tentacles (or extra mouths or eyes, bonus points if they're where they shouldn't be) to creatures that don't have them, your maps and monsters will always say to me, "yup, this is another dimension."

You can also design your maps to appear nonsensical.  Give your maps alien geometries by making them loop when the shouldn't, have a staircase transfer the player to a location where, logically, it wouldn't make sense to go (like you have a building, and its second floor is shaped nothing like the first floor, or has a different tileset or something).

Use your imagination.  Make your maps look like something that would not make sense in our world (or your player characters' worlds).

Also:  don't you mean, "planes?"  A "plain" is un-wooded land.

 

[Milennin]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vyJvTjk-rfc&hd=1

how have you made it look different, how does it fit into your story. by you I dont mean the poster above me, I mean people who respond to this thread.

How it fits in with my story? Wait, my game was supposed to have a story? Well, Roth's the local RPG Adventurer in Beta Town, and thus helps the townspeople with their various problems. One of them is the crazy scientist who just finished his machine that can send stuff to other dimensions.


There's a few other dimensions you will be teleported to. Like, inside a castle where you spy on a military meeting, and another dimension where you're inside a ruined town and find a mysterious person who gives you a powerful artefact. Then there's another dimension that represents another game, in which you go to another mini-dimension (full with tentacles and monster leeches) inside that dimension.

 

[West Mains]

If you want to do a very quick and effective 'world-swap' kind of thing, the Tint Screen thing is really good. Change the colours of the screen, players immediately understand the place they recognise is not the same place that they have travelled before.

 

[phoenix_rossy]

Oh, pick me! I love to use screen tints to give a real sense of atmosphere. Music always helps too. As you can see in the images, the second 'dimension' in question is disjointed, with random bits of scenery floating around.

 

[Probotector 200X]

Color does go a long way sometimes. Oddly colored grass is a simple thing. Different colored skies can do a lot.

But it takes a lot more than that to make it feel really different. I'm currently re-reading some Doctor Strange, and some of the other dimensions he visits are downright bizarre. In a stupid crossover that features Doctor Strange, I used those crazy purple "dark space" tiles from VXAce, to represent it, but it's really...not enough.



For some things, you just need NEW stuff. Let your imagination go wild...it's the best to have a world that represents something very, very foreign and unfamiliar. It doesn't have to be like, creepy like some alien world. You could have floating islands only exist in another dimension. Maybe have aquatic flora and fauna as being on the land, and vice versa. Maybe gravity is way different, which would probably effect how plants and other things grow. It's... a good challenge trying to do something totally out there.