1375 replies to this topic

[Binx]

Not a whole massive ton of progress, but I've made slight headway

[Quanta]

Here is another  map. 

[Sephiroth]

Level A, ... reason I'm calling it level A is there's ... well, not much to it.

[Matthew]

Looks simple enough... Maybe you could add more ground decorations, though!

[Sephiroth]

Looks simple enough... Maybe you could add more ground decorations, though!

Possible, but there won't be much you can do since you'd be swordless for the entirety of this dungeon, so I figured it wasn't necessary.

[Matthew]

I'm sure you could add a carpet or something. It would certainly look more detailed.

[Naru]

@Binx - I was shocked about the violet at the first moment. Yeah, it fits well to the mushrooms and creates a great atmosphere, but I can imagine some confusion if you enter

 

@Sephiroth - The wall-tiles look great and all, but also feel somehow lacking. After a short look through mc-maps I think that this is created through a lack of a different colour.

[Eddy]

Looking pretty nice Sephiroth, though as FlameCursed said, maybe a bit more ground decoration (like a carpet) would look nicer.

[Joelmacool]

Looks good! Add some cracks and some borders if you want.

[Matthew]

Using some of the advice Shane gave in an earlier post, I made a small town! I really like creating screens using Shane's style, honestly. It's very pretty and not overly-complicated. Just another reason EZGBZ is my favorite tileset!

 

[Binx]

Changed up my palette. Any thoughts on the new colors? Thinking the medium blue might be a shade or two too light, maybe?

Old palette

New Palette

[Feenicks]

Going to say I prefer the older palette: save for the water, the new one seems a bit too washed out for the Koten tiles to really work.

Try throwing the water colors into the old palette and see how that looks.

[Binx]

The total palette is actually darker, in most respects, since I added darker shades to every CSet, I just reorganized the colors into light, medium and dark ramps, for easier recoloring, and less 8-bit tiles needed. The medium ramp is probably the closest to the standard Koten coloring. Still, you're probably right that I should go through and replace some of the buildings and most of the trees with darker versions, since there were originally two sets of color per CSet, rather than the current setup, which allows for more color variation in the tiles. A little surprised you'd want to move the much brighter water shades to the old palette, however, since that's the part that seems the most off-puttingly bright, to me.

[Lüt]

Changed up my palette. Any thoughts on the new colors?

The first thing that jumped out to me was the bright neon blue of the shallow water. Like, jumped the hell out. It kind of works at the far upper left, next to the bright green grass. It's also OK at the top center, with the small pond surrounded by the boldly saturated deep green grass. And it's actually a decent match with the sandy shorelines. But take the lake near the center, to the left of the castle. That intense blue makes the minty green grass almost look grayed out by comparison. It also does a similar favor for any treetops layered over it. And even when the saturations match, the sheer brightness draws the eye (at least, my eye) away from everything else on the screen. Furthermore, and perhaps most importantly, the difference in color between shallow and deep water is exceptionally extreme. The original looks like a moderate shift in depth; the new one looks like the bottom of the world opened up right below the shoreline. But now, flipping back and forth between the images, the original color looks like an oil spill by comparison. If you can find a balance between the two, I think you'll be good.

 

Alternatively, I like that you've made some colors more consistent. The trees are probably the best example. The original ones almost look like the palette got jumbled; there's a such thing as color ramping, but mixing tan, green and aqua is overshooting, to say the least. The new shades of green make them look much more like proper trees, and even the tans that you did leave intact are a much better match next to the bright greens than they were beside the dark greens. I also like the additional variety of grass shades that you've added.

 

Yet, there's an overall consistency in the original that new one lacks. While I like all the new shades of green, the issue here has to do with contrast and saturation.

 

Except for the shallow water, the boldness of all the original colors matched quite well. In the new one, there's an odd mix of vibrant and dull. Head back to the upper left. You've got a muted green grass covering most of the area, then directly below the dungeon entrance, there's this bright neon patch of grass that looks like a glow-stick. And to the right of that, there's a deeply saturated patch of grass that makes the surrounding grass look foggy by comparison. In fact, it reminds me of one of those eye-jump images, where if I look at the main grass, those patches look almost engorged with color, while if I stare at those patches, the main grass looks pale. The brighter grass at the top of the ladder is a step in a better direction, but still only halfway between.

 

Then there's certain points with minor contrast, and other points with great contrast. Looking at the grass patches again, you've got the medium-colored main grass with the deep blades, but that bright neon patch has almost no distinction by comparison. Then you've got those buildings below. The rooftops are a good example of a reduction in contrast that I think went too far. The orange ones got hit the most, with the green and purple not far behind. The cyan one I like though. You brightened it up while still retaining its original contrast. I also like how you removed the blue shades from the stone building and replaced them with gray. That one looks way better. The darker brick paths on the lower level are also a nice touch. But again, I think some of the colors went a bit too neon. The cyan the most, the orange ones a little bit, the red one looked more like wood in the original, but that green one... well, the building's a far more lively green than the trees surrounding it. Make of that what you will.

 

Overall, I think you moved in the right direction, but made some significant overshoots at certain points. If you can find a good blend between the original and the update, I think you'll have it together quite nicely.

 

Also, palettes aside, I have to say, I really love the look of this map. From the plains to the cliffs to the shorelines, from the little dungeon entrances to the small buildings to the large castle, you've taken a large variety of design ideas and combined them nearly seamlessly. It looks like it's going to be really fun to play.

[ywkls]

Here's a preview of the new warp zone being added to Passage Through Time. A shrine in the clouds was suggested, but I just went with pathways in the clouds because I'm lazy like that.

 

 

I would put something at the top in the middle, but that would mean deciding what goes there. Maybe a super-secret extra-hard optional boss? But then, what would the reward be?