Remastering the Tsukuyomi Temple

So, I decided to, just because I can, and as it might interest some people, show how I go through the process of designing or in this case remastering an area. I dare not assume it could inspire any future game designers, but hey, if people like this, happy to do it again, from time to time. So, lets get into it.:

The original temple to be remastered, the blue is the size I want it to be, the splotches are doodles. This is, almost, how it is in the original. I was never quite happy with it, and several people liked the area, so it gets some serious designer love now.

I swear this helps! Changing the tileset always messes things up a lot, but the original layout just lacked a few things I wanted to add. When redesigning an area from scratch I usually have some post it notes I doodle possible layouts on. The original temple is an example of what it looks like if you don't plan things ahead of time.

Got rid of all the crap. As I don't quite have 'Asian temple' tilsets, and don't want to look for them, import them, add them to tile, and bloat my games filesize with them I makedo with what I have, see what looks best. At this point I usually derp around on my laptop, look at things, derp around more, look back... until I decide upon what 'feels' right. This part of the process, together with the layout drafts from before takes the longest. 

This is the actual future layout, the shape of the area, at 50% size. It looks rather basic, but this helps me to know where I'm gonna put what. In my mind I already see the area. The gate-thingie in the middle right will get deleted but incorporated, see below.

I want a natural, but also mountainous area. I set the basic layout, at first it was very linear. I begin all locations with basic shapes like flat lines and squares to divide areas, but, in a natural area like this, I next blurred the lines a little. The stairs and different rock tile heights plus shadows create a credible illusion of 3d on a strictly 2d surface.

Sharp eyes may have noticed that this picture is earlier than the one above, with flat terrain, but showing that alone is boring. So instead a small design event, I want gateways leading to the temple, but the tileset is being mean, and blocking my tester heroine.. In such cases I use the oldest trick in the book, an event 'above the players' looking like the gates arch. I could also shift the tilesets height, but I might not always want players to be able to walk under those.

The basic framework completed its time to .. throw stuff on there. The easiest way is grabbing one flower tile, planting it on several places all over the map, grabbing the next tile. You can even tell a bit of a story with tiles, if you are good, in this case I try to go from greener shrubbery on lower elevations to dried up trees and less growth on a higher elevation.

With the area mostly designed its time for 'the real' programming. Notice that I left a bit of blue in the right corner? thats an alpha tile, what that means is that the backround I selected, cloudy, will show up later, furthering the impression of being on a small mountain. The map design still lacks details, see the windows and signs on the temple below, but sometimes its best to take a short break from one thing, go over it again a little later, add more details when you have an eye for it again.

The finished result. Don't ask me to estimate how long it took. I'm sure that if forced and with enough experience you can power through such a redesign in 1-2 hours tops, but its a cerebral process more than anything, or to say it more directly, you have to be in the right 'mood' I like it, I hope you do too, I feel like its so much more than what it once was, yet still recognizable. After this I went on, and spent.. definitly more time, updating the switches, adding to the writing, and doublechecking the.. ugh. I'm sure someone is gonna find a bug. :P The Temple interior also has some design touch ups, but far smaller things, I like to combine exploration with tight knit storyline locations, to both keep things interesting for those that like to explore, but also make it so that the game doesn't have too much dead space where all you do is walk around in. As finishing touch to this map I threw a Fog effect on it, which I had always wanted, but amazingly it took me a while to grasp the extremly simple tutorial when I first started out. This is the Tsukuyomi temple how I always intended it to be, it'll be live and ready for your downloading pleasure coming saturday(or already up if you have the Patreon preview),  hope you enjoy it!