My first attempt

[LoneSupermaan 8]

Hi everyone I've been working on my first game ever, I'm completly new to this but really liking this community & working with RPG maker.

 

My game is going to star a recently our of the millitary marine that needs to help save this town from a parasitic organism that took over it's host and then over the Hospital and started wreclking havok in town with it's zombie like minions & monsters. The marine will have to get some help from the resistance at their base to fight their way up the hospital to take out the parasite. 

 

 

It will be a small game as it's my first and want to not go in over my head. Maybe it can expand in the future, who knows.

 

Heres some screenshots of my starting area, home, town, church, resistance base, and the hospital which is my first attempt at orignal mapping.

 

Here is also a small video showing some "gameplay" most of the maps have some sound but the darn vid capture program didn't grab it!

 

 

 

Looking forward to the critques, and getting slowly better

[Nekotori 739]

For your first game, I can see it's pretty good. The door in the start of the video could be fixed (your character walking straight to a wall when he opens the door) by adding black tiles on the wall where the door is located. I also highly suggest to stick to one style in terms of sprites since the npcs are 1 tile in size than your main character which is 2 tiles or 1.5 tiles. (But I guess your working on the npc sprites I think). Since we are fellow newbies that are making our first game, you can check my Dreams and Nightmares game(under gaming lounge) or click the dreams and nightmares banner from my signature. Feel free to ask questions too ^~^

 

P.S.

Passability issues are common so dont worry about it xD you can fix it bit by bit

Edited August 5, 2014 by Kotori-chan

[Allusion 398]

I can certainly see what you're going for; however, you're using a very odd mix of RTP and the Futuristic tilesets; basically that's combining medieval period graphics with modern/sci fi graphics. Is that an effect you're going for on purpose? (For the plot, I mean.) From the terms you use, (ex marine, for example) it sounds like the game would take place in present day Earth. There are plenty of modern day tilesets (even some specifically geared toward zombie attacks!) within the community.

 

In my signature, If you click on the spoiler under 'people I support', click on the banner titled 'Caitlin's Graphics'. She has some nice bloody/modern tiles to help start you up. Also, check out Grandma Deb's list  for links to similar resources.

 

As Kotori-Chan mentioned, the MC's sprite is incredibly different from the RTP ones--will the other character's be changed to match? He looks enormous compared to them, as well as their doors/chairs and such. It's very important to settle on the scale of your sprites early on, so that you know what sort of mapping decisions to make. (Such as 2 tile high walls, or 3? Long doors, or small ones?)

 

You have a very strong grasp on mapping, from what I can see. Which is really good, as it will save you many headaches. You'll need to change some passibility settings in the editor so that things like food trays cannot be walked on. The slope you're trying to convey at the video's start had me thinking the path was submerged in water, due to the shadows; these are angles I would suggest to either parallax map (which is a pretty advanced technique) or leave out as a whole, to avoid confusion.

 

Another little trick you can use is to cut out unnecessary maps; such as the path to Holtville. Unless that area serves a bigger purpose (A shop/rest station, or if later in the game something happens that connects it to another place), it will only slow the player down. To compensate, you could add some text before the transfer effect; something like, 'Take this road to Holtville? Yes/No' and then go directly to the town entrance.

 

You're going at a good pace! Practice makes perfect, so just keep going with a story that's fun and interesting for you. RM is one of those programs you never really stop learning tricks about. It all comes with time~ 

[LoneSupermaan 8]

Thanks for the feedback

 

@Kotori-Chan - You're right I shall use the smaller sprites, he does look odd at the moment. I was seeing how they looked as they came with the zombie pack, but look out of place so I didn't change the others. I'll change the backs behind all the doors (overlooked it ) so make the transition look smoother:) Wow your game looks amazing, it seems very detailed, that kind of skill is what I hope to thrive for! I'll be downloading it and test it out when I have a chance. Great job!!

 

@Allusion - You've got a point I should just delete that "path" map, it would feel annoying and pointless right? I like your idea on asking wheter on you the toon wants to go to town or not (maybe even having to have an item that rat will drop to advance). Another thing thats troubling is the tielset issue, after choosing the hospital as a main setting everything else seemed so medevel. That flat screen tv in the Hospitals waiting room is so out of place xD. I'll have to look at some different resources to modify the town to make it look more modern without messing it up completly or just make a new map and use the old one as a refrence point, ah! (time for more videos & reading into the maker xD) Theres so many cool resources it's probbly better to spice it up a bit in the looks/style of the game, thanks for pointing it out and making me want to change it!

[Allusion 398]

No problem! Definitely create a new folder for everything; once you start collecting resources, you won't want to stop. 

 

Oh, if/when you decided to edit the battle scene, there are some nice scripts out there for guns/bullet type weapons. Just an idea~ Good luck!

[LoneSupermaan 8]

Been really busy with work and haven't had much free computer time, but have been slowly working on remakign the maps to look more modern, I should update all soon

[jk_guys 1]

I'm also a fellow newb, so I'm right there with you.  Who knows, maybe I'll post some of what I'm working on soon too.
 
The area so far that I really like is your city.  Your first two maps look like you were still learning and playing with the basics of the editor, so I would probably later revise those two areas or get rid of them, but your city region is coming along wonderfully.  
 
The map is dynamic, making it easy to tell where you are without looking at a map, and you are definitely putting in some nice details.  As others have said, just keep fixing the doors and map areas so it looks natural, and make sure the presentation is consistent.  Make sure that certain details, like the presentation of the walls or doors, are consistent.  Also, it tends to look boring when a decorative tile gets dragged across a grid area, like the seats in your church.  It's more visually interesting if you vary those up, or alternatively if you don't have another tile handy, to put them in lines or something.  Basic tricks like that go a long way.
 
In the second area, where you pass through what looks like a mountain trail, it would probably look a lot more natural if you used the grass tile without the rock border along the top of the trail.  That tile makes it look like there is a cliff ledge going off to the north, but there's a wall going up instead.  The basic grass tile along the top should fix that.
 
Are these your first three maps ever?