Just in case anyone was wondering: this is how you answer questions and criticisms about a game being related to Final Fantasy! You'll notice arcanedude didn't tell a single person to shut up. Incredible!

This looks pretty good. The mapping seems pretty spiffy (although you should never use .jpgs for screenshots), although they could use more custom pieces. If you use Curaga instead of Cure 3 I won't play this game!

I think it's funny that people thing 20-somethings are abnormally old!

Shut up! 

I haven't decided on whether to use the -ara/-aga endings or go numerically, actually. I prefer the -ara/-aga endings myself... maybe I should have a poll on that. XD

Not at all.

Or maybe I'll just send you the charsets since the old concept art that I thought I had saved on my Lappy has been mysteriously deleted...

Just in case anyone was wondering: this is how you answer questions and criticisms about a game being related to Final Fantasy! You'll notice arcanedude didn't tell a single person to shut up. Incredible!

It's quite sad that we need to say that to begin with.

This looks pretty promising, I love the screens, very good mapping, wich with the ffvi tiles makes it look great.
Good luck with this

I like what I see... I haven't seen a FF fangame this decent in a little while.  Keep at it.

Yeah I agree, this looks quite good!

Thanks guys =D

Alright, got a video up of me horsing around on some of the maps I have so far, link here or in first post.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zuSKL26Jxik

I wouldn't play any FF fangames but for some reasons - probably the thread itself - I seem to be interested in this. I might rarely be online starting start of class so please PM me or email if you ever finish this one.

Will do

Looks good so far, damn close to FF6 mapping. The only shot that looked off was the last house thing, looked too empty.

Looks good so far, damn close to FF6 mapping. The only shot that looked off was the last house thing, looked too empty.

That's a town I just started yesterday, that's probably why 

Dude that's fucking awesome! I like you mapping skills! Nice world map too! If I didn't know better it was just like Squaresoft made those maps themselves!

Thanks, I worked hard on the maps =)

I like the way you have the town set up. It gives the feeling of being a relatively big town without forcing each home to be actively accessible; at least, I believe I saw some houses without entrances, and this pleases me.

I must mention, though, that it seems somewhat odd to place two barrels at... rather inconvenient places for the player on a road that seems almost to be the entrance to town─in the video, you used it as an exit. While it may be argued to make sense from a logical point of view, I'm afraid that it doesn't really add to gameplay or city beauty since it obstructs the player's path needlessly.

Unless, of course, it is a secondary exit, and the main one is somewhere I failed to spot.

I like the way you have the town set up. It gives the feeling of being a relatively big town without forcing each home to be actively accessible; at least, I believe I saw some houses without entrances, and this pleases me.

I must mention, though, that it seems somewhat odd to place two barrels at... rather inconvenient places for the player on a road that seems almost to be the entrance to town─in the video, you used it as an exit. While it may be argued to make sense from a logical point of view, I'm afraid that it doesn't really add to gameplay or city beauty since it obstructs the player's path needlessly.

Unless, of course, it is a secondary exit, and the main one is somewhere I failed to spot.

The main one would be the one I entered through, but I have been considering the removal of those two barrels. Now they' will most definitely be taken out. Thanks for the feedback

Really? You guys are really impressed by these mapping skills? It ain't bad but you guys are way, way too excited about these maps!

I don't mean to come off sounding like an asshole (I don't really care if I do but that isn't my intention!) but these maps need a great deal of work. The world map is pretty good, I'll say that much, but it's unnecessarily serpentine. There are numerous ultra-narrow passages, and unless that is part of the story it's just not good world design. It causes the players to have to constantly shift direction adding superfluous travel time. It's not terrible by any means though.

But the town itself? Yipes. It needs a great deal of work. The general idea is a good one; a multi-layered town built into the walls that surround it (or so it seems, anyways). Lots of stairs to take you where you want to be. A great dynamic, if it's used well. But it's just not! There are passages that lead nowhere, spaces that seem to exist solely to house more empty space, and awkwardly laid out map design all over the place.

Why bother with that one walkway that literally leads in a big circuit around a flight of stairs? No one will ever walk there unless they don't know better, in which case it'll just annoy them. Why have stairs up and down into various courtyards that serve only as areas for more stairs to lead to other courtyards that are equally empty?

Here is my advice to you: Make sure you don't have too much dead space- fill open spaces as you'd expect a town to fill them or get rid of them. Don't have pathways that make the player walk around needlessly. If you're going to have out of the way pathways, make them lead somewhere or do something interesting or fun. No one minds walking down the wrong pathway if at the dead end there is some treasure or something.

You got it right with the items dealer being at the end of that short, wide alley, but there are lots of places that just lead... to nowhere, really. Or provide redundant routes to the same area.

Like I said, the ideas are solid and the dynamic- a multi-layered city- is a good one to hold on to, but as it stands there is just way too much pointless map. I know it's in its early stages, but the layout is confusing and jumbled and needs to be simplified for players to connect with it. Hell, I can remember exact routes on how to get to every service in every town in FF6 (except Nikeah) and I haven't played it in years. Players aren't going to be able to do that if you throw six hundred staircases at them all at once.

One other major thing to keep in mind is that you don't need to use every mapping trick in the book all in one town (unless your game only has one town, in which case go nuts with it). Let the player see something new in each town so each place you visit leaves an impression on the player. Again, the trick here is to refine a solid idea by simplifying and streamlining.

You're forgetting that I've yet to add any NPC's, which will fill the town up a bit. There is exactly one dead-end in the whole town, which is where the item shop will be located, and the wrap-around to that staircase? Yeah, there's no point to it in a gameplay sense, but it makes it look better. If anyone gets annoyed by the, what, five, six seconds it'll take to go all the way around it if they somehow (very unlikely) think it leads somewhere, then they should probably get checked for ADD. And the reason you remember all that from FFVI is because you played the game. I doubt you'd remember any of it if you saw one video of a guy going into each building once.

But thanks for the feedback, I do appreciate it, even if I don't agree with it.

Okay, I really need a sound effects compiler, would anyone like to do this for me?

But thanks for the feedback, I do appreciate it, even if I don't agree with it.

As they say, the consumer is always right.

Okay. Now, I'm not really going to pick on you. It's just the mapping. I don't care if it's FF or anything, but this mapping is half way horrible. The World map is too random and the towns are tooooo close together. I could go from one town to another easy. You need actual continents. Inside the towns, everything should be more condensed. Houses closer together. If you dont want it that way, use some creativity.

http://i200.photobucket.com/albums/aa106/100pdeathpie/Alcmaeon.jpg

In that screenshot alone, it should be smaller. I don't know how to explain it. It's too empty and... just not right. Try making everything more smaller.

As they say, the consumer is always right.

Well, as they also say, try pleasing everyone and you'll end up pleasing no one. And I think I'll go with the majority, who seem to think my maps are good as is.

Sorry if it sounds like I'm not able to take criticism, but when I, plus most of the people here and everywhere else I've put the maps, think they're good...

Well, as they also say, try pleasing everyone and you'll end up pleasing no one. And I think I'll go with the majority, who seem to think my maps are good as is.

While I agree that this is a good point, this isn't the time to make it. This, rather, is appealing to most people because most people are easily impressed. Being easily impressed isn't a bad thing, but this isn't a case of some people saying "do it this way" and others saying "do it that way". What I am saying is "do it the way everyone likes but do it well".

What this boils down to is being willing to go the extra mile to persuade people who don't gobble up every RM* game to give it a try.

My suggestion is to simply take the concept you have and refine it, refine it, refine it, because now it's very rough. I'm not telling you to change mapping styles, I am telling you to reexamine what you have and challenge yourself to improve upon it.

Hell, the maps aren't so bad that I wouldn't play the game (they're not bad at all), but there is no reason to let a good game be held back from greatness because people thought it looked good enough as is.

That's like releasing a first draft, getting really positive feedback and then not revising it in any way- people liked it, right? Off to the printers! There is a reason there are more than one drafts for any good book. If people like the maps now, imagine what they will think when they see the carefully designed, lovingly crafted final result.


This is all I'll say on the matter, most likely. It's your game and you can do whatever the hell you want with it. The only reason I've brought up this argument in this topic is because I think the game looks promising, and sometimes people are willing to accept the final push to something better than OK. Plus, I really, really like FF6's graphics and would love to see someone finally do them justice!