The do's and don'ts of map making.

[Meiscool-2]

Table of contents:

1 The basics
a the 'yeses'
b the 'noes'

2 The specific Basics:
a Mountains
b Forests
c Deserts
d Plains

3 Adding to a map
a  Eventing
b Overlapping
c Effects

4 More will be added

1 Ok, to get to the basics of mapping. There are several 'yeses' and several 'noes' for mapping.

The Yeses : A good map can or should have any of the following
Events
Effects
Eye-catchers
Etc.

Events could be as little as a butterfly, to as big as dog running around. Events make the map less repetive, as every time you enter the map, there's a new event to look at. For example:

Which of these two pictures looks better:

Picture A:


Or Picture B:


I'm sure that most of you are thinking picture A looks better. It has moving flowers, birds, rain, and ripples in random places to make it look like the rain is making water rise above the land for a swamp effect. I could've probably added butterflies and people, but you get the point.

Effects are things like screen flashes, pictures, animations, and weather events. Maps with one of these have a special touch added to them, and makes them look more unique among other maps.

Again, which of these two maps seems more unique?

Picture A:


Picture B:


This time I'm sure you probably said picture B. They have little difference to them, but one has clouds, and the other does not. The cloud pictures add a nice touch to the town, making it feel more peaceful.

Eye-Catchers are another key thing for maps, but you don't want them all the time. Eye Catchers make you want to look at a certain part of the map. Normally, Eye Catchers are things that are either bright, moving, or large. Placing an Eye Catcher in the right place will often bring out the best in your maps, no matter what's surrounding the Eye Catcher. Easy to make Eye Catchers would be backgrounds, water falls, etc.


 Due to the fact that I can't post more then 8 images at once, the rest will come at a later post.  Please do not post untill I tell you you can. I'd rather not have a bunch of posts between my do's and don'ts. Thankyou for reading.

[Meiscool-2]

The Noes : Noes are easy to point out, but, people tend to have them often none the less.
Popular noes:
-Stairs that only take up one square that move you from map to map (example would be the RTP stairs in the chipset)
-Ladders more then 5 squares tall (sure, there can be exceptions, but what I mean is ladders that take you up REDICIOUSLY high and into another map)
-Straight Paths are a no-no as well. They get repetive, and they often go on forever with nothing happening on them. Curved paths are a must!
-Squarish places aren’t liked either. They make a map look unnatural, and don't add to the atmosphere at all. Example:

Picture A:


Picture B:


As you can see, picture A's mapping is much more natural looking.
-Repetiviness is not liked. Having the same thing in your maps over and over just won't do. You need to vary what you put in your maps, add things like caves and events between maps, or put eye catchers in some maps to drown out the look-alike-ness you have going on.
-Over Crowding must go. Crowding gives you something to look at, and that is always liked, but making it to where you have only 1-2 spaces of movement choice is not wanted. People want to be able to take a different route of their choosing when they walk, not a path prechosen for them.
-Lack of Detail. A person can have some of the most detailed maps ever, but lack a good map solely because they only detail paths and places that your hero walks. People don't want to look at their hero ALL GAME LONG, they need something to look at instead. Eye Catchers and detail in places that you can't walk easily cures this.
-Spacing. The opposite of crowding. In this case, say you have a lot of objects/events, but they are to spaced out. This is most common in towns, where you have to walk a full screen to see a new house or villager. Objects need to be close together to complement each other. If they are to far apart, they will look like randomly placed..... things.
-Repeating goes in two ways.
Events: Having events such as people that say the same thing over and over, or having the same birds with the same color and same flight pattern, or having the same fish with the same speed and movement, gets to have no positive effect on people, as they begin to expect what's going to happen next. Mix it up some, make the movement different for each one, and in special places (like towns that you'll be in for a long time) make the events a custom movement where the bird (just an example) flies to one place, drops down, moves awhile, and pops back up.
Objects- Repeating objects is just as bad. Things that go in a pattern don't always look good. Example, if you have a garden, you'll have lots of flowers in it, but don't always use the same flowers in the same places. Change it around. Put one here instead of there and etc.

[Meiscool-2]

 Specific Basics
This is the place to learn about how to map certain places.
 Mountains : Mountains can be the most beautiful place in a game, and can also be the most dull. You have to decide. Making your cliff edges straight is not the good way to make a mountainous place. Mountains need to be varied, they need to twist and turn. Also, another common flaw with mountains is the lack of elevation. They make one small, high up path, and then no other paths. Mountains have many elevations, and many cliffs at different heights. Example:

Picture A:


Picture B:


As you can probably guess, the map I actually use is picture A.

Other things that mountains should, and shouldn't have, is water, backgrounds, and clouds. Waterfalls and other things are a must in most cases, but having a little pool here and a little pool there isn't good, as well as having a small pool that some how turns into a waterfall, or having the end of a water fall flow into a small pool that doesn't go anywhere. Examples:

Good waterfall.


Bad Upper waterfall.


Bad Lower waterfall.


Hopefully, you’ll see what I mean when I say ‘bad’ and ‘good’ water falls.

Backgrounds. Almost any background can be used (meaning if it’s something like clouds and etc, nothing like warped space and etc.), but in my personal opinion, clouds don’t work well. If you have something with clouds AND land, it’s ok, but your mountain would have to be REALLY high to not see any land from where you would be standing at.

Clouds. Only use clouds for places that you want to be windy, or high up places. A more canyon type mountain (such as the one I use in my pictures) won’t be very suitable for clouds, but higher up ones (such as the ones from Ace’s game the Omega Seal) would be a better place to put clouds at.

Also, a last touch to a mountain is snow. The higher up you go, the colder it gets. Put something in there to belay that effect, such as random snow patches, snow weather effect, etc.

[Meiscool-2]

Forests This is a no brainer. Forests need trees, water, and a HUGE assortment of ground tiles. It should have thick grasses in some places, dark in others, flowers here, tree stumps there, etc etc. There really is no real way to make a forest, but the one thing that mostly stands out is placement of trees. Trees NEVER grow in a straight line, and are constantly curving and changing shape. This should be reflected in your maps. Example:

Pictures with natural look




Pictures without natural look




Your forest maps should also make sure to include some sort of path. It doesn’t have to be a brink road or dirt road or etc, just something that someone will follow. For example, in this picture, there is an actual dirt road:



But, in this picture, all there is to make a path is saturated grass (the weird things in the water are pictures of falling leaves, which I’ll go through in the events section)



People subconsciously follow these paths in their mind. They see some ground type that doesn’t look like everything around it, and begin to follow it. It’s human instinct.


The rest will follow shortly. I couldn't finish it all in one post, but I will later.  Thus meaning you can go ahead and post now.

[Robotam]

Great one, Meiscool. This goes a lot deeper than mine did.

[Dragonium]

Very good! People like me can use this.

Maybe I'm stoopid, but what's the difference between the "good" and "bad" screenshots for natural forests (The first ones)?

[Bluhman]

Excellent, but it's lacking a part for towns, which, from what I've heard, I'm having a little trouble with, seeing as how they end up way too spacious.

[Red XIII]

Nice tut!!! specially the forest section!!!

now i know what to change in some maps o´mine

[CoolZidane]

Great tut. This will help me out a lot.

[Meiscool-2]

Thanks Guys. Dragonium: You're right, I acdiently used the smae picture twice. I'll get down to changing that back shortly.

Towns Thank you Bluhman for reminding me of this. Towns are one of the most important parts in a game solely because of the huge amount of time you spend in them. If you’re game is something like mine, were you get to a town and stay in that central area for hours doing quests, it’s important to have a good looking town that has many things to do in it. There are three types of towns in my opinion. They are:
Castles
Open Plains
In closed areas (such as towns in a cave, on a mountain, etc.)

Castles: Castle towns are important to many games, but an important thing is to have residences. All castles have rooms for there knights to live in, but for some reason people tend to forget about that. However, I’m talking more about the exterior of a town, not the insides. Castle towns should have houses on the outside, in a courtyard fashion. Example:





As you can see, the place still has an outdoor castle feel, but it’s also got all the things a town would have, such as houses and people and bird and… on and on. You also don’t need a lot of space between places like you do in other maps, and as I go into property, you’ll figure out your own ways of doing that yourself (canvas tents, welcome mats, etc.)

Open Plains: These are by far the most common of all, and appear at least 5 times in most games. That is why it’s important to make them stand out. Space is the most important thing in any town, and it’s especially important here. You need a lot of space between each house, but you don’t want it to look like there’s a lot of unclaimed land. That’s what thing I call “property markers” are for. These markers aren’t houses, but they show property and ownership of a house still the same. Examples:





Through those pictures, one can easily see what I mean. The fences, potters, plants, trees, paths, wells, and all other things mark a clear property for each house. Though a house only takes up so much room, the fences and other things take up a much larger space, thus eliminating that space of nothingness between houses.
The second most important thing in Open Plains towns is generics. NONE of the houses should look the same. It’s ok to have a house or two that are the same if the chipset isn’t very good, but other then that, I would have to say that all houses should look different. It’s not that hard to make a good house, and it doesn’t take that much effort to copy it, and change it a bit.
However, that last rule can be swayed with proper spacing. Example:





You can see that those two houses are exactly the same, but, because of what’s surrounding them, they both look good. One has trees and a garden around it; the other has saturated grasses and more high cliffs. As long as you vary your mapping a little between houses that look alike, then it shouldn’t be to bad.

Paths for towns. Open Plains towns always need a path. This can most often be done with dirt or rubble for the best effect. In the pictures above, again, the path is the darker grasses. Just like in the forest, people will follow this path in their mind without even knowing it.

In closed Areas: This can be many things. I’m saying here, that it’s a place without a limitless amount of land, such as a cave, mountain town, floating island, etc etc. These maps should have the same things In them as an Open Plains town, space and property. However, because it’s supposed to be a limited area, the houses and property should be loads smaller. It’s important to include paths in this as well, but the most important thing is to include areas you can’t walk at. A secluded area always has more then one strip of land to walk, but they aren’t always connected. Example:



Though you can’t walk to that part in the lower corner of the floating island town, you can see it. Also, as you can see, this place has a basic path going from house to house. This is a good example of what a path should be like. The path doesn’t always have to be connected, but it’s a good idea to have one. In fact, I think it looks better the way it is in that last picture then a full path. It still gives the effects of a path, but doesn’t look like something you’re actually ‘supposed’ to walk along, if you get what I mean.

In Closed Towns are the easiest towns to make beautiful. Your peasants, (whatever residents you have) don’t need real detailed dwellings like the big fancy houses in the Open Plains maps. Places like a cave for example, wouldn’t have houses as it is. They would have small caves that people would sleep in, and that’s mostly it. Thus meaning, your main detail should go on the outside on limiting space but still making it seem like you can walk a wide array of paths. Example (yes, I know I did a waterfall boo-boo)



As you can see, right here hero can chose to go up to the temple, go right and go up the slope to the house in the corner, go right and go down to the basement of that same house, or go left into the little dwelling.

Rules for every town:
Don’t crowd, as crowding will make it difficult to put in events, solely because the people will move into your way, and you will have to stop moving for awhile and wait for the people to get out of your way.
Don’t put a lot of people in the town. Basically, don’t put some 20 people walking outside in the town grounds. Unless you’ve got the space, or each event is really important, try to limit it. I find that putting 1-3 people per LARGE house you’ve got walking outside, and 1 person for every 2 SMALL housings you have work pretty well in most cases.
Eventing is a must in all cases. Animals should be on or near the top of that. If you look, almost all of my in-town pictures have a bird or butterfly in them. These animals add a peaceful effect on the town. If you’re going for an evil town, then you should still have animals, but make them things like ravens, crows, and dead/near-dead beasts. Picture effects are good as well. Clouds and cherry blossoms are two of my favorite ones to use, but rain and other weather effects work just as well.
Avoid repeating yourself as much as possible. In real life, most times no two houses look the same, even in poverty stricken places. Make everything different.
Put in things like wells and docks as often as you can. Putting in those not only decorates the place a bit, but also lines you put to put in events about a guy saying he dropped his ring down the well, or a boy saying he can skip the stone the farthest. Easy events.
Have loads of objects between your property lines. Anything will do, a tree, a broken down cart, a rock, anything. No one wants to look at an empty space.

That’s it for towns. You can go ahead and reply, it will be awhile before I finish the desert and plains parts of this tut.

[Meiscool-2]

Deserts Because most games only have a small desert if one at all, I’m not going to go to far into this. But, I just wanted to make a few points clear. First, deserts are not just sand. Example:



DESERTS DON’T LOOK LIKE THAT! THEY LOOK LIKE THIS!


Now, I know that it may be a bitch to make a huge desert that looks like that, but no1 wants to walk through a map with nothing in it. Seriously. As to eventing a desert, sand storms are a must. Dust clouds, anything. Also, tinting the color to make it brighter and more golden works well too. There really isn’t a whole lot to deserts, and depending on the kind you want to make it how they are done. If you want one with a canyon type feel, then go back to the mountain section and look at that. If you want one with an endless voyage feel, then basically look at my last picture, and mimic that a lot. If you’re going for a ‘pass the trail’ sorta thing, then you’ll want to have ruined buildings in there. More objects and less sand in other words.

Does and don’t for the desert:
Don’t make it a spanning wasteland. And if you do, at least put stuff in it other then nothing.
Put an oasis here and there, oasis’s are refreshing not only for the hero, but for the player’s eyes.
DON’T put birds in this. Unless you’ve got a buzzard or something, don’t put birds in. Instead, put snakes and lizards.
Don’t put dead bodies along desert paths. I’ve seen games where all the desert your passing through is a safe path between two towns, and there are dead bodies lining the roads. That’s just wrong….
Make some sort of event that creates a thirst meter. For example, you could make it to where if you’re in the desert for so long, you get thirsty and game over. I know it has nothing to do with the mapping, but deserts are so often so bleak that sometimes the hero needs something to think about other then nothingness.

[Meiscool-2]

Plains Alright. Plains are very very basic and easy to do. Again, look at the forest section for reference to making the paths and stuff.

Three types of Plains:
-Completely Open
-River Bed
-Edging Plains

Completely Open plains deal with plains that are none other then completely open. I tend to stay away from these, but sometimes they have to be put in. Most often, they are used as a road from one place to another, and nothing more. Plains like these can be made simply by putting random ground tiles in random places, and objects that complement those tiles. Example: A tree wouldn’t go on a dirt path, and a rock wouldn’t go on the flowers. There are exceptions, but that’s just a basic idea.

River Beds are plains that have a river next to them. These are easy enough to make, but take time to make look good. They should have trees lining the sides of the river, be abundant with plants and animal life, and be a peaceful or reflecting area. Examples:





River Beds also have some sort of pathway that is VERY clear. I use a dirt road, but you can use whatever you want. Good ways to improve River Beds are to have large amounts of over head birds and butterflies, and to have a water fall here and there.

Edging plains are any kind of plains that are supposed to be the ‘edge’ of something. The edge of a mountain, the edge of a forest, etc. These types of plains should then follow intermediate rules. Apply part of the plains rules, and part of the mountain rules to the edge of a canyon for example.

Examples of a canyon (this is a partly custom chipset that isn’t yet done, so that’s why some things sorta clash)





This isn’t exactly ‘edging’ per say, but it’s plains place next to a mountain, and this is what the town looks like. Here’s one that’s edging of a forest:



As you can see, one side is plains, the other forest.

Now, there is no real way to make plains. It’s just a sort of wing it kind thing. But, every plain you have should have something unique about it. For example, the two pictures of the canyon plains above are very unique, both in game and out of game. It’s an edited chipset, and part of it is custom, so it has an out of game uniqueness. In game, I have no other place that’s colored like that, or evented like this. Events for that place include a running water paranorma (meaning I made a waterfall paranorma, then I made three more with different water positions and had them change places from time to time.) , rain, butterflies, birds, swamp water sound effects (meaning if you step in saturated water, it makes a splashing sound), water ripples, fish, and some other things. No other places have the same fish/birds/ or colored butterflies. No other place has the same paranorma, and no other place has the same constant rain effects. So, in conclusion, just make every plain different from the last.

[Black Massacre]

Nice tutorial. What about polar regions though?

[Ian-TheResourceMaker]

Wow i like this so far!

[Meiscool-2]

Originally posted by Black Massacre
Nice tutorial. What about polar regions though?

I can do something on that later, but they are basically the same as anything else. A polar waste land would be a desert, a ice forest would be a forest.. etc etc.