TUTORIALS ON BUILDING BETTER MAPS WITH LIMITED CHIPSETS?

- Vary ground tiles. It's great having grass all over the place, but try to vary it up a bit. Add some longer grass, or some dirt paths. If you've a village make a stone path for the main roads, some dirt paths for well-travelled parts, normal grass and longer grass. It will make the map look less like a sea of green.

- Vary decorations. When doing outside mapping use flowers, trees, stumps and other various decorations to make things prettyful. You don't need to overload the map, but try to add some variety.

- Use your head. Think about where you're placing things and whether they make sense. Wells are usually created in areas where there is a lack of water. Having one next to a river doesn't make sense. Flowers are not going to be growing in the middle of well-travelled paths.

- Nature is hectic and wild. Don't make your forests all straight edges and lines. Trees can overlap and don't grow in lines unless tended by human hands. The same can be said of bushes and flowers.

- Eliminate the straight edge. Cliffs are usually crumbly and rarely just straight edges. Try vary them via height and shape. Just keep an eye out for height issues. Best to make the lowest layer first then add higher layers afterwards.

- Think of the average room. It's usually about 5-10 steps wide/high. If you're having trouble filling a room, make it smaller. No-one every complained about smaller maps. Large maps can be a hassle to walk around in, look barren and if you have a slow walking speed can bore the pants off a player. Especially in a dungeon with random encounters.

- Think about breaking up inners to have several rooms. Look at your house or houses you've been in. How many rooms are there? Try to base your houses on real ones and allow a few rooms. Don't be afraid to add things like beds, tables/side tables, bookshelves, carpets, wardrobes, toys etc.

- Keep the use of the room in mind as well as the people who live there. A kids room will be different to a kitchen or the bedroom of a bibliophile.

- Keep carpets rectangular. Nothing looks as terrible as strangely shaped carpets. >.<;

- Don't be afraid to experiment with how things look, or seek opinions on them.

- Try to give purpose to your buildings or at least make them fun to explore. There's nothing more annoying than going through a house and finding nothing there - no NPC, no books to read, no treasure... just an empty house.

- SHIFT is your friend when it comes to autotiles. Not many people know about the wonders of SHIFT mapping. Hold SHIFT when placing an autotile and you'll end up placing the center tile. Hold SHIFT when copying a tile (right-mouse click) and continue to hold SHIFT when placing it to make an exact copy of that tile. Works wonders for making autotiles look like they've been placed under another tile. Also, when holding SHIFT and placing a tile over an autotile, it won't affect the autotile.



- Don't be afraid to try and edit a resource into something you need or to fit in.

- Don't be afraid to ask for help. Just remember that a lot of other people are also making games so they won't have time to do lots of things for you. Be polite and don't get upset if people say you're asking too much. Look at what you're asking then try and taper it down a bit. People are also more likely to help if you can show that you've tried to do something yourself.