Question about tile pack interest (houses)

[Bonkers]

I would buy it and use it for RTP and DS style.

 

[Candacis]

Personally I'm not a big fan of premade houses and would probably not use it. My fear with premade houses is that a lot of maps would start to look like the same and - also a major point -  I like to decorate and build houses myself. So premade would kind of take the fun out for me.

I also think, that people who buy store packs look for a way to enhance their maps and make them more unique, so they don't look like what everyone else has. Premade houses kind of go against that wish in my opinion.

New walls, roofs, windows, doors and details for houses, big yes, premade houses no. My buy decision would highly depend on the style and how the ratio between new tiles and premade houses is.

 

[ShadowFox]

I would buy it and use it for RTP and DS style.

Same with me.

 

[GrandmaDeb]

Well, the funny thing is, I was going to suggest a contest with pre-set houses!


I thought we could have a Modern Real-to-pre-set contest with actual photographs and a preset house with a bit of environs to match the real place.


IDK what the commercial interest would be - I am just not in tune with that, I'm afraid, but I had these comments:


* Theme would be important. What it "went" with tileset-wise,and the general theme (Castle environs, Modern town, etc.)


* Extra, custom features would be essential. Otherwise people will just figure out how to make your stuff with other tiles. Breezeways, arbors, fancy gables, skylights, whatever. Not that I think you two have trouble with the creative end, lol!


* Consider releasing the tiles in an unencrypted game. Saves a lot of mapping questions later - ha!


I vote for a Dutch-style Hansel and Gretyl style village for all these great Mack style Chars, but maybe that audience isn't the crowd that wants to buy mapping aids. Maybe little cool houses for ordinary villages in DS and Ace could just help out folks. Cel was saying - school, etc. Could be a huge hit. You know I always wish you well!

 

[whitesphere]

I like the idea of all tileset packs having at least one sample game (basically an empty, generic placeholder) with a sample map, to show amateurs like me how to make the most of them.

 

[Celianna]

I'd like this, but I'd like it more if they were house "segments" rather than complete houses, so we could mix and match to add just a little bit of variety. Premade houses would sure make mapping a lot faster, but you'd end up with too much "the same" within a game and between games.


For instance, enough "pieces" to make either a house that's long horizontally, or a house that's long vertically, or an L-shaped house. A plain wall, a wall with a closed window, one with an open window, one with a windowbox ...

As much as people would like this, it kind of defeats the point of creating premade houses! The reason for this idea is because the artist has all the freedom in the world to create them. No need to think about tileset restriction, about seamless tiles, and how it will connect to other tiles. Hence why you get super detailed buildings.


Having 'segments' would mean the artist has restrictions, and has to spend extra time and effort to make sure it can connect to other segments like lego bricks.


But, as Luna said, she would include the tiles she created the houses with, which means a parallax mapper can do the same.

 

[Sennie]

Possibly you could add a bakery building? I have a bakery near me and I thought something like that would suit RPG Maker Vx Ace. I do like the ideas of having a house tile set though! Not to keen on having a sample map with graphics, I always prefer to build my map without an idea of how it will turn out!

Would you be able to make a Bakery Tile Set Celianna?

Perhaps you might make a Businesses Tile Set, you know one with business buildings, bakery and other business buildings?

Anyway whatever you make I am sure it will be super awesome

Miffy6000.

 

[Celianna]

@Miffy: that really depends on the time period it is set in.


Most likely we would choose medieval, or one of the other time periods that is already available in the store (modern or futuristic) so that we can match them.

 

[Sennie]

@Celianna: Ah OK thanks Celianna

Sorry for the stupidity back there...

I guess there are quite a few cool ideas for Medieval, blacksmith's, carpenter, old fashioned building designs! Sounds cool

 

[Death's Assistant]

@Celianna = If your going medieval then you should add old looking buildings, maybe old fashioned trains, an executioner zone where he hangs or beheads people. All of those sort of graphics in my opinion would be so cool.

What sort of medieval are you going for? Castle, dungeon, town???

 

[Kes]

As long as the tiles were there, I'd be interested.  I'm less interested in presets, simply because I tend to do my houses a bit bigger than many people e.g. I prefer doors that are one and a half tiles high so that the sprites don't look as if they're banging their heads when they go in, so the whole house has to be a bit taller.  But I can appreciate that many people would find presets helpful.

 

[Celianna]

As long as the tiles were there, I'd be interested.  I'm less interested in presets, simply because I tend to do my houses a bit bigger than many people e.g. I prefer doors that are one and a half tiles high so that the sprites don't look as if they're banging their heads when they go in, so the whole house has to be a bit taller.  But I can appreciate that many people would find presets helpful.

I always make my doors 48 pixels high, or the full 64. Luna doesn't keep her doors short either!

 

[whitesphere]

I would like to see some Modern or Futuristic buildings in the mix, so those of us trying to create futuristic games have alternatives for buildings besides skyscrapers. 

 

[Sennie]

@Whitesphere:

I'd love more Modern and Futuristic tiles as well

Celianna do you intend to create more Futuristic tiles anytime soon?

 

[Celianna]

@Miffy: depends. I am thinking about a futuristic building pack, though I'm still brainstorming on what kind of buildings would be present. Hospitals, police stations, giant corporations, supermarkets, villas ... after that I'm drawing a blank.

 

[Sennie]

@Celianna: You should so do hospitals, police station and fire station. Those sort of tiles might help others make a Sim-like RPG game?

Have you ever thought about making a holiday/vacation tile set? You could include hotels, caravans, etc.

 

[whitesphere]

@Miffy: depends. I am thinking about a futuristic building pack, though I'm still brainstorming on what kind of buildings would be present. Hospitals, police stations, giant corporations, supermarkets, villas ... after that I'm drawing a blank.

Bio domes (see: Chrono Trigger 1999 AD)

Planetary Outpost type stuff (i.e. sealed habitats like the Bio domes, which would be on other planets)

Unusual building styles (such as "Algae-block based construction, or hardened fluid micro-constructed homes")  The latter might look like porcelain, or "flow" into the ground, since they might be constructed by nanobots, molecule by molecule.

Alien geometries (like the above).  If our heroes visit an alien world, they're not going to be making buildings like humans do.

Futuristic prisons (see: varied dystopian sci-fi movies)

 

[Sennie]

@whitesphere: I like the way you think  Cool ideas...

 

[Alkorri]

@Miffy: depends. I am thinking about a futuristic building pack, though I'm still brainstorming on what kind of buildings would be present. Hospitals, police stations, giant corporations, supermarkets, villas ... after that I'm drawing a blank.

This made me way more excited than I realised ;D Whitesphere and Miffy gave some great ideas. I don't wanna derail the thread, just wanna note I would love to see more futuristic homes with rounded corners/roofs and/or with lots of glass

Anyway back on topic, I can see how people might be concerned about seeing preset houses everywhere, but I personally don't think we're in danger of seeing them swamp every game. There are infinite ways to make your maps unique and creative, and not just with preset houses. I guess I'm leaning now towards single tiles, and modular tiles as Shaz says so we can use segments to easily put together various homes. 

 

[Candacis]

I guess I'm leaning now towards single tiles, and modular tiles as Shaz says so we can use segments to easily put together various homes.

Agreed. I know that segments take more time and effort, but I think, it is very well reasonable to expect that effort from a store pack. So, I hope, you make the premade homes with segments that one can better use to make a house longer etc. Would offer so much more ways to use the houses.