So, your first reaction might be "WHAT? IT'S BACK," or "Don't we have a thread for this," or somewhere in between.
Allow me to explain.
As you may have heard, the old screenshot thread was taken down due to people not posting actual advice on another's work. Now I know some would love to 'receive' actual advice so I thought we should see how this would work out the second time over.

Titan hasn't been around lately to moderate the Screenshot Showoff thread. Most of you should know that it's a place where you can post your finer work for others to look at. But some don't want to show off their work without the typical "how does this look." leading to the next person critiquing. That means that he/she is not done it but needs advice in order to "be" done.
The purpose of that thread is to show your best to the people who come to look for inspiration from the very best; you. But how can they be sure it's the very best if they realize you just said "does this look good here," and thus has to read the next post to find out the solution.

The main purpose of this is to post your maps you believe needs a second look before finalizing. Anything theory based, create a topic for it.

If you have any questions, feel free to send me a message detailing your concern
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So what do we do now? How do we get our advice?
Simple, the Screenshot Critique thread.

Here you can post your maps, battles, title pages, anything in-game related you believe needs advice. Post what should be done next or ask for recommendations on something.
What are the rules?
- You must post critique to the previous image before you post your own.
- Posting an image is optional, but you must post critique (no chit chat, PM each other).
- All other forum rules apply

Last words: this is only a test to see how far we can go without breaking the rules. If all goes well... it's here to stay.

And remember, spoiler boxes for big images.

I have a lack of skill when it comes to indoor mapping. Any suggestions on my map below (NOTE: It is a train)?

@Zinx_therpgmaker
i think it looks good
it really depends on your choice of setting of place
how about adding window , getting rid of barrel/wooden crate , change the seat so it looked more like train
i wanted to add pole for standing up ppl, but dunno if it fits your setting era of your game

Thanks! This current part of the game is in a terrible future. You are soldiers trying to complete a mission while trying to survive.

Is this any better?

This version of the train looks much better than the first. While the first was loaded with details, it detracted from what the image was supposed to be.

Well in a nutshell is ... empty.
I know the chipset, and you can do better, try adding some light, or some manifest.
Among other things, the windows do not give the effect due, to fill even those you may put a track that is seen from the windows.
Something like this:

I think your chipset is different from mine for you have items that I do not.
This is my chipset:


If any of you know a better chipset, please tell me.

Here it is, but there is not much difference between this and your:

Try adding some elements of this chipset that you have now.

I see a huge difference! Thanks!

Please, show us and the end result

Is this better?

Much better. It does illuminate the subway feel.
Great job so far.

Much better
Now you can also change the windowskin wanting.

Very nice Zinx. I can find nothing wrong with it other then the bright windowskin. Are you planning it to making the map that dark though? I kind of think it could use a little light, but somehow keep it dark.

This is the first screenshots of my first VX Ace game. I think the hallway looks nice, but I could always use some criticism to improve. The other two pictures is one classroom. I'm trying to bring the feel and look of a everyday Japanese high school setting, since my story takes place in Japan.

Click to view attachment Click to view attachment Click to view attachment

The classrooms are great, but the hallways need to be improved--as you said. To improve them, try adding lockers. From what I have experienced, middle schools and high schools have lockers. Not sure about Japanese schools, but I assume the same. As for your comment on my picture: the train is meant to be dark for the electricity is off. You have it off so you don't alert any bandits who are hiding on the train. You have to explore the train first before turning the train on. Once the train is on, the lights will be activated, thus it will be brighter.

@Yuu-Mon Musuedo
-The hallway-
1.the space is too wide, you could play football there
2.maybe better if the window had some space between them instead cluttering all window together
3.i prefer window on the outside of the class so other can look inside ,but its ppl preferences anyway
.or at least make some little window outside classroom
4.looks a bit empty with all that space, add some things like a locker/table/place for trophy /etc school stuff
5.classroom door had a piece missing

good one
1.board outside classroom looks good

-Classroom-
1.floor tile is too reflective , maybe to other ppl its fine, but to me somehow its ...annoying
2.window classroom to outside is too big and too cluttered , + its all the way to the ground?
3.the chair looks different than the other
4.is it me or the book is ..unusually big

Some more:

It's not bad of a menu or whatever it is but in my opinion it has far too many colours that could distract a little from the view.

Also the font doesn't match the style your trying to portray. I suggest you find a more cartoonish font that is one static colour not going from dark to light.
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I'm trying to make a ventilation vent map with what I could find by searching and editing a little and came up with this:



Is it fine like this or I should add some more stuff? (Maybe different graphics for the holes?)

Looks nice, but the you could use more realistic looking holes. They look like someone just lazily made them in mspaint.

Well it's a resize I did from the big hole, ingame it looks like this at 10 am until I edit it a little more:



Edited it a little to have the same texture of the ceiling on the floor.

That actually looks quite nice...

Hmmm... I think it could use some more dark areas like shadows, and the pipes that isn't hanging on the walls but hanging above the floor looks a little flat. That's all I can see, the rest looks pretty cool.

As for my last post about a Japanese's school hallways. I based some of my maps from pictures I seen. They didn't have any lockers other then where you would walk in school. But they did for some reason have some sinks and fire extinguishers. So I will go with that and work on what you guys said. Thank you.

My Screens:

Autumn Map during dawn - I'm still making the titleset and I figure I could ask some help on how to make a forest that's in a autumn season. Any pointers? I'm not so sure about the tone of the map by the way It's the default dawn setting.


Map Select Screen. No script. Want to know if this is helpful to the players or what could make it better.

Wow... the autumn map looks really nice. The arch looks a little... iffy, though.
I like the map select screen as well.

Here's part of the interior of a ruined castle owned by an otherworldly monster.



(I'm not a very good mapper, by the way.)

I have greatly missed this thread.

@Yuu-Mon Musuedo

I like the map as well, though it is a bit too bright for me, it still looks good. I agree with Penguin about the arch, though I know why it looks weird. It looks like it went under a blur, or perhaps it was smaller and you image resized it to be bigger?

Your map selection screen looks great though!

@Penguin

Hmm, perhaps if you make the overall map smaller? And then cut back the left and right side of the crystal flooring?

@Yuu-Mon Musuedo
I'm not sure I really agree with the amount of orange tint. Perhaps if you lessen it a bit, it will still emit that feel.
I do agree with penguin about the arches. I'm just pointing out that the square shadows on the legs seem a bit off. Then again, the colour of red mixed in with the vast orange probably doesn't fit in; in my opinion.

For the second screen shot, it does give the players a visual representation of the area.
No script? Good job!


@Penguin
Problem with the castle interiors is that they always turn out bit. Problem is because there isn't that much to show within a castle.

@Yuu-Mon Musuedo:
-Autumn map during dawn-
just as kayden997 says, i think the orange tint is too bright
for people generally it might be okay, but for me personally its kindda hard & hurt to see

-Map select screen-
i loved it looks cool, but where is the initial screenshot where you select which place you wanna go?


@Penguin:
-Interior ruined castle-
1. its a.....kindda too much wasted space , maybe make it smaller?
2.maybe if you placed more stuff that suited the place for a castle it would look better, ex: place furniture / rug / stairs, theres so many things to be add, but your map looks so empty
3. why is there a ....bow in the wall? is it a bow?
4.there is 4 weird pillar/column (whatever it is in english) in each corner....they even look empty and wasted as decoration
5.vx alreay looked boxed, dont make boxed map too , yes in a place made by people it may look arranged but dont make it look really square

What are the rules if no image was posted before your post that you didn't already critique? Because I have already commented on the images above and now I have something I need some other opinions on.

Lunarea suggested that I make the crystals look like they are producing the light, I guess, instead of editing the image's parallax lighting itself. So here is my first attempt. I X'd the one I didn't edit and pointed to the ones I did.



I placed some light underneath the tileset in GIMP, gaussian blurred it a bit, made a new layer, brightened up the crystal, blurred it a bit and then saved.

Try leaving another comment, or go back to a previous page, that way you can continue giving feedback, as well as showing your work.- Jonnie19

Hi, this might just be me, but this is literally all I can see in the above screenshot:



It is seriously too dark. I had to open it in a graphics program and up the contrast hugely to even see that there was anything but pure black in the dark areas.

There are ways of making an area look "dark" without taking all the light out of it at all, but I think that needs a lengthy tutorial or something.

In short, just a slight black overlay, reduce the amount of colour a bit (desaturate), and a slight blue tone, works wonders on making areas look dark while still being navigable.

Unless, of course, you don't intend the player to be able to see these pathways at all and I am mistaken.

It's the brightness settings on your screen, my project (Alive) will have the same problem on screens with low brightness.

Indeed it does. I am using factory settings however, and I still don't think there is any reason for making a game that dark. Maybe it is just me, it would be interesting to see others' thoughts on it. But representing darkness by simply covering the screen in a dark shield isn't a good idea. It by definition obscures maps. (In Alive that seems to be the point, and I get that, of course). Just my opinions.

It's just a black blob for me. Amy Pond's advice is solid.

There are other options you can use for that map @MagitekElite. It isn't too dark on my screen, but I have my screen up full contrast. Most people normally have it down only halfway; rather than full. I would agree with Amy Pond. You shouldn't use black, you should use a tint, that is lighter, perhaps a darker blue. with a lower opacity. Or just parallax it, which would mean greater control, because shadows aren't just circular they kindof spread out, using a parallaxing technique you'll find it more effective and realistic.

@MagitekElite : i also agree with @amypond , its too dark, maybe to some people its not going to be a problem.
but to me, i have to squint my eye

@jonnie19 :
1. looks empty , i think it need some more to add, maybe more trees/grass/etc>? , not really sure
2. on the top right theres a tomb thats in the middle of the road, thats weird
3. to make it easier you can just crop the trees into a character sprite
4. if it were me, id rather make the tomb in a tidy manner so as not to waste too much space, except probably 1 or 2 exception.

You are to critique to a previous screenshot before posting your own. Please read the rules before posting. Also please place large images like your first screenshot, in spoiler tags. Thanks ~Jonnie19

@Jonnie19:

It seems a tad empty in a couple of places. Maybe put a bush or sign in the spot where the pathway intersects right across from the patch of grass and something on the left side along the fence. Are you parallaxing? If so, maybe some low vines on sections of the fence and moss on a couple of the gravestones, if they're not all freshly dug.



The northern continent of the world in a game I'm developing in RM2K3. I'm debating whether or not I should use Final Fantasy graphics instead since I'm not too fond of the look of the rtp battle character sprites and and if I replaced those, I'd be compelled to replace the rest of the graphics, too. Here's a shot of the western half of the continent using a Final Fantasy chipset:

Personally I actually much prefer the first style. Would have to see them in-game though. It depends what you're going for. The first is more playful, brighter, more colourful, but that's not always what you want in a game.
-

I've tried making a nighttime filter just to try and put rambling into practice. I edited this map from RPGMakerWeb:


Source: http://tryace.rpgmakerweb.com/modern-day-resource-pack/

Try 1:


Try 2, more gritty:


Try 3 removes all the colour before adding just blue:


For contrast, this is just the screen darkerned:


I'm not really sure.

I think the last, darkened, screen is looks more like actual night but I think I'd start to hate looking at that for too long.

Adding in Street lights with area effects would definitely work wonders with it along with the darkened look.

Otherwise, the "gritty" map works too, though would work more for a period game.

Try make a darker version of the first one. (Maybe a little more blueish)

Try using these two colors and choose the one you like best:

@Amy Pond
There's something about Try 2 that I like more. Maybe somehow combine Try 2 and the one at the very bottom. But try out what Saul95 suggested.


This is a living room that I'm making. Any tips on how to improve it more? Also, is the lighting good for indoors? I'm using the screen tone, all R/G/B on -30. I also want to improve on my shadows, but the shadow tool don't go over some objects. Any suggests on that?

I like it a lot. ^^ It seems very tidy and it gives a pretty realistic atmosphere. The lighting seems okay, but I'd suggest making it cover a wider area forwards, and to darken the screen so that the lighting is more visible. Personally, I didn't notice it until I read your post.

My map, took me quite some time. XD

@yuu-mon musuedo: its kindda dark, is it just for special occasion? cuz i certainly dont wanna look at that all day, well maybe im just not used to seeing vx, but that high contrast of vx and dark room really hurt my eye.
then again im not a vx person , dont really like vx high contrast
on other subject,
1. the room looks wasted with empty space
2.the room looks like in living room to relaxed/stuff why is there an urn/bucket doing there? it is in average middle-family modern place, right?
, maybe im terribly wrong, but i certainly dont have that in my living room.
3.whats the sofa for far out there in the corner on the middle? and its "incredibly long" or maybe weirdly long.
4. i dont think you need to put shadow for the sofa because sofa is not that high
5. just go with either japanese style of cushion pillow or sofa , putting them together like that looks weird, and waste of space.
if you make the sofa way shorter and make 1 person chair, it might work.
6. dont you have any other furniture to put?


@luv kitty12 : it looks beautiful , would be better if it has different house or style.
from quick look i dont see any major fault at all, it certainly look like it took some time to make good job
the children playground looks cute i never seen it before, did you make that? nice idea

@luv_kitty12: It is a truly incredible map, you do well combining wild forest with domesticated land. I only have two small things I noticed, the thin waterfalls are awesome but they fall a really long distance and seem to come from nowhere, and the graves seem very....bright for graves, a lot of color on them. Perhaps that is the culture or the game, but it just really stands out to me.

Aside from that, it seems like a really nice map and a place I'd be happy to live in

So yeah, that said, here is my map, I've been trying really hard to improve my maps recently and this is one of my better works I think, yet I feel like it could be done with more. In game it has a fog effect, but that didn't transfer well to a SS so I turned it off.

Click to view attachment

it's really hard to judge vx rtp maps. they are so 1st generation pokemon-ish. and imo the less i see the better the map because vx maps get easily cluttered with no variety.

@luv_kitty12

First of all it's a great map, well done.

Now, I noticed some errors in your map and I'm going to list them for you:

- The grass under the graves should go away or make the terrain all with grass as it doesn't match much with them. (Or use a dirt autotile or maybe you have it in the tileset underneath the graves to show that people have dug in that area.)
- The bottom left house has a tree with a missing part. (Look at the door.)
- You got some weird lines across the map and I'll try to list them all.

You got 2 near the bottom right house one under the door and the other under the yellow flower, between the 2 ranches there are also many weird lines, near the wood struck with an axe on the top left house there's also a line and last I could find is the house with clothes bowl on the right near the wooden trunk.

- This is a small nitpick by me but the house on the bottom left has the clothes hanging and the bowl with clothes in the middle of the street, wouldn't it be better if you pushed back 1 square the hanging clothes and placed the bowl infront of it?

That's it from me.

Good job again.

This is the second time I have asked you to add constructive critique to another person's work, This is written in the rules, I have had to remind you, and now I am mentioning again. Your Warn Level has been increased. ~Jonnie19

Here is one of my maps in VXAce... Guys... Feel free to critic my work



This is kinda random but Here are my old indoor maps from XP

This first photo is just maps combined to save space.










Before you can post your own screenshots, You must add critique to another post. This is your Verbal Warning. Please remember to read the first post to ensure that you don't have the same problem again. Also please remember to put large images, such as the first one inside spoilers. Thanks ~Jonnie19

I just want to remind people to post critique to previous screenshots, purely posting your own screenshots is not only breaking the rules, it is also rather frustrating to the other members who are posting critique...so please remember to reply to other images first.

will do

-large image-
1. so many wasted space that just screams empty, you could add variety of grass/bush/garbage/side stone/hole/etc
2. find different kind of floor tile of ground to make it less boring of seeing the same tile
3. get different kinds of trees
4. get different house
overall, need variety of things

-xp hotel-
1.need more variety of floor tile
2.need more variety of furniture
3. the floor carpet seems odd in placement
4. character colour is weird , probably because of colour change in graphic xp

5. whats the lamp for outside of each room?
- you can add painting
- some furniture
- plants
-carpet inside to outside of room looks kindda weird

6. inside of room actually kindda nice (with its limitation) , need more variety of floor tile

@highlander4:

I have to agree with Supercow, the carpets seem a bit odd to me, I've never seen a place where carpets are in between the doors. You may consider placing the carpet on the outside of the door and another small one on the inside, that would look a lot more reasonable in my opinion.

As far as the VX map goes, it looks nice, pretty even, the only real thing I notice is several trees with overlap, most notably in your northwest corner. You may fix those, make it look a bit more natural.

Well, after my last attempt at a screen shot and getting shot down without critique just for using RTP, I have decided to take another approach; Parallax Mapping. I am using Celianna's tiles as well. So here it is, an indoor classroom (not modern).

Click to view attachment

One thing I noticed, far too late, was that the desks are smaller then I had planned for and so the room feels a bit big in comparison. I attempted to fill the gap without too much clutter. What do you think?