Towns & Cities

[StrawberrySmiles]

This is mapping related, but since I don't have a map to show anyone, I can't use the screenshot thread.


I'm not sure if this is even in the right place, but...


Can I request tutorials on mapping towns & cities? Is there one already available that I overlooked?


Are there any places on the web to get references or ideas for towns & cities (especially medieval fantasy or ancient worlds)?


Each time I have to map a town or city, I freeze and nothing gets done. I'd normally skip it, but I promised I'd learn for the sake of my team's major project.


Thanks.

 

[Candacis]

Don't know, if this helps, but I have a half finished tutorial on mapping settlements. Scrapped it since it was for VX Ace, but I might redo it for MV.


I also started a tutorial on mapping buildings and the first part should be out with the next ReStaff.

 

[Feldschlacht IV]

You could always use actual games as a good reference. SNES RPGs and even some modern ones are a great reference to examine how buildings, streets, and stairs are lined up relative to each other, and how cities are 'shaped' in general.


Assassins Creed (entry) comes to mind as a great reference.

 

[bgillisp]

What I've done is I've fired up some successful commercial RPGMaker games from other forum members, saw how they mapped their cities and towns, and went from there. I still have saves in Tale of a Common Man I fire up just to go walk the city a couple times for ideas.

 

[StrawberrySmiles]

You could always use actual games as a good reference. SNES RPGs and even some modern ones are a great reference to examine how buildings, streets, and stairs are lined up relative to each other, and how cities are 'shaped' in general.


Assassins Creed (entry) comes to mind as a great reference.

Do you know a place where I can easily see maps of towns from SNES games? I've always wanted to know.


And I'll look forward to your tutorial, Candacis!

 

[slimmmeiske2]

The only one I can think of is Indrah's tutorial from her map helpdesk:

 

[TheOriginalFive]

For medieval towns, I usually run a game of Stronghold to check on the infrastructure needed. A medieval town tends to be compact, but its farms and industries are outside of town to take advantage of the farmland.

 

[LightningLord2]

Here's a few tips:


-Always put the entrances at the south if possible. This is mainly to make sure it's clearly visible where to enter a building. Entrance points from other sides is acceptable for side entries and secret paths, though.


-Use unique roof/wall tiles for important locations such as item shops. It makes them stand out and can easily condition players (like knowing from the blue roof that the building is a shop).


-VX Ace is visually similar to 16-Bit RPGs, while MV uses short player sprites, with a style more closely to 8-Bit RPGs.


-In highly populated areas, pack the buildings tightly together, in rural ones, space them out further.


-If you're using an RPG for reference, I recommend playing it. This way, you get a better feeling for how everything's mapped out and where potential flaws in the map design are.


Lastly, I wanna compare a good and a bad city map from the original Pokémon games to talk a bit more about design:

This is a rather solid map - the coastline is nicely shaped, you can easily reach any major building without detours (even though the bent pier looks awkward) and the map doesn't have too much open space, nor is it overly constrained. There's those weird cylinders around the water, which are there to halt the player if they gained the ability to move over water.

This map, however, is terrible - First off all, when you're in the town main area, you have to take a round trip across those cliffs just to reach the gym and the Pokémon Center. Also, there's plenty of trees spaces such that you need to take big detours to reach the shop and the Safari Zone (topmost building). There's also the fact that there's spaces set up for a Pokémon zoo, which for some reason is scattered all over the place. Lastly, the big building in the middle of the town actually serves no purpose - there's no major story events, nor do you get a useful item. Which wouldn't be bad if it wasn't placed strategically to be an obstruction.

 

[Feldschlacht IV]

Do you know a place where I can easily see maps of towns from SNES games? I've always wanted to know.


And I'll look forward to your tutorial, Candacis!

Yeah, here's one;


http://www.spriters-resource.com/snes/ff6


That's only for FFVI, for example. If you look around the site, I'm sure you'll find more games. More sites out there have more maps as well.