12 replies to this topic

[Professor Bedwetter]

Ebola Zaire
i'm watching a movie on lifetime and the bald guy from lost is in it



Dragonite
-FILLER MAP FILLER MAP NOT FROM A QUEST-



Jared
Hyrule Highlands.



Hergiswi
here's my map

[Russ]

Hergiswi... I know you couldn't here it, but when I saw your map, I started clapping. Bravo, good sir. Bravo.

That said, Ebola got my vote. It's amazing. Dragonite's is nice, although a bit sparse in details in a few spots, and Jared's is great too, but it just... it feels like I've seen it before. How about you show us something besides fields and forests Jared? We get it, you're great at making them. Now wow us with something else that'll catch us off guard and impress us.

[Sheik]

Ebola: Be my head and I'll be yours~ *SING* I voted for your map. I enjoy the colors a lot.

Dragonite: A good DoR map. I think I like it better then Jared's tbh.

Jared: Another good DoR map. I think a few tiles are placed just a little too messy. Maybe it just looks like that because it's a full map and not screen-by-screen.

Hergiswi: Pretty realistic. Is it classic?

[strike]

I don't mean to be rude, but I don't get whats's so great about Ebola's map. It doesn't seem to have any creative content or much content at all for that matter. Most of the screens look virtually identical. The entire map seems to be made of the same 60 tiles used over and over again. It looks like it was made by an algorithum. Maybe it's just me?

It was a close competition between Jared and Dragonite but I voted for Jared. Although I really liked Dragonite's pallets, too much of his map looked like filler. Jared had a good creative map. Good job!

-Strike

[Shane]

But you got to admit Hergiswi's map is sexy.

I voted for Jared, the field does have some things never seen before in a standard ZC field area.

Edited by Shane, 01 January 2013 - 10:34 AM.

[Hergiswi]

SIR I AM OUTRAGED BY THE LACK OF A VOTE BUTTON FOR MY MAP

Ebola Zaire: There's nothing flashy about this map, but I love the palette. To me, it looks like this would be a very believable swamp labyrinth, except prettier than a normal swamp.

Dragonite: As somebody who failed an assignment on shading in middle school art class, I very much appreciate the shading in your forest. I can tell that there has been a lot of thought put into the details of this map.

Jared: I'm not sure why, but purple trees look natural in this map. I love the castle/temple/thingy and I would love to see what goes on inside it.

This was really tough for me, but I'm gonna vote for Dragonite. There is a great level of detail that doesn't look contrived, and the outcome looks great.

[Sheik]

I don't mean to be rude, but I don't get whats's so great about Ebola's map. It doesn't seem to have any creative content or much content at all for that matter. Most of the screens look virtually identical. The entire map seems to be made of the same 60 tiles used over and over again. It looks like it was made by an algorithum. Maybe it's just me?

It's just you.

A few thoughts why I voted for Ebola's map: The design is very solid and it's overall a very clean work. There's no needless, messy stuff here. It looks purposeful. Also, the map has a wonderful atmosphere. Personally, I approove of the consitency in this map (and design choices such as always having trees "root" in the blank tiles or the way the flowers are placed on layer 1 and/or 2). Moreover, if you cared to pay attention to the details you will notice things such as the stone tables that are scattered throughout various screens that obviously serve some kind of game mechanic. I'm not sure, but I prefer a gameplay-oriented approach such as this much more in screen/map-design.

Edited by Sheik, 01 January 2013 - 01:05 PM.

[Jared]

Jared's is great too, but it just... it feels like I've seen it before. How about you show us something besides fields and forests Jared? We get it, you're great at making them. Now wow us with something else that'll catch us off guard and impress us.

My dungeons are boring and look all the same.

[The Satellite]

Don't see a problem with any of the maps, but in the end, my vote went to Jared. Sadly, it didn't come back with any jewelry.

[Moosh]

Ebola Zaire: When zoomed out I initially thought missingno had taken over your map before realizing that was just the water. I like the map, but the water e'rrywhere just doesn't fit with the elevation. Even though the tiles and palette make me assume this is a swamp, the elevation change leads me to believe otherwise. I feel like if some of those mountain tiles were replaced with deep water and some of the shallow water sections were replaced with dry land this would look a lot better. Or you could downsize the area a bit and that would probably fix it too.

Dragonite: Winner on grounds of reasonable size, acceptable flow, and prettiness. Sue me. My only gripes have to be shadows being cast on cave entrances and wave tiles used in ponds, but you know what? I don't care, Luke. I simply do not care. I voted for a standard forest map by Dragonite...I certainly didn't see that one coming...

Jared: ...
I put my clouds down on the ground sometimes,
Saying AYO! Screw the rules, yo!
I clash perspective with my castle tiles,
Saying AYO! Gonna win, bro!

I came to spread, spread, spread, spread,
Flowers like jam on bread, bread, bread, bread,
Gonna cause a headache in your head, head, head, head,
Dem forests and fields, inspiration's dead, dead, dead, dead,

Ye, ye,
'Cause it goes on and on and on...
And it goes on and on and on...
This map!

I make my maps a little big some times,
Saying AYO! Full DMap, yo!
I transition grass to sand sometimes,
Saying AYO! Don't need dirt, bro!

'Cause we gon’ rock this contest,
We gon’ go all night,
We gon’ light it up,
Like it’s dynamite!
'Cause I told you once,
Now I told you twice,
We gon’ light it up,
Like it’s dynamite!

So in the form of Taio Cruz I guess what I'm saying is your rocks look too much like clouds, your castle entrances have a different perspective from the rest of the walls and towers (which I said before already had a slight perspective clash with the walls), your ground detail is a bit off (you only have two colors of flowers repeated over and over again), as Russ said, you really need to expand your horizons when it comes to types of areas, your map feels a little big (this might just be me being used to the Gameboy tileset, feel free to ignore this one), and there's my problem with the grass to sand transitions. Maybe this makes more sense with surrounding areas providing context, I just feel grass should transition to dirt and dirt should transition to sand. Other than all that I really like this map, especially how its openness defies a lot of typical screen design patterns and how despite this openness, each individual section seems to stand out. Good job, I'd give this a solid second place.

Hergiswi: SotY 2013. Nothing can ever beat this.

Edited by Moosh, 01 January 2013 - 09:45 PM.

[SubconsciousEye]

I nulled because I could not vote for Hergiswi's map.

[Mitchfork]

Zack asked me to submit a map for this month and I was just about done with this one, so I polished it off and submitted it. I started it for Tone of Voice but now that's sort of fallen through so it's for an unnamed quest fueled by self-loathing and feelings of isolation.

Ebola: Be my head and I'll be yours~ *SING* I voted for your map. I enjoy the colors a lot.

Don't hate me, but I haven't listened to anything pre- Clouds Taste Metallic.

I don't mean to be rude, but I don't get whats's so great about Ebola's map. It doesn't seem to have any creative content or much content at all for that matter. Most of the screens look virtually identical. The entire map seems to be made of the same 60 tiles used over and over again. It looks like it was made by an algorithum. Maybe it's just me?

I think either Twilight Knight or CastChaos have said the same thing about another map/screen of mine. I think it's a reasonable criticism, I tend to think very much in terms of consistency when making areas and I think that I overdo it to an extent. I think that repetition and consistency establishes atmosphere and that's the most important thing I'm going for. I will say that this map looks much better animated (with the water and the flowers) and with enemies; it's sort of dead here.

One thing to keep in mind about Map of the Month is that in ZC, the player never sees your map (unless you enable the the map button, which I generally think is sort of tacky). They only see one screen at a time, so repetitiveness across screens is not a huge deal in my opinion as long as you have a few landmarks. In this map the landmarks are the save points (owl statues), dungeon entrances, and the stone plates. These (hopefully) help build a mental map of the area, where the player easily remembers where key screens and objects are because there are relatively few unique things to memorize.

And now I am going to be impolite and not talk about anybody else's map, except Hergiswi's, which looks like an awful place full of awful people.

[nicklegends]

That's it! The winner of Map of the Month 36 is...

Ebola Zaire!

Congratulations! It was a close contest.

Map of the Month 37 will begin shortly.