Map Showcase and Review Thread

[Orcaline]

Oooh, very nice. It's not crammed at all. Looks almost naturalistic and calming. The one criticism I'd have is that it's a bit jarring to see the same amount of dirt around the same spot in-between each patch of grass.

Thanks man! Sorry to be a pain, but could you clarify what you mean? If you mean around the cliff tiles, I'd probably agree, but finer details like that are easy to add on

 

[SmokedPaprika]

Thanks man! Sorry to be a pain, but could you clarify what you mean? If you mean around the cliff tiles, I'd probably agree, but finer details like that are easy to add on

Mostly this area; in the attempt to make it natural and less one-dimensional, you added in mounds of dirt to give it life. However, they're all evenly spaced to the grass, evenly sized, and as a result, less natural.

Spoiler:

 

[Orcaline]

Ah right, I see what you mean. I could look at changing that.

Kinda wanted to emulate the look of a path being broken up by grass.

Thanks for the feedback!

 

[SmokedPaprika]

Ah right, I see what you mean. I could look at changing that.

Kinda wanted to emulate the look of a path being broken up by grass.

Thanks for the feedback!

No problem, man.

 

[BlackWaltz3]

Mapped a Route; feedback would be appreciated. I'm not sure if there's enough space - I always feel my maps are a little confined, and I try to cram too much detail in.]

Layout looks good, if a bit short. If that was your intent that's fine, but you have a lot of empty space you could use to make a more adventurous map. See the attachment for an example.

By the way, one mistake I noticed - and this is a common one with these kinds of tiles - is that the stairs are too short. Those are vertical cliffs, while stairs project on an incline. If the cliff is two tiles high and the stairs are two tiles high, you've actually created a ladder. Make it three tiles long.

Also, those tiles are gorgeous; are they public domain?

Edit: I haven't looked in this thread for ages, but I notice you've posted a few maps recently. In general I think you have a very good mapping style. That town you posted is a bit small, yes, but the forest is pretty much perfect.

 

[SmokedPaprika]

-snip-

Oh, yeah, that's great advice. I usually think straight-forward as well when I visualize maps and settings, but you reminded me of one of the nice, subtler things about Pokemon games that always made them exciting - what happens if come back to this and explore some more? What's past that lake? What if I do this?

Always gives the game more of an explorative dimension as a whole. Great criticism.

 

[Orcaline]

Layout looks good, if a bit short. If that was your intent that's fine, but you have a lot of empty space you could use to make a more adventurous map. See the attachment for an example..

Thanks for the feedback! I've broken up your comments just to make them easier to reply to.

The idea for the Route was that there is a tunnel that kinda breaks it in two - so upon exiting, you'd still be in the same route. Your suggested water expansion could be an interesting way of bypassing that later on, actually, so thanks for the suggestion! I'll look into maybe adding some extra areas for exploration.

By the way, one mistake I noticed - and this is a common one with these kinds of tiles - is that the stairs are too short. Those are vertical cliffs, while stairs project on an incline. If the cliff is two tiles high and the stairs are two tiles high, you've actually created a ladder. Make it three tiles long.

Totally missed that aha, will fix it.

Also, those tiles are gorgeous; are they public domain?

It's a mix-n-match of a lot of tiles I've found, but a fair few were edited. They should be fairly easy to track down though. The tree tiles, which are my personal favourites, can be found here, and the cliffs are by this guy, although I edited the larger ones to match the smaller ones.

Edit: I haven't looked in this thread for ages, but I notice you've posted a few maps recently. In general I think you have a very good mapping style. That town you posted is a bit small, yes, but the forest is pretty much perfect.

Thanks! I think my biggest problem is large spaces - I always try to make them too detailed, and so to counter that, I started making smaller, more confined maps. Large, empty spaces scare me I guess, aha. Thanks for the feedback man! Was very helpful. :)

 

[Orcaline]

Made some changes based on the suggested layout above; thoughts? New areas are a little bare, but they're intentionally rough so as to see if the layout is any better.

 

[BlackWaltz3]

Looks pretty good, nice work. I'd still suggest extending those stairs further, to be more or less parallel to the tree/cliff base for the top one and the log for the bottom one (or mushrooms if you wanna cut into the cliffside).

 

[Mana1]

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Looks like a good map! The only thing that seems a bit out of place is that tiny section of deeper water in the southern-most pool.

 

[Orcaline]

Looks like a good map! The only thing that seems a bit out of place is that tiny section of deeper water in the southern-most pool.

Thanks! Yeah, I forgot to change that when I expanded the water. Oops!

 

[Orcaline]

THIS is my region so far. The maps there are mostly finished IMO, but will need some tweaking. I filled in the middle part with trees just to fill space. Any feedback would be appreciated!

 

[Atomic Reactor]

@LMB10: I've been liking the maps you've been sharing, I love the tile usage and color schemes, it all seems so crisp and natural. I guess my only suggestion would maybe make the forest a little more interesting? It's mostly just one curvy path to the exit, would be more interesting if there were a couple more smaller areas to explore like the one towards the beginning. Other than that, I love the overall style, keep it up!

 

[Orcaline]

@LMB10: I've been liking the maps you've been sharing, I love the tile usage and color schemes, it all seems so crisp and natural. I guess my only suggestion would maybe make the forest a little more interesting? It's mostly just one curvy path to the exit, would be more interesting if there were a couple more smaller areas to explore like the one towards the beginning. Other than that, I love the overall style, keep it up!

Thanks man!


Yeah, the forest could probably use some work in terms of it being too linear. I'll give it another look. Thanks for the feedback!

 

[Orcaline]

Pretty final design for the Player's house... I hate interiors

 

[Derxwna Kapsyla]

Pretty final design for the Player's house... I hate interiors

Unless you're supposed to be able to see the upstairs area from downstairs, or you shortened the window size, you may want to make the gap between the upstairs and downstairs segments larger.

 

[Orcaline]

I just edited them together for that image. They're much further apart on the actual map

 

[Phyromatical]

I think I also post something here.

First one thing: This map itself won't be used in a game. It is more some kind of tile-test. I'm actually experimenting with different tiles to find a good style. So here is the map. I know it's not that good, but my focus was on the tileset, not the map xD (Same goes for the overworldsprites, they are just decoration).

Spoiler:

Well, I know that these mountain tiles and the water won't be used anymore. I personally don't like them very much.

 

[Orcaline]

That's a really nice map man! I'm not a huge fan of all the mixed tree types, but other than that great work!

 

[Orcaline]

Redid my second route, made it longer. Not 100% sure about it, might add some water in somewhere.