What Tiles Should Every Tileset Contain? [IDEAS LIST]

[SmashArtist]

Hello! I've been trying to learn to make tilesets for a while, but I've always been blocked by one issue: what specific tiles to make?

So this thread is here for you guys to share your ideas for tiles that every tileset should have. These can be typical simple things like grass autotile, 4 block tree, etc., or even some lesser thought of details like gutters, underwater details such as autotile water levels, etc.. Maybe even share themes! Basically, these can be essentials to a tileset as well as more specifics that may not be included in all tilesets. The point is to generate ideas for those in need!

Here I'll be accepting any ideas that you leave in a comment down below or simply make a suggestion in the google document and organizing them in themes, types, and more so that anyone wanting to make their own tileset can come and grab some ideas!​

Here is the google document in which I've organized and will be keeping the list of ideas:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1ziZMW1y86P4HnoVtKbbjAzgoz9IwhOsuw2H6xUATbx4/edit?usp=sharing

This document is a continuous work in progress. If there isn't a tile which you had in mind, feel free to give suggestions. On another note, if you find the list isn't organized efficiently, comment down below and I'll try to reorganize if it seems necessary.



Hopefully this list helped you!
Feel free to put down your own ideas below or as a suggestion in the document!~​

 

[Mrs_Allykat]

For water autotiles, I would suggest some kind of slime/oozing for water. It's not that I have anything in mind for it, but it seems that it's missing from the RTP or under-represented. Other under-represented stuff would be a mercury river or a sand river. Those could be helpful for some games.

Those are things off the top of my head

 

[mlogan]

The Art, Literature and Music forum is for non-game development related things. As this is game development related, I'm going to move this topic to General Discussion.

 

[SmashArtist]

@mlogan Thank you! I apologize for the mishap!

 

[NicoLican]

In A1 animation| Autotile animation on a map under water that would be great bubbles and seaweed, an animation of those things this would make the map more dynamic

 

[Marquise*]

Hey nice tread it makes an excellent check-list.

 

[Ryisunique]

Not sure if it's auto or stationary, but swamp for water and maybe ground related issues. Green water for algae, stagnant.

Tall trees? Trunk on the bottom and patches of branches at the top. Maybe Redwood looking or someone shaving the bottom half of a pine.

Fencing. For farms or the little white picket fence for houses.

 

[Sharm]

Essentials and idea lists are a bit different. If you're wanting to know what would be fun to have in an inn, for example, that would be a very different list from what's essential to have in an inn.

Let's see. An essential RPG tileset list.

• floor/ground for flood fill
• tile for paths
• wall/location separator
• door/opening to new location
• storage/tresure
• shop indicators
  • items/Healing/recovery
  • weapons/armor
• location specifics (whatever makes your location unique and identifiable).
• some sort of barrier (to limit and guide player movement, like a fence or bushes or a counter)

I think that covers it? Everything else I can think of is a variable, dependant on the game. Someone might want to do item only healing, and someone else might want to break it down into three or four different locations for each type of recovery then add a fifth place for boosts. You might have a game entirely inside and not need trees, or entirely outside and not need beds.

If you want an idea list for all the possibilities, well, in that case you should break it down a bit by location. It will also get huge very fast!

 

[Thefirelion]

For A5 / B,C,D,E Tilesets Sides View Walls...is frustrating for me the lack of visual pestectives in the even in 2D

 

[SmashArtist]

Thanks for your ideas guys!

If you want an idea list for all the possibilities, well, in that case you should break it down a bit by location. It will also get huge very fast!

I was planning this thread to be a large list of anything possible, as well as the essential, organized by themes and areas, but unfortunately the spoiler editor is acting strange, creating duplicates, putting spoilers into the wrong spoilers and such. Perhaps a public google doc may work better in this case, but I'm not sure if that's alright with the admins. :\

Edit: @Sharm since you're a moderator, is it alright if I link to a google doc in this thread for organization purposes?

 

[SmashArtist]

After checking the rules and such, I have found nothing against posting a google document link here and so therefore I am using it as an organized page for the ideas since I've been having multiple issues with the spoilers in the forum on this post. For some reason it duplicates the spoilers each time I make an edit, which is extremely inconvenient.

If this is against the rules in any way, let me know and I will immediately take down the link!

That being said, I've added the link to the doc in the original post as well as here:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1ziZMW1y86P4HnoVtKbbjAzgoz9IwhOsuw2H6xUATbx4/edit?usp=sharing

 

[Sharm]

Sorry, I didn't get the notification for some reason. Should be fine, don't know of any reason why it wouldn't be. Doing it externally seems like a better way to keep track of things.

*looks it over* Okay, good organization so far. Not a lot of variety yet, I wonder why? Normally people go nuts with this stuff, citing everything they could possibly want. Maybe this just needs time to get going. *shrugs*

Why would you put mud or still water on A1? How do you plan on putting waving seaweed and bubbles on A1? Bake in the background? Personally, I think it's better to put those on A2 and not think of A1 as a sheet for water, think of it as floor layer animations. Something to consider for deciding what to put on A2, sometimes floor tiles won't need an autotile to work, a single tile can be enough. For those types of floors you can put them on A5 and take up only one square. You want to put trees and flat topped walls on A4 not A3. A3 is best suited for walls with pitched roofs, and I haven't really come up with other things that suit this sheet's style. A4 is where you put anything that needs inside corners too, which is why flat roofs work here. I also like to use it for hedges. A5 isn't really the same thing as B-E at all, due to the way layering works. Use it for ground and wall tiles that don't need to have animation or autotiling. It's a great place to put alternate tiles to break up the patterns, and broken versions. You'll want a pine tree in the default B-E tiles. Most lighting, fires, sparkly bits, anything that you want both animated and have transparency needs to be on a character sheet, not the B-E tiles.

 

[Mrs_Allykat]

@Sharm I think that is the best explanation of how the tiles work that I've ever read. I know it's probably in the manual somewhere, but you made it clear as a sunny day!

 

[Sharm]

Oh, nice! I'm glad it could help someone. I've been doing tiles for a little while now, so I don't think about them the way it's described in the manual anymore. I think that sometimes all you need to understand something is for someone to describe it in a different way.

 

[MMMm]

If we're talking about interiors, stuff you'd actually find in a house.

So toilets, bathtubs and sinks.

 

[SmashArtist]

Hey, thanks for the info Sharm!
I haven't used MV recently, just got back into it, so I guess my memory is blurred. Plus you're helping me learn new deeper uses for tile types!
I'll reorganize the document as soon as I get to my computer.

Nice additional ideas MMMm, somehow I forgot interiors. Haven't finished adding all tile ideas yet, they'll add on gradually. Contributions are always appreciated!

EDIT: Hm, perhaps I should add in an animated character sheet section? What do you guys think?

 

[Sharm]

I think you should. I've found that when I'm planning out my own tilesets I need to have those marked down too. If I don't I'll either keep "remembering" that I need to make the same part over and over, or I'll forget about it completely and I won't have basic stuff that I had planned to make. I keep wanting to have the character sheets completely separate, but it helps to not think of them as actual characters. In reality they're just event images.

BTW, I just realized that one of my edits before posting made it seem like I was trying to say you should put the animated bubbles and seaweed on A2. That's not what I meant. I actually was saying to put the non-animated water tiles on A2. Personally, I'd make the bubbles and seaweed character tiles. Then they can be animated, placed anywhere, and go on top of the player if needed.

 

[Milennin]

Diagonal walls and cliffs.

For town maps, I want sign posts. No town is complete without sign posts. Also, fences are nice.

 

[Idiot]

One thing I really like for interiors are things that go on the walls - posters, clocks, shelves, towel racks, kitchy wall art, hanging tvs, strung up photos, fairy lights, tapestries, hanging plants, dreamcatchers, sconces, masks, those weird mounted animal heads, etc etc. Bare walls are as uninteresting as can be - spruce 'em up!

 

[NicoLican]

the flowers and trees that instead of being static can move in the breeze and shrubs that look less round and more real and move if there is something hidden, I do not know what category comes in but I came up with that idea.