Alright, so i've started to map for my game, although im a horrible mapper, and i am mainly just creative with words and events, so it will be a tough project.

So im using Post Town 01 tileset, and i was hoping that somebody could help me out on the ideas to make it look better, because this is one of 3 maps where i use the normal RMXP tile set, and i don't want the players to quit the game because of the three first maps (a lot of players focus on the maps so) :/



Any ideas of what i can improve and for what i can add?
-Sincerely Nub Cake

First , the ground is incredibly empty. Fill it up with weeds or small plants, but don't leave it completely barren except for several trees. Next, your houses look a bit too similar. Try to add on extra pieces to them connected with the diagonal piece.

All in all it's not a bad start, as the previous poster said more wildlife in the town will look better. Assuming this isn't a modern game you have to remember they really have no major way to trim weeds or clear out heavy grass with ease. Also, the open area is really large. I'm sure it will look better with more people and events around, but you could fill it with carts, horses, those kind of things. The things a living town needs. Just a few ideas.

Planned to make the three first maps kind of modern, as it's based on a story im writing
They live in a modern world, but they travel to the underworld, which is more like the good old times
Is just that the most modern tilsets aren't the best, at least those i find, so im jsut going with regular tilsets till now, but thanks for the replies ^^

And will manage to improve it a bit now, thanks

One thing you can do to give town more life is by what the houses look like.
What I mean is, if there's a vegetable store they likely have more vegetation outside their house than others.
Try to show the inside of a house through the outside.

i think using original tileset would make it harder to present it as modern era
your map was kindda dull (sorry, trully) , its just too empty
if there are ppl living there, it need variety of things (as different ppl do different things) , and every house should have different kinds of look (dont make all the same)
the ground/grass is too well tended , if its modern there should be stone tile or just make variety of different tile so ppl who look at it wont get bored of seeing the same things

sorry if i offended you

there are good/great tileset out there for modern place , i got it from someone in this forum and i forgot where it is (japanese website)

dunno if it would help, example of my modern map (feels empty cuz cant put event in the picture)

Another thing to be weary about with that tileset is your choice of tiles. Dirt flooring appears to be natural, thus it should be more random. Although, you have it to be blocky or manmade. Use brick-like or cement-like tiles to represent man-made structures. Dirt should be random and brick-like tiles should be squarish. Also, use hills and grass piles to emphasize eye-candy.

I'm not offended at all, been terrible at mapping since the early beginning
But do you still have those tilsets? Because if so i'd love if you could upload them
If not i'll just figure out something on my now being map ^^

from this japanese website

Moved to Level Design.

My advice: Put trees, flowers, dirt, etc in a random order.

Nature is random, so put everything at random except where your character and the NPCs should walk

First of all, try to think about the lifestyles of the types of people that you would want to live there, and reflect that in the architecture. Also, would they necessarily build a path that close to water? Rivers have a habit of rising in the winter and oceans can surprise with tsunamis and stuff.
For example, I messed with a couple things in your picture to make it slightly nicer (key word: slightly. I did this entirely through MS Paint copy-pasting so I couldn't radically change everything without tedious measurements and having it look un-neat. It only fixes one of the things that were inkling to me.)


For modern towns, an important thing to remember is that things placed by the city (lamp posts, mail boxes, public roads, purposely planted decorative plants...) should appear to be more orderly and uniform while the things on a person's property (upkeep state of grass, private roads, big toys and bikes, piles of wood...) should have more of a personal layout, depending on who's property it's supposed to be.
Not everyone is going to deck their tree out with a tire swing and a clubhouse, and not everybody is going to be a master gardener.

Give the player a glimpse into the life of the people who live in this town through what they put in their yard and how they arrange it. If you can render something like that well, then your mapping will look much better.