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Map of the Month 93

Matthew

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Poll: Map of the Month 93 (33 member(s) have cast votes)

A new year, a new contest, and a new winner. Who will that be this month?

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#16 Evan20000

Evan20000

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Posted 03 January 2018 - 12:50 PM

Shoshon's is amazing in its simplicity yet still being interesting. Ideal for a first dungeon and gets my vote.

 

Matthew was my runner up, it looks great and I can't really say "I would change X, Y and Z" about it; I just happened to like Shoshon's more. Stop reading this and go work on your quest.

 

Joel's isn't bad either, but the lack of distinct landmarks except towards the middle section seems like the edges of the map would feel a little samey. Great use of elevation though.

 

Demonlink, basically same as Joel. Landmarks or other major points of interest will help the map feel more memorable. Or failing that, stuff it full of rupees/heart pieces/whatever other goody you can hide.

 

Anthus, it looks good and really functional. I'd actually be the more interested in seeing this in a finished quest, but the Zelda 1-esque vibrant green walls feel a bit.... weird when put with other elements like the trees and similarly colored floors. I'd suggest washing the color out of the walls a little bit to help the green room objects be more visually captivating. Of course, I realize this is a default palette of that tileset so my criticism isn't really with you but the tileset; I'm just not a fan of the wall color. :P

 

Yloh, same deal with Anthus. The green in the lower section is extremely bright. Maybe it looks better ingame, but the map(especially contrasting the more reserved green on the top layer) isn't doing it any favors. Interesting looking gameplay though!


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#17 Deedee

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Posted 04 January 2018 - 03:44 AM

none. some. all. few.

What is this cycle? The eternal cycle of nothing. The possible series of something. The undesired fates of everything. A few.

Is this the meaning of life? The glorious second coming of the one true meaning? Do we, us humble men, worship the word of the great one, the word of who will save us all, from the one true evil that is this false beauty of desires that are never to be completed, never to be finished?

"none"

It is with these words that I bring praise to our lord, preach to your hearts! Preach to the skies! Preach, to thy brothers, to thy sisters, and preach! We must become better than the taint that has corrupted our world! We must overcome these sins, these terrors, brought upon us by the evil of false hope, by the evil of the incomplete! Join us, and become pure in heart, pure in spirit. Join us, and be blessed with your choice to perform a vote of null!

Join us, and worship the words of our savior: "none". Thank you.


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#18 Joelmacool

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Posted 04 January 2018 - 10:39 AM

Joel's isn't bad either, but the lack of distinct landmarks except towards the middle section seems like the edges of the map would feel a little samey. Great use of elevation though.

Could you elaborate on what you mean by "the lack of distinct landmarks except towards the middle section seems like the edges of the map would feel a little samey"? How could I prevent this to improve the map as a whole?



#19 Evan20000

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Posted 05 January 2018 - 05:25 AM

Could you elaborate on what you mean by "the lack of distinct landmarks except towards the middle section seems like the edges of the map would feel a little samey"? How could I prevent this to improve the map as a whole?

Sure. So look at a few of the screens (assuming this is centered in the top left corner of ZQuest).

Screens 10, 31, 02, 32, 21 and to a lesser extent 13 all follow the formula of "Same general cluster of trees surrounded by or on top of cliff with maybe a tent or water thrown on". What I would suggest doing is add more points of interest to draw the player's attention to some screens via gameplay features like you have with 22 (Can I swim under that cliff? Is there treasure down there?), 03 (has a cave as a point of interest), 14 (Dungeon?) and a lesser degree 24 (Are those irregular openings used for anything?). Lets look at an example in an official title. Look at Link to the Past's Light World map. The gameplay features are highlighted by unique tiles to make them stand out against the "generic" houses and stuff to easily draw your attention. The fortune telling shops have unique entrances to remain memorable in the event you get lost, and the potion shop has a unique building to help it be memorable in an otherwise fairly generic part of the overworld. Now obviously a person's attention to mapping detail is limited, and if everything has a unique graphical style, then nothing really stands out (if everyone is super, nobody is etc etc) so it has to be used sparingly (and of course the obvious logistics of drawing unique entrances for stuff) so it's a bit of a balancing act. The reason I pointed it out is that you said this is 1/4 of your whole overworld yet I only see a handful of 'memorable' locations. This might not even hold water (most facilities are in a town, etc), but it's something to be mindful of at the very least.


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#20 Joelmacool

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Posted 05 January 2018 - 10:33 AM

Sure. So look at a few of the screens (assuming this is centered in the top left corner of ZQuest).

Screens 10, 31, 02, 32, 21 and to a lesser extent 13 all follow the formula of "Same general cluster of trees surrounded by or on top of cliff with maybe a tent or water thrown on". What I would suggest doing is add more points of interest to draw the player's attention to some screens via gameplay features like you have with 22 (Can I swim under that cliff? Is there treasure down there?), 03 (has a cave as a point of interest), 14 (Dungeon?) and a lesser degree 24 (Are those irregular openings used for anything?). Lets look at an example in an official title. Look at Link to the Past's Light World map. The gameplay features are highlighted by unique tiles to make them stand out against the "generic" houses and stuff to easily draw your attention. The fortune telling shops have unique entrances to remain memorable in the event you get lost, and the potion shop has a unique building to help it be memorable in an otherwise fairly generic part of the overworld. Now obviously a person's attention to mapping detail is limited, and if everything has a unique graphical style, then nothing really stands out (if everyone is super, nobody is etc etc) so it has to be used sparingly (and of course the obvious logistics of drawing unique entrances for stuff) so it's a bit of a balancing act. The reason I pointed it out is that you said this is 1/4 of your whole overworld yet I only see a handful of 'memorable' locations. This might not even hold water (most facilities are in a town, etc), but it's something to be mindful of at the very least.

I understand what you're saying now. I'll try to make more screens seem like an addition to gameplay or just interest the player. Thanks for the feedback!



#21 Eddy

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Posted 01 February 2018 - 09:55 AM

Congrats to Matthew for winning this month!

 

Demonlink (6 votes [20.69%])

Anthus (4 votes [13.79%])

Yloh (3 votes [10.34%])

Shoshon the Elegant (2 votes [6.90%])

Joelmacool (2 votes [6.90%])

Matthew (12 votes [41.38%])

 

The results for the finals should be done soon-ish, but first I'll get the next MotM started :P


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