Also, a great idea is to not design your levels like mazes or labyrinths. Rather, make them a collection of rooms. Use the Nes/Snes Zelda dungeon design policy: 1. Design backwards from the POI/Objective to the entry, then add side paths with lesser POIs/Death ends. 2. Mix paths with topography to highlight said POIs/side paths. 3. Organic and architectural layouts, by themselves, can create a better maze than an actual one; especially when combined with the above two design guidelines. 4. Time how long it takes to go from Entrance to Objective with and without passing through all the side paths/POIs. Combine these four points with what Starlit said in the video, and your levels will not only be smoother, but even gain personality and avoid that "generic" feel.
Hey, found your channel, bought your game, loving it so far! I was working on a game of the same genre and a similar theme (But a different mood and planning) some time ago. It was gonna be a gift for a special someone who turned to be not as special as I thought --and the project has been on hold for a couple of months. But I have put love and care into it and wanted to get back to it some day. Everdine made me want to do that sooner than I expected. Your game is such a jewel! I felt drawn to it for it's beautiful maps, but playing it I was like 'Oooh, this scenery has such feel to it and the music fits like a glove!', 'Ey, that part of the map is just like something I wanted to do for another scene', 'Whoah, the inmersion is amazing', 'That care for detail and interactivity is ashtounding' and 'I've got chills, this developer gets what makes fair folk scary'. I really wish I didn't have to get up early tomorrow so I could finish your game tonight, it got me hooked. So in short, thanks for making your game so enjoyable and inspiring and also thanks for taking the time to make videos explaining how you design and work. ♥
OMG you are so talented and awesome. I feel like I am born to meet your works and admire at your jobs. Thank you for sharing your ideas and your beautiful works with us. As a color blind, I can't do these by myself, but it is more than enough to make me alive and happy by just seeing these.
Thank you for your kind words! I don't have much experience with color blindness and surely don't know how yours is, but I know that artists with color blindness exist. So maybe don't give up on it just yet :) Aside from that, great atmosphere can also be created in greyscale or with limited palettes like old gameboy palettes, if you don't feel confident with using color because you worry that your choices migth feel off. Or something like greyscale + an accent color, works really well too. You could turn your worries about colors into a deliberate style choice. :)
starlit im from brazil and i really enjoy u content and u energy i just wanna ty for u time and effort to teach us to make beatiful maps and etc... sorry for my bad english btw.
Most of the tilesets I used here are FSM (First Seed Material) which are paid DLC for RPGMaker MV and MZ. And those maps are parallax maps, not ingame editor ones. I have a tutorial for parallax mapping on the channel.
Yesterday, I gathered some free commercial used tilesets in the RPG Maker community. Do you have suggestion for both good free and priced tilesets and objects like furnitures?
There are a couple amazing creators that do great edits or even completely unique art packs. For paid stuff I'd check the DLCs and itchio, though if you buy something that's not created for RPGM make sure the pixel size fits your engine and you might need to do some edits to the tilesets so that they work in engine. I'm a huge fan of FSM, there are a couple of tilesets. KR also has a huge library of paid packs. Winlu has both medieval and cyberpunk tilesets... honestly, there's a lot it kinda depends what style and setting you are going for.
That library map looks actually stunning
This channel is extremely underrated, the work you're creating is beautiful and inspiring. Thank you for sharing your workflow and tips with us!
The map on 2:09 looks amazing. I need to try making something like that
Your work is incredible, and has already been incredibly helpful to a complete beginner like me. Thank you for all your hard work!!
Thank you very much for the nice comment. I'm glad I could be helpful!
Also, a great idea is to not design your levels like mazes or labyrinths. Rather, make them a collection of rooms.
Use the Nes/Snes Zelda dungeon design policy:
1. Design backwards from the POI/Objective to the entry, then add side paths with lesser POIs/Death ends.
2. Mix paths with topography to highlight said POIs/side paths.
3. Organic and architectural layouts, by themselves, can create a better maze than an actual one; especially when combined with the above two design guidelines.
4. Time how long it takes to go from Entrance to Objective with and without passing through all the side paths/POIs.
Combine these four points with what Starlit said in the video, and your levels will not only be smoother, but even gain personality and avoid that "generic" feel.
I love your videos! Mapping is such an important skill I want to learn more.
Thank you. It's a lot of trial and error.
Okay, Starlit Castle, I will start using your tutorials along with The Odie's from now on. You are so much more helpful than Driftwood.
Hey, found your channel, bought your game, loving it so far!
I was working on a game of the same genre and a similar theme (But a different mood and planning) some time ago. It was gonna be a gift for a special someone who turned to be not as special as I thought --and the project has been on hold for a couple of months. But I have put love and care into it and wanted to get back to it some day. Everdine made me want to do that sooner than I expected. Your game is such a jewel! I felt drawn to it for it's beautiful maps, but playing it I was like 'Oooh, this scenery has such feel to it and the music fits like a glove!', 'Ey, that part of the map is just like something I wanted to do for another scene', 'Whoah, the inmersion is amazing', 'That care for detail and interactivity is ashtounding' and 'I've got chills, this developer gets what makes fair folk scary'. I really wish I didn't have to get up early tomorrow so I could finish your game tonight, it got me hooked.
So in short, thanks for making your game so enjoyable and inspiring and also thanks for taking the time to make videos explaining how you design and work. ♥
Thank you very much for your kind comment! I hope you can get back to gamedev and will have fun creating a game for your enjoyment :)
Thank you, I really struggle with mapping
Just keep doing it, you'll get better with more experience! It can be frustrating, but at some point it's getting easier and very rewarding.
OMG you are so talented and awesome. I feel like I am born to meet your works and admire at your jobs. Thank you for sharing your ideas and your beautiful works with us. As a color blind, I can't do these by myself, but it is more than enough to make me alive and happy by just seeing these.
Thank you for your kind words!
I don't have much experience with color blindness and surely don't know how yours is, but I know that artists with color blindness exist. So maybe don't give up on it just yet :)
Aside from that, great atmosphere can also be created in greyscale or with limited palettes like old gameboy palettes, if you don't feel confident with using color because you worry that your choices migth feel off.
Or something like greyscale + an accent color, works really well too.
You could turn your worries about colors into a deliberate style choice. :)
@@starlitcastle wow..! I didn't know that..! Thank you. I should give it a try. I hope you have wonderful holidays, as Christmas period is coming. :D
@@이율록 I wish you a lovely holiday season, too! :)
Omg its so amazing to see your maps. Some small maps but with the details and the parallax it looks so awesome. Thx for teaching us ur skills
starlit im from brazil and i really enjoy u content and u energy i just wanna ty for u time and effort to teach us to make beatiful maps and etc... sorry for my bad english btw.
No worries, your english is good! Thank you so much for your nice comment! I'm glad that it's helping people!
Hii, I just got RPG Maker XP! I've been binging your videos ever since I've downloaded it :p
Ridiculous quality! Clear, concise, experienced. Thank you!
Thank you for the kind words!
Wow, amazing video! Thank you for your tips and teachings!
Lovely! Thank you for these videos. I would love to see you make a wild forest at night.
Thank you! I added that idea to my par map ideas backlog, so I might get to that at some point.
pls more like this! I love your videos!
Am I the only one who thinks that this tutorial was made purely to flex those beautiful maps?
Is it possible to make maps with irregular shapes? For example, circles or ovals, or does the engine detect it as a square anyway?
As in the area you explore being round? You can do that and fill the area where nothing is with black (or any other color).
@@starlitcastle Oh I see you can also do that thanks
How do you make those amazing tilesets and graphis??
Most of the tilesets I used here are FSM (First Seed Material) which are paid DLC for RPGMaker MV and MZ. And those maps are parallax maps, not ingame editor ones. I have a tutorial for parallax mapping on the channel.
@@starlitcastle Thsnk you!
How to get rid of the. Knock knock sound when u mke the player transfer from map to map
Use player transfer in a selfmade event instead of the premade quick event, it gives you a lot more freedom to costumize your map transitions
Yesterday, I gathered some free commercial used tilesets in the RPG Maker community.
Do you have suggestion for both good free and priced tilesets and objects like furnitures?
There are a couple amazing creators that do great edits or even completely unique art packs. For paid stuff I'd check the DLCs and itchio, though if you buy something that's not created for RPGM make sure the pixel size fits your engine and you might need to do some edits to the tilesets so that they work in engine.
I'm a huge fan of FSM, there are a couple of tilesets. KR also has a huge library of paid packs. Winlu has both medieval and cyberpunk tilesets... honestly, there's a lot it kinda depends what style and setting you are going for.
Are those tilesets on steam?
I used the FSM packs for most of these maps. (First Seed Material) Yes, they are on Steam :)
😀