Tips for Mapmaking

[Tsukuru]

I've seen many screens from quest makers like PrinceMSC and Raichu, and their maps are phenomenal. Does anyone have any tips on making maps look attractive to the eye and not just another splurge of tiles?

[Ganonator]

ahh.. good question.

I used to be a horrible overworld creator until I found out all of the little tricks. In leiu of a bad interior decorator, we'll use that dialog as well. Let's take a looksy.

http://members.fortunecity.com/ganonator1/t1.gif
Booooooring..!! Of course, to the average quest maker, this could be good. Let's not be average. We need some more stuff in the picture.

http://members.fortunecity.com/ganonator1/t2.gif
Adding contours to your worlds will add a lot in the long run. If you start out planning your whole water scheme as well, you can start by drawing that to perfection before getting started - almost like using SimCity. Keep that in mind.

http://members.fortunecity.com/ganonator1/t3.gif
Lets curve that a little bit. Instead of the standard ladder, lets go with a vine. Little things like this can sure help. Problem is, this screen is still bland.

http://members.fortunecity.com/ganonator1/t4.gif
Muy bien. Some grass, flowers, and a nice rock. Think random - notice that NONE of the grass clippings are the same. Random placement ensures your player won't say "oh my goodness! They quest designer doesn't know what he is doing!" Always a plus to avoid that.

http://members.fortunecity.com/ganonator1/t5.gif
Finally! That nice lived in look. Adding that last color to the equation finishes off the screen. There is no symetry, and it looks great. If you can make a handful of screens in your OW's look good, the player will be happy.

so - here are some things to keep in mind.
1) Contour
2) Don't do things in straight lines.
3) You have 65536 Combos. Use more than 1 on a screen.
4) Use more than 3 countable colors on the screen. On the last screen shot above, you can count Green grass, dark green trees, brown bridge and banks, dark brown rocks, dark brown grass, and white flowers. White is important, but don't use only use it on your screen. Also, blue water. Water adds quite a bit to a boring green screen. (btw, that's 7 colors people notice. You could throw like a rainbow on, but if its unnoticable, it doesn't count.)

Lets look at some more screens, and you can see what was done correctly or incorrectly. These are all from the 2.2 version of J:R. After 6 Dumps (yes. Good things do go bad) The above screen was from 8.2

http://members.aol.com/quikslvr38/jr3.gif
This is one of my personal favorite examples. Precipitation can be used very effectively in this type of area. Keep in mind the overland contours. There are ground paths. The clouds in the background are random. Shweet.

http://members.aol.com/quikslvr38/jr1.gif
This is a very nice dungeon room, and not just because I made it myself. ;) The colors can be mesmerizing - it is a dungeon. Using symmetry in dungeons adds sooo much to the levels, where symmetry in the overworld is like whatever. (cause something built the underworld, and the overworld is natural. interesting) The one thing I will make a large emphasis on is completing the job. Notice that clearly beautiful map in the upper left hand corner? That is how you top of a terrific level. Use all of the features.

http://members.aol.com/quikslvr38/jr4.gif
Oh dear god no!! Be careful when drawing things that are a lot of screens thick. You can get caught up in the design, and forget that the each individual screen takes work. i'm ashamed to show this one off.

Finally,
http://members.aol.com/quikslvr38/jr9.gif
Make a world where you feel like you want to participate in. I could have easily just made this a pit or some holes in the ground. Make it a high-flying adventure!

Have fun, get out there, and quest like the greats! You never know; your quest could be right up there with Sabotage Dragoon, Mystic Land, or The Descendent! It could be up there with J:R!!

[Tsukuru]

Wow, great advice. You should post this as a tutorial on a webpage. Thanks for the help.

[DeathLink]

yeah! you have WAY to much time

[Ganonator]

lol... its funny what you can whip up at a quarter to midnight...

seriously though. If you don't like your own work, so something about it. it takes time to make things look nice.

[Cloral]

Yes that is very true. You may notice that I have no quests to my credit around here - this is because I work so slowly that by the time I get anywhere I'm tired of my quest.

One piece of advice I would reiterate from above: concentrate on each individual screen as its own entity. Sure, it should fit into the overworld as a whole, but if the screen doesn't play well, what worth does it have? I've found that one of the most important factors in making a screen play well is forcing the player to come out towards the middle of the room. If they can just hug the edge of the screen, no enemies can get to them and they'll be safe. To this end, the majority of your obstacles should be on the edge of the screen. For instance, if you have a cliff with a ladder up the side, have the cliff straddle 2 screens so that it helps to direct the player up and into the middle of the next screen. This isn't to say that the middle of your screen should be empty though - a good sprinkling of trees and rocks makes for a more interesting battlefield as the player has to make use of their skills to negotiate the obstacles while fighting.

[Tsukuru]

Cloral that's a good suggestion, could you post a couple screen shots for an example?

[lord_jamitossi]

Another thing i can point out is that if you use water and lava on the same screen it makes a cool effect. especially in dungeons.

[Cloral]

I can have some screenshots up tomorrow when I can get my computer back online. But I'm sure in the meantime someone else can illustrate my point quite effectively.

[Tsukuru]

I'll save you the trouble ...

http://img.villagephotos.com/p/2003-6/233104/enemyex.gif

This is a shot from a quest I'm working on. Is this what you mean by putting the obstacles on the edge of the screen?

[Cloral]

OK. First off, the example of what not to do:

http://cloral.homestead.com/files/edge1.JPG
Besides being boring, this screen has one real major problem - the ledge at the top of the screen. The ledge adjorns a larger flat area on the screen above. The screen edge serves to split this flat area, making it largely ineffectual. It would be useless to place enemies in the upper ledge. The lower area plays fine though, and really the solution here is to move the cliff upwards several tiles so that it spans the screen edge.

http://cloral.homestead.com/files/edge2.JPG
In this area, the LttP-style foliage is used to define the pathway. Placing it along the edges forces the path to come through the middle of the screen, where a couple of trees help to create some interest. This is an example of how with a simple system you can force the area to play better. Granted this isn't the prettiest thing in the world, but it works. And note that this is from an area that is early on in this quest, so it isn't meant to be very hard to play. To be honest, the LttP style doesn't work very well for playability, because all the things are so large.

http://cloral.homestead.com/files/edge3.JPG
Here is my best example. It is from an area I am working on called Falstine Island. The numerous palm trees help to set the exotic setting, and serve to provide interesting terrain to fight in. The cliffs are all along the edges to force the player inward. Also here I have added a number of decorations (grass, flowers, even a fish jumping in the water) to add visual interest. Generally these decorations don't have to be too complex - so long as the enemies keep them busy, the players won't probably have much time to notice.


Your screen is fine regarding the criteria I set forth above, however I would suggest you examine the area in the top right corner. If it is connected to a larger open area, you might want to think about restricting the access to it a bit so it doesn't cut into the area as much. Also, if you wanted this to be a screen where Link has to do battle, it wouldn't work so well, because the center of the screen is taken up by scenery and thus there just ins't that much space in which to fight. However I am pretty sure that isn't what you intended it for. That bush on the ledge there is going to hide some nice secret, right? And for this, it works quite nicely, since the player can see that there is a secret there without seeing an obvious way to reach it. This prompts the player to search further, which is always good.

[Ganonator]

i'm very impressed by that screen you post there, Tsukuru.. very impressed.

It take a lot to keep up that kind of dedication.

The real trick is to be able to do the whole package. I am using Pure for part of my quest, and Orion's Z3 for the rest. When you have to import your own combos, it takes a lot more 'dedication'. You have a great grasp on the concepts. I hope your quest plays as good as that screen looks.