Drawing 2d Trees for Rpg
2D RPG Map Design
Quick guide on 2D Mapping & "Dead Space"
Mapping is an important part of the top down RPG style games. There are a ton of great design guides on asset creation and placement, but I want to talk about a topic that is not discussed as much.
A lot of maps tend to have a good amount of dead space. These are areas that serve no real purpose, only used to travel through. Now in dungeons with random encounters, this might be a design choice to have players navigate through. But in towns and areas where there are no random encounters, getting rid of the excess can go along way in making your maps more interesting.
Let's take a look at three different games and look at what we can improve to get rid of some dead space.
EDIT: Here is a link to the album if you want a closer look at the example images.
So here we have HAMLIN VILLAGE from DRAGON QUEST 2. It is an older RPG and map design was just becoming an important part of the genre. As you can see there is a ton of dead space that simply serves no purpose. In the center of the map you see a lot of wasted grass tiles and the long paths just waste your time walking.
Looking at my improvements to the map, you can see that all of the main points of the map have been retained. The village seems more cozy and there is no wasted space. The building were simplified and the paths were cut down. Now, wasted time running from building to building is cut down and access to all of the NPCS is easier.
Here is AZALEA TOWN from POKEMON GOLD AND SILVER. About 10 years of RPGs come between Dragon Quest and Pokemon Gold and Silver, but some of the mapping problems still exist, but to much less extent. There was a lot of dead space around the well the team rocket member is standing in front of and there was some spots around the town that were unnecessary.
Now here I made some design choices that you may or may not agree with but are definitely worth talking about.
First let's look at what I call 'nooks' or small areas that are somewhat isolated from the flow of the map. A big difference between the two maps is that I put the GYM inside of a nook. The before map might be slightly easier to navigate, but the nook puts emphasis on the importance of the GYM and makes it feel isolated. This can be a design choice as to where you want nooks. The berry tree at the top of the map is in an even greater nook, and the design choice in getting there is my next choice I made.
Choosing path size seems arbitrary, should a pathway be one, two, three, or four tiles long? My philosophy is to think about the situation. For the berry tree, it is secluded behind someone house and it feels right to have a one tile path between the house and the tree emphasizing the hidden-ness of it. Now, be careful with one tile paths and NPCs. The choices to make paths a certain size and having one tile only walk ways is important to the flow of the map and making areas feel smaller.
One of the biggest irks I had when playing UNDERTALE was SNOWDIN. Walking across the town seemed to take awhile and waste my time (I am aware of the teleporters). I felt the town would feel much more 'cozy' (a theme it was already rolling with) by bringing everything a little closer together. Seeing multiple NPCs and building together in the same screen adds to the feel of the map and makes the village seem a little more tight knit.
So why am I bringing up dead space? I have awful problems with it. As you can see with my example from GLITCHED, I almost shrunk the map down by half from both the width and the length. Now there is much less space in town and moving around the map feels much better and natural.
Now all of this comes down to design choice. If there is a reason that non-random encounter maps need to be spread out then go with it! Removing dead space though can help a lot of maps be smarter and more player friendly. Tiny villages seem much more cozy and quaint while NPCs are easier to find. Overall, be conscious of the space things are taking up and ask yourself the question, "What use is the part of the map?"
If you like these quick game design tutorials, let me know by liking or messaging me and I'll try to get one out once a week!
Source: https://enhousestudios.tumblr.com/post/140703456154/2d-rpg-map-design
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