tips for the overworld

[Nazgul]

hi, i wanted to hear some tips for creating the overworld.
(it's very confusing, i have to do it screen by screen....)

thankss

[Espo]

truly the answer to this question is that it's completely up to you. as you work more with zq you'll develope a style and you'll start moving more quickly. BUT... here are some things that I do.

Never forget the story you are trying to convey or the path onlong which you want the player to travel. it's easy to get caught up in graphics and scenery and have the gameplay suffer. what this includes is for example, dungeon placement, town placement (if you are using towns that is), and also secrets that are available both now and later (for the player to return to).

Layout. I use a little trick to help me keep straight the areas of the map i want to use for different places. I fill an entire screen with a plain colored combo (like grass or something). then using the number buttons on the keyboard i can control what color that screen appears as in the map view at the bottom left of the screen. this is only an editing tool and will be changed once the screens are built. then i copy and paste the screen on different screens of the map. The end result (by selecting different colors for different areas) is a map at the bottom left that highlights different areas of the map in different colors so I can budget what sections I need to include and how to build them together. hope that makes sense.

One final thing that i hope won't complicate things for you. your overworld is a function of dmaps being connected together (like any other section of your game). overworlds are not limited to one map. for example the quest i'm building now is going to have about 9 different overworlds.

good luck.

[Nazgul]

thanks fot all of that stuff, but I'd like to know about a tutorial that could explain me how to create the overworld, taking care that each screen is right, etc...

[questerd00dman^]

When i stop being so lazy im going to make a tutorial all based on making tiles, screens, uploading custom tiles, and other things like that. Right now im still planning some things for it but it may be usefull to people who like to make thier quests as scenic, easy, and
not-confusing as can be. (including some screenshots of course.) It would be able to make quests work faster and less confusing sometimes.:mega:

-Xero

[Freedom]

there are several good tutorials out there, I've put them on my page in the "Info link" in my sig below, so they could all be found in one spot.