Graphics Looking for constructive criticism

[Hellviper]

So these are some of the maps I've made for the game I'm working on. I'm still new to MV (Just got it about a month ago now) and would love some feedback on these. (Tried to choose 5 different areas.). I haven't done parallaxing much yet. Except I did use a picture frame that was empty, for a sky parallax on the Inn.

Appreciate any and all feedback. Don't be afraid to be harsh, I want to better my mapping. ;)

Thanks in advance!

Snow Castle


Ice Caves (First part of a 3 map cave, the bright ice on the top right is using the Yanfly Slippery Tiles Plugin for a small puzzle.).


Forest Temple (This is my biggest concern, I think it looks ok. But I do see I can improve it. How is the question haha.).


Small starting Village


Inn (For a different bigger town.)

 

[Phil]

I recommend you to parallax map if you're really want your maps to look original, a youtuber called Fallen Lorelei made a very good tutorial about parallax mapping.

 

[Hellviper]

I recommend you to parallax map if you're really want your maps to look original, a youtuber called Fallen Lorelei made a very good tutorial about parallax mapping.

Thanks! Will spend the time to watch her videos and apply it!

Don't have Photoshop, though she mentioned GIMP. Is this fine or should I just get Photoshop instead? I'll be honest, I don't know the differences between them too well haha.

 

[Phil]

Thanks! Will spend the time to watch her videos and apply it!

Don't have Photoshop, though she mentioned GIMP. Is this fine or should I just get Photoshop instead? I'll be honest, I don't know the differences between them too well haha.

Photoshop have no perpetual license(except CS6 i think), Gimp is free and open source, if you're looking for a professional tool that have everything you need photoshop is the way to go, if you're looking for a free and resourceful image editing software, I recommend Gimp. What turn off most people is the cost of Photoshop, which I agree, is not cheap.

 

[Isaac The Red]

I definitely agree, fallen lorelei is an amazing youtuber to watch if you ant to see how parallax mapping is done and how to use it to make amazing looking maps even with the rtp resources.

As for criticism on the maps you provided, You;ve got a good idea of how to use MVs built in mapping tools quite well and it shows with your snow castle map bit, it looks good, paralaxxing it would help and give you plenty of space to improve, but from a non parallax base mapping standpoint it looks good. The little town bit screams pokemon, that's about all I can say about it. It just screams pokemon. The problem I have is with your dungeons.

The ice cave is shaped fine, and with a little extra work could be good, perhaps something to darken the caves to make that sharp blue less eye-murdering. The forest temple though, it looks like a man made cave all hallways and square rooms. A temple is still a structure, you should approach it similarly to how you did the house interior. Exception of course would bee say deeper in the temple if it breaks off into a cave like area or something. But from a structural stand point all tat empty space between rooms and passages feels like wasted space.

 

[Hellviper]

I definitely agree, fallen lorelei is an amazing youtuber to watch if you ant to see how parallax mapping is done and how to use it to make amazing looking maps even with the rtp resources.

As for criticism on the maps you provided, You;ve got a good idea of how to use MVs built in mapping tools quite well and it shows with your snow castle map bit, it looks good, paralaxxing it would help and give you plenty of space to improve, but from a non parallax base mapping standpoint it looks good. The little town bit screams pokemon, that's about all I can say about it. It just screams pokemon. The problem I have is with your dungeons.

The ice cave is shaped fine, and with a little extra work could be good, perhaps something to darken the caves to make that sharp blue less eye-murdering. The forest temple though, it looks like a man made cave all hallways and square rooms. A temple is still a structure, you should approach it similarly to how you did the house interior. Exception of course would bee say deeper in the temple if it breaks off into a cave like area or something. But from a structural stand point all tat empty space between rooms and passages feels like wasted space.

Great feedback, I appreciate it! Definitely going to go back and redo some maps once I get the parallaxing figured out. I'm trying to use the OrangeMapOverlay. But whenever I use it I can't do anything in the game, I'm just stuck in place. Can't figure it out.

Temple I really did not like, just didn't look right at all to me. (Maybe if I revamp it and don't name it a temple it would be alright haha).

Again thanks for the reply, I'll use that info to better my mapping!
[doublepost=1471594999,1470820054][/doublepost]So I got Photoshop and started more on learning Parallaxing. This is my first attempt at it. Would love to get some constructive criticism on what I can improve on here. (HUGE thanks to Fallen Lorelei, easy to follow and learn from. This map was based off her Large Forest.).

 

[Isaac The Red]

@Hellviper Has Orange Map Overlay been updated for use in 1.3.0+ with the move to pixi4 a lot of plugins that handle graphics won't work until their makers update them, and of course you have to get the updates. But your forest there looks pretty good. Make sure you take the time and snip it into layers properly so players can actually walk behind some of the tree stuffs. You'll also want to make sure the layers that you export are exported in a reasonable format/compression as to not be huuuge files. It will make the game run a lot smoother if it oonly has to load 1 or 2 MB images as opposed to 15+ mb files.

Keep up the good work, and have fun!

 

[Phil]

Great feedback, I appreciate it! Definitely going to go back and redo some maps once I get the parallaxing figured out. I'm trying to use the OrangeMapOverlay. But whenever I use it I can't do anything in the game, I'm just stuck in place. Can't figure it out.

Temple I really did not like, just didn't look right at all to me. (Maybe if I revamp it and don't name it a temple it would be alright haha).

Again thanks for the reply, I'll use that info to better my mapping!
[doublepost=1471594999,1470820054][/doublepost]So I got Photoshop and started more on learning Parallaxing. This is my first attempt at it. Would love to get some constructive criticism on what I can improve on here. (HUGE thanks to Fallen Lorelei, easy to follow and learn from. This map was based off her Large Forest.).

Nice! Your parallaxing is very stylistic and neat! it is an improvement
since you first started to map, you used the parallax to your advantage by bending the things that
is impossible to bend in the mapping, definitely an improvement than the one you made before.

 

[Psycoris]

Very Nice work for a first parallax. Good use of breaking the standard grid.

Critique cobblestone paths tend to become overgrown. I would switch that to dirt or change the cobblestone to become more defined and pronounced with a fixed width and more of a pronounced edge. A tip to consider here is: who hand built this cobblestone path why was such effort put into such path instead of just packed earth. Why did they let it become overgrown? Why build a cobblestone path to a cliff edge? It helps if you think of the story of the environment as you build it and how it could have come to be.

I also noticed with a the parallax and the castle maps that you spend to the time to detail areas that are "inaccessible" such as the island in the middle and the edges of the castle. If you are going to be making a game with primary parallax it is important to not waste memory and effort on something that can't be seen.
It is a large map as well that winds around the river that winds around the map. Does the length have a purpose? Rivers tend to flow downslope and follow the path of least resistance. Sharp bends have silt deposits and carve well defined horsehoe shape. As an artist it is more than alright to bend and break the rules if it goes to far it will start to carry an unnatural tone.

Also as a note things to consider when mapping is what purpose is the map for. Is it to draw the player into the atmosphere very serene music played on top of a peaceful map that can be lazily strolled through. Is it a puzzle or a maze "note mazes are usually bad". Each map sets the stage for something in the game. Always consider the player perspective as well as the game developers atmospheric intentions. Amysaurus did a good write up on color use in games give that a look to help build the intended atmosphere of a map https://rpgmakermv.co/xfa-blog-entry/lets-talk-about-colors-pt-1.11/