OneLegend

haha, thank you for the feedback. the reason I didn't bother doing much for the castle in the first place was because I had originally made it as a New Kingdom type thing, it actually WAS supposed to be just built recently and that's the point of you journeying there, to make peace with the new King. However I've scrapped that idea and I noticed that it looks too bland now and that's why I put this up here, and I'm trying to make it look more dirty. I've also been touching up on the forest a little bit, and I made a couple more branching areas that I've completely removed the water from. However upon attempting to remove the water from the original forest I just can't get it to look right so I'm still working on that. I've tried the 'swamp' thing before and I am absolutely horrible at it. Thank you for the encouragement btw, it's nice to know that I'm getting a little better at mapping. Overall I'm spending a lot more time on the mapping than I used to. Like I said, though, a big part of my problem is that I'm using the basics that the maker came with (the RTP) so I'm struggling to make variety in different areas, as in if I make a new forest I don't want it to look like this one, which is why I added in the pools of water. What I think I'm going to do now is grab some tilesets and redesign the forest with different tiles. The make-up will probably be the same but without the random areas of water and the strange makeup of the plantlife.

VERY helpful, thank you. Your feedback on the forest is exactly what I was looking for, especially with the water and the trees. Yes, the water was entirely placed to just break up the land a little bit and I was hoping somebody would inform me whether it looked right or not. I also know that the flowers were definitely not placed well enough and I was looking for feedback on how to fix that, which you also did. I'm going to be going back to the maps and making the walls/trees taller. For the bridge : I had no idea about the passing tiles thing, thank you! I also was having a really hard time even making the bridge with the limited tiles I'm given with the RTP, but I'm tryin my best. Castle : I knew SOMETHING was missing with the castle, I just didn't realize that the problem was it was too maintained. Again, thank you for all the feedback!

These are some maps I'm designing for my game currently. I only have a few done but I'd like some feedback on them. My main concern is that some things in the forests are maybe TOO random and that the castle looks a little too bland. Also, I know I'm missing a window in the last screenshot above the door.

Ohh, thank you for the answer. I knew about the requests sections but in a way I want things that'd be unique to the game I'm creating, I just didn't know if it was allowed to recruit members here that I could then in turn pay for help. Appreciate it! (I also didn't know that tagging was a requirement, so I'm sorry about that!)

Now when I ask this question I don't mean... "If I have a great story and gameplay but my maps are super plain and boring will it matter?" Of course I know it'll matter, that's not my question. I'm asking about Parallax Mapping. I know that doing it makes maps feel more alive and look far better and less blocky than the regular way of mapping, but will it make or break a game for you? If someone maps well in the original way, how many points off a games overall rating would it knock off?

I was just having a random thought. I know there are times in games when you just don't want to fight every 10 seconds. You want to progress through the story, fight the bosses, and beat the game. So what if you were to put random battles into the game, but make them completely avoidable and only fight the bosses? Believe me, I know it would make no sense. How do you beat the bosses if you haven't leveled up with random battles? And if you scale the bosses down so it's beatable without doing random battles, why would anyone want to participate in the random battles? This is where I'm stuck. I was thinking about having a training mini-game system for alternate leveling. Within towns are training barracks where you can do various mini-games in order to advance your stats. I'd put monsters around maps that commence battles if you touch them, but they will never aggro on you. You can progress through the game/main story without fighting in any random battles if you don't want to. I know that sometimes when I'm playing a Final Fantasy game or something, I just get so sick and tired of random battles. I just want to reach the next area, cutscene, or boss. What does everyone think of something like this?

Exactly the kind of answers I was hoping for. I agree with you Devon and appreciate your insight onto this and that's probably exactly what I'll end up doing. No leveling or stats, just a free-roam action game highly driven by story. And for you, tensoup, it makes me feel great that you actually seem interested in this. I've been putting a lot of thought into this story and I have many different ideas. I definitely should do that flash-back thing because you're right, games are always better when the emotions of the main character reach you as a player, and you actually become concerned for these people. You really want to crush Aurixen's army for what they did. I also greatly appreciate your feedback on the story. I have yet to decide how the final confrontation will play out. I might not even make winning an option. Earth's forces definitely shouldn't be powerful enough to make a dent in Aurixen's army and that's something Kalor will know and have to try and overcome. I'm not very good with working with complicated scripts like the real-time action scripts, I always run into errors and get lazy with it but I'm going to really work at it this time.

Excellent point and thanks for telling me this, I 100% neglected to consider that people wouldn't know what I'm talking about, lol. I'll add some more details to the original post.

Bump..

(DISCLAIMER : The game that I posted was in development quite a while ago, The Savior, is not dead. Posting this thread also does not mean it is out of development. I have run into a lot of personal things and don't have much time lately, but it will be completed. I'm currently awaiting some new scripts before I delve any deeper into it.) After playing and watching a lot of Dragonball Z, and watching Man of Steel again, I got really into a story I was crafting that was somewhat related to the basic storylines of Goku and Superman. I wanted a story centered around an incredibly powerful and not-of-this-world character who ended up abandoning his home planet. Except I wanted it to be for different reasons than Goku or Superman. I also want this character to not be pure of heart. His intentions are not good and he is not concerned about the safety of Earth or the inhabitants of it. He seeks revenge and he fights alone. The main thing with Dragonball Z and everyone loving Goku so much was what kind of a person he was. His morals and his personality. His attitude and his guidance. He was a protector of Earth and somebody that everyone looks up to. I want a character like that, except I want his progression to be more dark. So I will begin with the storyline I have crafted so far. While scouting for help across this newly found planet, the inhabitants will come to find that Kalor is not of this world and they don't know whether to trust him or not. They end up attacking him and he wipes everyone out that tries to engage. The humans realize they cannot stop him and they should only try and listen to him and help him with whatever he needs. So begins his quest of gathering Earth's various armies in order to retaliate against the inevitable attack on Earth. So what's my issue? I already know how it's gunna play out. The general gameplay will be to adventure across Earth to encounter all of its major powers and convince them to join forces to stop Aurixen's army. But how would it play out? What battle system should I use for a single hero game? I'm guessing action-based, but what about leveling? He's already incredibly powerful compared to Earth's people, how could he get any stronger? I considered using an 'adapting to Earth's atmosphere' approach but that's probably too cliche.

Haha but in a way it sounds really interesting. And it's not really like that.. If my entire party was girls I'd want at least a couple guys in there, too, just because I like the diversity of personalities. Idk, maybe it's just me, but I find it more fun this way. Obviously she's gunna fit into the story and have a specific role. It's more like, okay, I could have made her a guy but I decided to change my mind because I need someone with a girly attitude for this specific role (i dont wanna spoil anything).

Well idk, the way I see it is I'm having like 6 male characters in the main party. I want at least 2 females. Not ENTIRELY for diversity purposes, they're of course going to play a role, but I'd prefer it if I didn't add ANOTHER 2 males into the party, because in my opinion that's just sort've... bland. Female personalities a lot of time differ from males and I want more diverse personalities. But I do like what you said in your 3rd sentence. And in a way that is what I'm planning on doing. I completely agree though with the cringe-worthy stuff. I absolutely hate that. I prefer it to be relatively small.

Well i'm not really THAT deep into my game's process. I think i've so far created 20 minutes of playing at the most, and i'm still trying to work on the plot. I am planning on creating a female character mainly for diversity. I agree, though. Some games are definitely capable of a LARGE portion of the story revolving around romance (think Final Fantasy 10) and being an amazing game just for it. But at the moment I'm debating on whether I want there to be a love interest or not. In a way I'm trying to imagine a way to make it not overwhelming. I want some parts of the story to involve it, but not overcome it. If I have trouble doing that I'm going to scrap it all-together. (POSSIBLE SPOILERS FOR MY GAME (most of you aren't even gunna play it anyway)) Simply put, there will maybe be a few strings of dialogue here and there that show they are developing these feelings, but I don't want any of that lovey dovey crap. "Hey, that guy's flirting with her, let's start a boss battle!" Nuh uh. Not a chance.

You just blew my mind.

Beautiful, thanks a million!