Nice job. No crits.

I'm gonna map a games screen with them but in the meantime... The entire tileset image has 86 colors so I'm curious why you are using so few per tile; for aesthetics or game engine requirements? I get the aesthetics, but the engines I've used tend to lag whether I have a lot of colors spread out over many sprites or often even in just a few.

Also, I have no idea what kind of layering you might be able to use but here are some not-so-obvious tile tips. When mapping, I LOVE using tiles in ways they weren't intended to create neat visual effects not otherwise possible. Such maps will stand out against other people's work done using the exact same tileset, and fuel demands that they get "all the tiles" to work with, heh. Cracks, crevices, shadows, etc... often times things that just look like a weird pixel blobs are invaluable resources to an intuitive or skilled mapper. Such tiles are often a hard sell to non-mappers worried about overhead but if someone makes a really good map using this trick selectively, you won't have much resistance afterwards.
The magic of this is that mappers can use those odd bits to make a new tile look old and weathered, etc. In reality, you can save overhead by not having to provide new and old versions of the exact same tiles, and open up a lot of the tileset to being used in a variety of ways.

Edited by ZacRay - 19 October 2013 at 8:35am

Ok, sorry so slow, no internet at home.

First, I have mapped before. The first instinct of most people is to grab the tiles and just go wild but that isn't how mappers really work. A tileset represents all the images in an entire game. You cannot just add any tiles you want to any screen, assuming your game has many map screens. The entire world gets divided into areas so certain sections of the tileset must be reserved for them. For instance, I am assigned to map a dungeon inside a volcano, I'm not gonna be happy to discover that previous mappers used most of my lava and volcano tiles to make the maps that a player takes to get to mine. I want each area I create to have a unique look and feel, to make players want to get there and experience something different and cool.

So, I stuck to my guns when doing this mockup and went for a side-scrolling type game with a temple entrance up in the hills that you take a bridge to get to. What happens if you walk off the bridge and fall? Who knows, players have to try it to find out. Always a good mapping 'tool.' I only stacked two tiles at a time to simulate rudimentary game engine layering (not including the background, just a solid field of color) So yeah, I could'a made something far more colorful but I stuck with what I would actually do if I were making many maps from your tileset.

I also made a sheet to test tiling of individual images but I don't guess there is any reason to post that. Good effort so far, keep it up! Creating a an entire tileset is an involved and daunting process. Good luck and have fun!!




Edited by ZacRay - 28 October 2013 at 8:42am

That dark blue was me cheating as it wasn't in the tileset but tile game systems often use black or some other dark hue anyway as a default "no tile there" tile. So I kinda assumed it in there. :)

My method of making tiles is to first start with some big, broad bands of color to make sure that all layers move forward or backwards visually to match the layout of my map. Then I use those hues as a basecolor to build the tiles from. I also start with as limited a color palatte as I can (DB's 16 color general purpose is my current fave) and then build up as I need to. This is the best way I know of to minimize redo's and tweaks later which becomes even more important as the set gets bigger.
On the other hand, I'd say this is us being picky. The tiles look great, Keep on going with them!