3 replies to this topic

[Taco Chopper]

Firstly, thank you to everyone who's offered to be a beta tester for the upcoming demo.

Secondly my to-do list for this quest has shrunk massively over the past week - it's down to single digits somehow!
The last major feature i'm implementing is an overworld map. I'm sure anyone who's seen any screenshots of this quest since I started taking development seriously is the lack of a map on the passive subscreen. I'm not personally huge on having a Z1-style map on there as it just feels clunky in contrast to the minimalist approach of the rest of the subscreen. I'm also not a big fan of the in-built spacebar map - particularly with the amount of FFCs I'm using. It's 2022, not 2003 - I want it to look like a good quest!
I'd planned on using Moosh's dungeon map screen script for the dungeons early on in development, but I hadn't really thought about what sort of overworld map script I'd be able to use, or set up alongside it.

With very minor editing, floundermaj's map script works fine alongside Moosh's script as a basic overworld map:



I am finding the approach of having to design the map as a whole unit interesting. It's 15x10 pixels per map screen, which works out to 16x7 on a normal tilesheet. In saying this though, I'd rather have a map than have nothing for players to work with at all.

Once the map of the demo's playable area is finished, I don't think there'll be a lot left - mostly stuff like shop item balancing, accessibility of specific items (I don't want anyone buying bomb ammo before they have bombs, it's only fair right?) and a little bit more NPC dialogue work. For anyone who's offered to be a beta tester, expect me to add you into the project with a link to the demo very, very soon.

[Ica]

I think this map looks brilliant!

I'm still unsure on what to do with the map for my quest, so this is quite inspiring.

 

This is shaping up to be an amazing quest, I'm excited. 

[Jared]

Looking great! Can't wait to beta test

[Taco Chopper]

I think this map looks brilliant!
I'm still unsure on what to do with the map for my quest, so this is quite inspiring.
 
This is shaping up to be an amazing quest, I'm excited.

 
the most important thing i've found when designing this map display has been having references. the oracle games have been huge influences on the designs of this quest so far so it makes sense that i've used them as references to draw up the maps.
 
for example, the map subscreen of holodrum from seasons:

 

i might not have revealed the entire world map in this post, but you can see the ideas that i've taken and implemented into my own work. referencing 8x8 tiles for 16x7 ones has its issues, but overall the main concepts still translate really well. it mightn't necessarily be 1:1 for the map, but it's closer to that when comparing it to the game engine it's using. it becomes 15x10 when factoring in the black borders.
 
this is an older version of the map i put together, before i'd decided to use floundermaj's script:

 

16x16 tiles, and probably a bit too much space for what it was worth. the idea's still there, but there was a touch too much space for me to play with, which is why i like the 16x11 limitations of floundermaj's script. the concept of less being more seems to be a recurring theme of this quest's development

Edited by Taco Chopper, 10 March 2022 - 08:22 AM.