Map Showcase and Review Thread

Welcome to the Zela Region of Pokemon Melanite Version!
(Huge Maps Ahead)

I am almost completely finished mapping my region for the next release! The major parts of the over world consist of 15 maps! My computer crashed when I tried to put them all together in one image, so I had to split them up into 3. I divided them by gym pretty much, Part 1 covering the towns and routes up to the 1st gym, Part 2 goes to the 2nd gym, etc. I have put literally years of my life into this and am really proud of how everything is turning out! Please give me feedback, things you like and ideas for improvement.

PART 1 - Lily Town - Pallisa City (Northwest to Southeast)


PART 2 - Route 3 - Splitsoul Town (Southeast to North to West to Southwest)


PART 3 - Route 6 - Palm City (Northwest to Southeast, Bike Road Not Yet Accessible)

It looks so nice :) but too much trees ( i don't like maps with more trees :) ) . I'll give you a 9,5/10. The mountain looks pretty nice :)

How about Honeycomb City? Is 3rd City of my project :)

cRaCkZ said:

It looks so nice :) but too much trees ( i don't like maps with more trees :) ) . I'll give you a 9,5/10. The mountain looks pretty nice :)

How about Honeycomb City? Is 3rd City of my project :)

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You have too many drastically different buildings, you have a lot of wasted space, and the map is very large with not much direction or point to it.
The map is very spread out, and has a few very narrow paths that should be expanded by 1 tile so it's not so tight. There is a lot of empty wasted space that isn't properly utilized and leaves the player having to waste time crossing through it just to get somewhere they want to get to in awkward ways, as the map doesn't have much flow to it. Your decorations are very clustered together, rather than being spread out which pretty much defeats the purpose of using the decorations in the first place. Finally, the map is pretty square and not very interesting for a town.

It's hard to tell the purpose of the town, since every building is entirely unique and there isn't any consistency with them, which is something you should stay away from.

Just got back from an out of state trip, not entirely ready to get back to mad work on Faith & Prayer Version yet. So I decide to fiddle with the Essentials GS and look at it, then I decided to remake one of my Faith & Prayer Maps in it.


Top map is the original, bottom is the remake. The map is my remade Pallet Town. I've tried to keep it as true to the 2x2 tiling formula that GSC maintained.

Derxwna Kapsyla said:

Just got back from an out of state trip, not entirely ready to get back to mad work on Faith & Prayer Version yet. So I decide to fiddle with the Essentials GS and look at it, then I decided to remake one of my Faith & Prayer Maps in it.

Top map is the original, bottom is the remake. The map is my remade Pallet Town. I've tried to keep it as true to the 2x2 tiling formula that GSC maintained.

Click to expand...

Apart from the random cliff tiles by the lab... It looks better in GSC style... You're original one hurts my eyes with all those trees.

I have to agree with Nickaloose, though I must add that you wasted a whole lot of space on those maps.

Arma said:

I have to agree with Nickaloose, though I must add that you wasted a whole lot of space on those maps.

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Nickalooose said:

Apart from the random cliff tiles by the lab... It looks better in GSC style... You're original one hurts my eyes with all those trees.

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A lot of those trees are to account for the black void that the player will see if they weren't there, otherwise I have to agree that they are eye jarring. In actual gameplay they aren't seen and are only there to make sure the player doesn't see a black void.

Derxwna Kapsyla said:

A lot of those trees are to account for the black void that the player will see if they weren't there, otherwise I have to agree that they are eye jarring. In actual gameplay they aren't seen and are only there to make sure the player doesn't see a black void.

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But stood in the very bottom left of the map as you can go, the screen will be flooded by trees south and west... This may go for many other maps where the trees over shadow the maps town or city... In my personal opinion, if you notice the trees first... There are too many... When a player walks in to a town or route etc. They want to see where to go first, PC, Mart, Lab Etc. (forests and other misc locations are not the same) I like to have the outside slightly boring so the players eyes focus more on whats happening in the middle of the map... Although trees are boring, the contrasts are quite similar to the town itself and thus doesn't look right or in this case, hurts our eyes.

I know the style you are going for, but maybe if your maps didn't have a "perfect" tree layout... Zig zag them... Obscure them... Leave empty space... Do something more out the ordinary... You can use less trees and the maps look less empty.

But that's my opinion.

I have to agree with the above, the small trees are far too dense with detail and repetitive over a small number of tiles to be used as a map fill. Plus the original has so much space. The GSC style map looks really good though, since those open spaces are more acceptable in those game styles.

As I've posted before, I'm remaking my game in basically every way. Some routes look a lot like they did before but some have been completely reinvented. This is one of the reinvented ones:

Route 4 - Tanima Gorge (Original)


Really really really long and while it's not totally awful it's also not very nice. At this stage of making my game I had started to get a bit better, so it has some nice ingredients like playing with levels, and interesting options to backtrack and find new things you wouldn't have found on your first run through, but it ultimately falls pretty flat. These are the things I tried to keep in its reinvention, while at the same time changing everything kind of totally:



This is the Spring version of the new Route 4, and I like it a lot more. I had to cut off a bit at the bottom because that's where it becomes a town but you get the idea.

Pokemon you can find here: Combee, Deerling, Lickitung, Machop, Munchlax, Nincada, Spearow, Teddiursa, and Zubat.

Evilrake said:

This is the Spring version of the new Route 4, and I like it a lot more. I had to cut off a bit at the bottom because that's where it becomes a town but you get the idea.

Pokemon you can find here: Combee, Deerling, Lickitung, Machop, Munchlax, Nincada, Spearow, Teddiursa, and Zubat.

Click to expand...

I like that map, one thing I'd change though, the mountain that overlaps the water, I think the dark water should run all the way round, not just on the corner.

I always find it odd when Zubat appear outdoors lol.

Nickalooose said:

I always find it odd when Zubat appear outdoors lol.

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You should meet the million or so bats that inhabit the trees around where I live. Pro-tip for when you get here: Don't park your car under the trees.

Hi guys, for my project using Pokémon Essentials, I have started to make my own tileset. Can you please say what you think about both tileset and map? Thanks. The map is the starting town of the game.

I'm rather fond of the cliff side tiles you've got going on, but those trees seem pretty distant from each other.

Thanks for the feedback, TBM_Christopher! Anyway, here is the second and for now the final version. I have shrunk the map so it wouldn't be so extremely spatious, deleted one house and added a Pokémon Center (Yes, there is a Pokémon Center in the starting town and yes, Pokémon Center and Pokémart are in the same building) and moved trees closer to each other a bit. I am pretty happy with how it looks now. :)

I think the roofs should have more details. Too basic considering the trees, the cliffs... are more detailed.
Not a big fan of the center but I think it's because it looks poor in details like the roofs. No reflections on the glass for exemple (while house windows have reflections).
Tress are better, maybe you can try adding some shadow under the flowers too? Also the grey border at the bottom of the cliffs looks odd, maybe it should be more in the brown.

I'm currently remaking my Route 1 using a new tileset (still WIP, so don't pay attention to white spaces visible under some trees, and the cliffs hidden by trees too, will make specific tiles here). I'm mostly trying to get a good structure. Player comes from the bottom to reach the top.



There will be 2-3 NPCs giving advice, and some items on the floor (including hidden items).

I'm liking the rugged natural look you've got going on, and mechanically I think it's a solid map - forcing the player to go through the wild encounters one way but a fast path back. I'm not 100% keen on the different types of trees, though, and they seem to visually clash just a tad(especially those simple cone-shaped ones compared to their taller evergreen counterparts).

Yup, this tree is from the old tileset, I'm thinking about replacing it too. Or making it less different. Still not sure since it's totally possible to have different trees in real life :p

Thanks for the feedback!

Hey everyone, so so far a most of the screenshots I've been showing have been leaning mostly on the 'showcase' side of this thread, but this time I've got one that I'm actually not very sure about.



It's called Tansou City, home of the second gym (Rock type). The geometric design of the city was supposed to reflect this, but I'm thinking that perhaps it looks a bit plain. Thoughts? They can be non-specific too, just about the feel of it. I know sometimes it's hard to pick what you don't like in a map other than it just might feel 'off'.

First time mapping in GEN V style.
Thoughts?