LET'S TALK ABOUT MAP DESIGN

I am all for small, tighter maps, but sometimes you have to have a big ol' map to show scope for certain things - say if you want something shown to be massive. That's when it counts because it's in comparison to the tight, small shit you've been using the whole time.

It can be hard to tighten up different kinds of maps like plains and deserts. I recommend people who have issues with making maps of those kinds of places to try various counter-measures like limiting the maps themselves - making the area seem long by not making the maps big but having a succession of smaller maps and time skips. For example, a desert could be 4 small maps in succession, then a pit stop as 'night falls' at a small oasis, then 5 small maps, another pit stop and then 3 maps to leave. This gives the illusion that the journey was a lot longer than your typical dungeon, but allows you to not have to worry about big ol' empty maps.

And as for what to fill those small maps with? Not just sand or grass, please. For deserts you can have cliffage, dead trees, cacti, dry river beds, cracked ground tiles, rocks, pebbles, dead or dying grass (depending on how close you are to the oasis). You could also add inns and trail markers if the desert is well-travelled, hell, even a dusty road.
And for plains, small patches of trees here and there, long grass, dirt pathing (if the plains are often travelled), small camp areas, different plants, some slight cliffage, small pools of water, flowers and the like. You could even have permanent camps set up for wayfarers to sleep in (instead of oasis to rest at). Maybe even houses every now and then, ranches or farmsteads that are few and far between.

As for lighting effects, the one you used in the shop shows no light source. The ones BM showed came from the windows. There's a big difference between slapping a light down on a scene and calling it done vs having it planned and making sense. Indoor areas would have light coming from various sources, but unless that house don't have a roof, I doubt it would have come from that angle. XD

Light sources can be hard, but what a lot of people don't know is that they're better as subtle, so that they add to the map instead of covering it. People recently have taken to being heavy handed with lighting (well, there's always been people who have done that but more-so now that lighting can be done decently in-engine) and it sucks. No, really, it does. Use lighting subtly to build on the map you've already created. Don't just slam one down and say "Wow, look at my lights! Wow!"

@LockeZ: Odd, the RM section of Reddit care about pretty, but not big being better. Of course, if you're working with games like Skyrim and the like, big is scale, but 2D games... no. And anyone telling you differently is lying out their asshole.

That said, there are times larger maps are called for. As long as you make the maps interesting, that's the main thing. Like I said, large bland empty maps are shit. If you have a large map that has lots of cool details and stuff, that's fine (bar the lag with enough events in Ace. >.<; )

That's why I talked about deserts and plains - because a lot of people are happy to hit the paintbucket with sand/grass and add maybe one or two cacti/bushes to a 50x50 map. That is bad, which is why I addressed those points before. But again, large maps can give your game a feel of massive scope. The reason most people make RM maps small is to cut down on lag btw. Any engine that isn't RM... I guess as long as the details are there, large maps can be great.

I think the thing that made Skyrim work with the huge size, is the sheer amount of stuff to look at/collect/do while going from one place to another. That and the ability to fast travel if you wanted, or other alternate area-skipping stuff like horses and carts. Hell, it was great climbing huge mountains just because you could (and finding little, out of the way caves and shit, even if they were basically very alike in a lot of ways).

Compare to a game like FF15 where just watching someone LP it was painful... The high encounter rate, coupled with the sheer size of the map (what was basically empty bar a couple of findable items and some pit stops...). Hell, there were places that looked of interest but had no interaction whatsoever (I remember one LPer stumbling across what looked like an old abandonned power station and ... that's all there was. Nothing to find or explore or learn, just some structure that stood there.)