town mapping discussion: homogeneous vs. heterogeneous roof colors

[jonthefox]

I'd like to hear opinions on town mapping design with respect to the color of the roofs of buildings.

Option 1: Each town is made distinct by its roof color and style. So, first town in the game has orange roofs. Second town has blue roofs. Third town has brown roofs. etc.

Option 2: Same as option 1, but adding slightly more variation for more visually appealing mapping. So, first town in the game has orange and blue roofs. Second town has red and green roofs. Third town has brown and silver roofs, etc.

Option 3: Each town should have a diverse range of roof colors and styles. So, first town might have 10 buildings. A few of these are orange, a few are green, a few are silver, a few are red, etc.

What do you think, and why?

 

[ShadowDragon]

it really depends on how you do it.

Personal, town per color can be nice, like forest with green roofs (light green, green, dark green etc)
same for blue, but as far city goes, each color can mean different things

Example:
Red -> potion shop
Green ->herb store or others
Blue -> armor, weapon, etc
Yellow -> more protective stuff
Orange -> mart for fruit, objects etc

whatever you do, if its fits the game, why not?

 

[Kes]

In general towns (especially in earlier times, which many RPGs with their fantasy theme tend to evoke) have access to only a limited range of base building materials. This inevitably leads to more similarity than in a modern city. Making roof tiles in different colours is an expensive business! Variety will be shown in a town more by how materials are used than in their fundamental differences. So I'd go for mostly, if not exclusively, same colour roofs.

 

[Zyphli]

When dealing with RTP style housing, I long ago took the route of 2 colors for a town.
Color 1: Decorative Building
Color 2: Shops and Key Locations

I do keep a collection of tile sets with different colors, but still try to keep a similar theme between towns so what I teach the player in town 1 still applies in town 2.
Dark Color Roof: Decorative Building
Bright Color Roof: Shop and Key Location

This can even apply in the previously mentioned Forest Town. While I would probably use Brown and Green, but you could use a more drab then a brighter green.

 

[ufomonster]

all 3 options are pretty good in their own right, i think it all depends on the overall use of color through the game!

if you use color to convey certain feelings about certain areas (a mostly red palette for a hot and exciting place, blue for cold and calm, yellow for sunny and happy, etc. etc.) it'd benefit you to go for homogenous roofs, maybe with variation in saturation and value but not as much in hue. for a game where each area is meant to be memorable and explored, i think this is a good way to bring everything together! especially in a more story focused game where more time can be spent on the visual feel rather than the gameplay.

if you're using color a little more haphazardly, heterogenous roofs could convey a sort of playful, stylized feel! adding onto shadowdragon's point, by using more color variety you could assign certain colors to certain game functions like shops and stuff, that way they're recognizable from town to town (kinda like pokemon centers and shops in the pokemon games haha). this seems like it'd be really good for a game focused mainly on gameplay, so that most of the time and effort spent on creating the game can be given to improving that instead of fiddling with graphics.

a blend of both seems like it could be applicable to either type of game! i'm thinking along the vein of towns with either warm/cool color roofs (hue), dark/light (value) or vibrant/pale (saturation) color schemes, that kinda thing! that way you're not throwing colors just everywhere while your gameplay suffers, you save enough time by having variety of graphics that really only need a couple sliders wiggled around in your editing software that you can work on both elements.

and echoing zyphli, it's generally a good rule of thumb to differentiate key locations and stuff through color, that way it encourages players to go there. you can do that a number of ways depending on your approach!

that's just my take on it though!

 

[Aesica]

My approach has basically been this:

• Wealthy/big towns: Roofs in many different colors and styles because they can afford the luxury.
• Modest towns: Only a few colors. The inn and the mayor's house might be a bit fancier than the rest.
• Poor towns: Roofs mostly the same/less decorative. Because poverty.

Overall though, I like having lots of options so I made a bunch of roof recolors. I'll probably make a bunch more too because I don't think just 1 page of roofs was enough.