Izu.

Hey-oh! I love the look of them and the lay-out of the maps! Coming from a Parallaxing standing-point and what all you can do with it, there's a lot you can do to set a scene. A lot of it actually comes from lighting and understanding color combinations and why things look good together and why they don't. In lighting, there's objects in your scene that you can use to portray a mood or setting. Finding ways to draw the players eyes to things can really highlight what you want the player to interact with. It can also be used to show the player where you want them to go, such as lighting up the next room's doorway as a way of saying, "Go this way!". Now on to color theory and color combinations, in general you should always be looking for ways to find and incorporate complimentary colors, or compound colors. These involve colors that basically cancel each other out, or otherwise known as "opposite colors" they create sort of the largest contrast and on the color spectrum are "opposite" each other. This goes hand-in-hand in also setting a mood with just colors alone. For instance finding "warm" and "cold" colors can instantly change what the scene is about. I've made two quick examples sort of showing what I mean. With this image here, what I've done is find my lighting source, which is the TV. Using a dark blue overlay to show a creepy or darker setting, and then incorporated a game element of lighting up the next room over to show that the player should go here next. I then put static on the TV and added tiny spec's of white around the image for dust. Going back to complimentary colors, Blue and Orange, from the lighting of the next room and blue from the TV create a great contrast which you can see in a lot of games like Chrono Trigger. For the second image, I changed my lighting source to the fireplace and made it much more brighter. Then setting a warm orange overlay has changed the mood of the scene to something less chilling or unsettling. For what I recommend, I'd use "Adobe's Color Wheel" to find your complimentary colors if you're unsure of what works together and doesn't. (But, don't let this be the end all-be all for everything you do, always use what you personally think looks nice). https://color.adobe.com/

I picked up Sun when it first came out! Just beat it two days ago. I have to say it was quite a bit of a challenge. I decided I'd make it hard on myself and go with an all Ghost/Grass type team, considering I'd never done a full team of either before. With the whole stigma of the "Bad Guys" using dark types, haha, I was getting thoroughly run through the wringer. The Elite Four was a pleasant little challenge as well. Waiting around till the Pokemon Bank opens and doing some casual shiny hunting now for some of the new Pokemon this gen. We should post our friend codes here! I'll post mine here: 2208-7362-5239

(Blah, this isn't a desktop post- but! Here's some screenshots I've been taking as I play. It's a super pretty game!) ^^ Probably the best Character creator I've seen in a game. xp

Here's my desktop currently, it's my character from Black Desert Online!

Your maps look great and you have some great ideas! For maps that are done outside (and even inside), getting down natural lighting, and the way objects react to light can do a ton to add depth and "realism" to your maps. For maps that are made with poor lighting or done at night, having some kind of light source can sort of break up a scene, it not being as dull looking. I quite liked your idea for adding firefly's to the map. They can be used as a great source of light. Illuminating the tops of trees or the ground as they dance around. Having any source of light, such as lanterns along a path, moonlight reflecting off water (Which shouldn't be too extreme. Very subtle), a torch, glowing plants. I went and did a edit of your daytime map. Showing some small things you can look at adding. I made the map a bit dark. Adding more firefly's around the area can make the map appear much brighter. Environmental storytelling is another big thing you can do. I went and added two blue firefly's around that dead tree in the middle, (I had thought of just adding one to begin with). You can tell stories with your maps without actually having to explain something in words. Whether leaving the interpretation to the player or them having a meaning to just you.