SCREENSHOT SURVIVAL 20XX

Well, it wasn't just for the screenshot, but you're right, it should be in its own box.

The cloud overlay is fine.

The way the camera moves is neat, but the positioning works the opposite of how it probably should. Normally, if it's not centered on the player, you want it to look ahead of the player. Not be struggling to catch up to them. They don't need to see the shit behind them, they've already been there.

What you should do is have it work mostly how it does now, but have the moving camera trying to reach a tile three squares in front of the player, instead of trying to reach the player. You'll need to detect which way the player is facing for this. This will make it so when the player turns, the camera will move significantly, like in Super Mario World. I think that would create a really great effect.

author=Kaempfer
@djbeardo:
That screen scrolling is truly terrible. Why would you want to outrun the camera

It's probably impossible to outrun the camera, but I would increase the lerp rate all the same, personally. I would also modify its destination based on how long a player travels in a given direction. As you continue to move to the right, the lerp point would migrate further to the right of the player, for example.

author=LockeZ
What you should do is have it work mostly how it does now, but have the moving camera trying to reach a tile three squares in front of the player, instead of trying to reach the player. You'll need to detect which way the player is facing for this. This will make it so when the player turns, the camera will move significantly, like in Super Mario World. I think that would create a really great effect.

I do not recommend this and would go even further, saying this is shit advice. The wildly swinging camera is disorienting, and your assessment of how the camera works in SMW is inaccurate. You want the lerp point to swing back gradually, rather than towards s fixed position based on player facing. The lerp point should be based on motion, not facing, like I said earlier.

@Dookie:
The new messy grass tile/overgrown grass everywhere really helps. It makes it look neglected and dumpy without removing any of the vibrancy. Looks great.

@djbeardo:
I don't mind a bit of delay in the screen following, but it shouldn't be that long. If a player can run, they will: and seeing three or four tiles in front of you is not a good way to get people excited about exploring.

Jude is right about the camera being oriented on movement rather than facing; otherwise everytime you faced back the camera would have to travel a huge distance. Super Mario World uses a deadzone in the center when changing direction, which means you can go back a bit if you missed something without the camera suddenly flying off on its own. If you don't want the camera to move tile for tile with the player character for aesthetic reasons, try out that deadzone. I'd suggest a smaller deadzone and a smaller advance on the camera position, though. SMW's camera was mainly meant to assist in you moving in one direction for long periods of time, whereas you want your camera to be able to swing to whatever direction you're going without it being dizzying.

lerp lerp lerp

Excuse the large image size.

What do you guys think? This is for the forest area in the game.

Finally working on the first story dungeon

@Ramramz-The only complaint I have would be how tiny those builings are. It doesn't really make any sense :P But I'm absolutely LOVING the first screenshot.
@Punkitt-I likey <3 I personally like the third animation the best. I don'y even know why but I do :P

Alright, I want you guy's honest opinion. Would you like it more if each character had a defining faceset like this, or should I keep it simple and just have the charset without the border be the faceset? Should I do this for every NPC or have a separate selection for the important characters?

I'm not sure the background adds anything, but that might just be because I know nothing about the characters. If the backgrounds are meaningful in some way then go ahead and keep them, since RTP charsets actually provide negative insight into who each character is due to the player associating them with other characters from other games.