[Developing] Pokémon: Lost Souls

While I like your more subtle changes to the Hoenn map thus far, I have to say that the lava in Littleroot looks very out of place, as do the trees' tiles due to the large spacing between them. In your map of Atakai, I fear you should probably be warned: diagonal tiles like what you've used on the coastline are not very intuitive for the player(for something that they can walk on no matter what, like a path, it's a fine additional stylistic quirk, though).

Late reply, I tend to do replies every time I've taken into account of critique and have some sort of update for everyone. Regarding the 'wasted space' I'm just one of those people who like to map where there is no black borders separating the maps. I've also added in plans for the player to use cheats to let them walk through all the tiles. As for the diagonal topic, I've got some plans to make an 8-way movement system, merely a matter of getting the overworlds done to support that system. The Hoenn region maps are pretty much outdated due to plans of re-spriting, not entirely sure why I added in lava to Littleroot town, was a random impulse during mapping it.

I've updated the region map, which has annoyingly for everyone out there got even bigger in size. I've been fixing errors in my mapping lately and added in a bit more detail to the maps. Top left map is not finished as I've recently had a creative block on that map. Ironic considering the other additions were made after that map.

Do you have anybody remaking music (I didn't bother to scroll through)? I would be happy to remix in any Soundfront, although, I already have numerous Hoenn tracks in B2W2 Sound

After nearly 2 years I've finally got off out of my seat and back into game development, so starting off is just a basic screenshot of the first route just to see if people have any suggestions on detailing for the map to keep interest in game:

carmaniac said:

After nearly 2 years I've finally got off out of my seat and back into game development, so starting off is just a basic screenshot of the first route just to see if people have any suggestions on detailing for the map to keep interest in game:

Click to expand...

I can't tell what the map as a whole looks like, but you may want to cut back on the tall grass, it just seems like a lot in that screenshot, but I may be wrong when you consider the whole map. I love the detail to the tiles, and like the idea of using 3rd gen OW's in this kind of terrain, as its the most size proportionate (ie, mountains and trees are much larger than the OW's)
I would also stray away from making dirt patches square like that, since it's just kind of unappealing, but that's a personal preference I suppose.

I love the look though, it's great. Welcome back to game dev! You still have your great skills despite your time away, I can't wait to see more from you!

Looks good but like Saving Raven said fix the dirt patches. They look unappealing when they are just squares. Also I wouldn't use gen 3 OWs I would use gen 4 but your call.

Saving Raven said:

I can't tell what the map as a whole looks like, but you may want to cut back on the tall grass, it just seems like a lot in that screenshot, but I may be wrong when you consider the whole map. I love the detail to the tiles, and like the idea of using 3rd gen OW's in this kind of terrain, as its the most size proportionate (ie, mountains and trees are much larger than the OW's)
I would also stray away from making dirt patches square like that, since it's just kind of unappealing, but that's a personal preference I suppose.

I love the look though, it's great. Welcome back to game dev! You still have your great skills despite your time away, I can't wait to see more from you!

Click to expand...

Thanks for the tips there as all of it does help, I'm not sure on overworld sprites yet for characters I'm sort of tempted on making them a little bit bigger than Gen 3 but under 4 just for a little bit more details here and there. The part of the map right now is the most empty part which is why I've uploaded it, tall grass wise yes, does seem a bit much but in practice when running the game it seems sort of ok running through, but like you say it is a small part of the map as there are routes around the grass to deviate the player a bit to give some more interest when travelling. (mainly for those who don't like going through tall grass much)

@Florio Yeah still debating on size, like I say might go in the middle size and see how it looks.

In terms of updates, progress is slow, but I'm still working on the game just obviously fixing up the ideas and going to plan on re-doing the thread completely. Right now I'm working on spriting the second town which, giving a hint is a little logging town, but the question is if there's a gym leader there what is the type of pokemon going to be and just how strong?

carmaniac said:

Thanks for the tips there as all of it does help, I'm not sure on overworld sprites yet for characters I'm sort of tempted on making them a little bit bigger than Gen 3 but under 4 just for a little bit more details here and there. The part of the map right now is the most empty part which is why I've uploaded it, tall grass wise yes, does seem a bit much but in practice when running the game it seems sort of ok running through, but like you say it is a small part of the map as there are routes around the grass to deviate the player a bit to give some more interest when travelling. (mainly for those who don't like going through tall grass much)

@Florio Yeah still debating on size, like I say might go in the middle size and see how it looks.

In terms of updates, progress is slow, but I'm still working on the game just obviously fixing up the ideas and going to plan on re-doing the thread completely. Right now I'm working on spriting the second town which, giving a hint is a little logging town, but the question is if there's a gym leader there what is the type of pokemon going to be and just how strong?

Click to expand...

The mapping is fine overall, I'm sure the tall grass is adequate considering the whole route, but since theres a lot there, other areas should be considerate of on another - you don't want to overwhelm the player with so many unavoidable encounters, while at the same time, they shouldn't be able to walk right through quickly. You need to find a middle ground, but I'm sure you have this in mind so I'm just mentioning it so that you're thinking about it.

I like the idea of finding a "middle" sprite between gen 3 and 4, as gen 4 tend to be a bit awkward, while gen 3 tend to be small and pixel-y

As for the gym, if its a logging town, then good choices would be grass, water, bug or ground
Something troubling that comes with making a gym, is making it challenging, but fair. If it's the first gym, then there is a tendency to make it too easy, or alternatively making it "challenging" but forgetting to account for the fact that there is a limited source of pokemon within the first few areas, an therefore making viable teams are very difficult.

Sorry if I'm rambling on, you mentioned you wanted as much fedback as possible since you're started to come back into game dev, so I tried to touch upon as much as possible.