Do you design interiors from scratch or reuse your previous ones?

[unknown2u2a 0]

Hey!

 

I'm working on an old fashioned RPG and since I believe in making everything unique and interesting, I design each house from scratch and try to keep it different and original.

The thing is, that's the number one thing that frustrates me and makes me sometimes quit and then come back to making my game at another time. 

 

But since I realized there's only so much you can do to really keep it original, I thought about just copying my previous houses and maybe redesigning a bit... since it'll be the same eventually.

I'm talking about like 20 cities with at least 7 houses including shops.

 

I was wondering how do other people deal with making a game that has tons of maps and still keep going with it?

(I'm not saying I don't enjoy making my game... but you have to admit map designing is frustrating when you try to keep it at a high level)

 

[Antioch 33]

I like to keep everything fresh, it's a lot of work but totally worth it in the end. So for me, from scratch. I personally mix things up by adding wall partitions to help make the rooms feel fresh and unique.

[lonequeso 1,921]

I always go from scratch too. At the moment, I have 12 tile sets just for town interiors. I like mixing things up a lot so things don't look boring. I like making different layouts of interiors for the same reason.

[+ Takeo212 1,079]

Ehh, dependant. I mainly make them from scratch (I use tiling and not parallaxing though) that way, even if some shops look familiar, since they weren't copy/pasted that aren't 100% the same.

It's true that, even if you have 2 houses the exact same layout, changing maybe some wallpaper and flooring, or even just recolouring various tiles like tables and such can bring the room back to life and not as dull.

 

Don't worry about making everything unique. Just mess around with recolouring and you can liven up your houses easier instead of having them all differently laid out.

[unknown2u2a 0]

But that's what I'm talking about, doesn't it cost you a huge amount of time?

I watched some parallax mapping and saw the amount of time it takes to make a map that of course looks amazing but let's not forget there's an ACTUAL GAME to create with all the events and database and plot... 

 

Takeo212 I'm with you on that one... I'm still trying to figure out the best way to "recolor" since sometimes it's not as simple as using the flood fill tool... Got any tips?

 

Thanks for sharing!

[Tsarmina 2,612]

Moving to Theory and Development

 

I parallax all my maps and yes, it really does take quite a while XD However, once you get into the groove it's really not bad, and it's extremely pleasant c: It's one of my greatest pastimes, actually, which sounds kind of lame but I promise you it's relaxing. (lol)

 

If you have Photoshop or Photoshop Elements like me, use the Magic Wand to marquee the form of the object you want to recolor, create a new Layer and use the flood fill tool, and then put the color-block layer on the layer style called Color. It works like a charm

 

If you don't have that, a less perfect way of recoloring is just to select the layer, use Enhance and Adjust Color sliders to make the entire color ramp change.

[+ Takeo212 1,079]

Takeo212 I'm with you on that one... I'm still trying to figure out the best way to "recolor" since sometimes it's not as simple as using the flood fill tool... Got any tips?

I use GIMP for my tile-y stuff. It has a choice for "select by colour" and it makes recolouring pretty easy for me

Pretty much any image editing software is great for it, but GIMP is free (I have other prgrams, but I mainly use this).

[lonequeso 1,921]

One of favorite ways to select complex things is the Quick Mask in Photoshop. All you have to is paint your selection =)

[unknown2u2a 0]

Wow  I didn't realize people invest so much time on the graphics in RM that it became their hobby + TSarmina it's not lame, sounds like a great hobby.

Now I really feel like my map designing is dull and repetitive 

 

When you said recoloring I though we're talking about recoloring inside RM as in using different tiles... not using an image editing program.. 

 

Hmm.... I guess I just put the emphasis and energy more on the game itself.

 

But I'll sure give all your tips a try!

Thanks a lot!   

[+ Takeo212 1,079]

It's neccessary to recolour tiles outside of RPGM and then import them as you would normally.

 

So you could have various tilesets made up such as;

Inside 1 - default colours

Inside 2 - recoloured set 1

Inside 3 - recoloured set 2

Outside 1 - default colours

Outside 2 - recoloured 1

ect, ect.

 

It's a pretty simple thing to do once you spend a few few minutes understanding the program (GIMP and Photoshop work great! Sai it fine too, but it doesn't save transparency)

[Guyver 65]

For basic houses I have 8 different templates all with the shift mapping done on them so all I have to do is just add the little bits. I also have two different inns that I literally just copy and paste and edit the npcs because it's an inn. I tend to personalize stores/crafting places/various main and side quest houses a bit more though.

[unknown2u2a 0]

I decided to give recoloring a try to see how much time it consumes. I found a nice tutorial here http://forums.rpgmakerweb.com/index.php?/topic/3415-guide-to-simple-tileset-edits-rearranging-clumping-and-recoloring/

But I might go for templates and just copy and change the details like Guyver said...

 

I truly applaud you all for having the patience for that... 

It's extremely frustrating for me to invest so much time rearranging, clumping and recoloring... as simple as it may be it's just way too much time consuming comparing to the amount of content I want to create in the game itself... 

Well, I guess my graphics and map designing just won't be as flashy and breath taking as the ones I see on the forums and RM websites...

Edited January 24, 2016 by unknown2u2a