The Mana World Forums

after the release of the woodland maps it's time to start developing a tileset for a village in the woods. i already started a thread some months ago, but the response to my drafts wasn't that enthusiastic. so i thought it would be better to collect some ideas first before i start making anything.

...so... how would you like the village to look?


how should the houses be build?

what about the surrounding of the houses?

any special objects you could think of?


it would of course help a lot when you could find/create some pictures, drawings or (most prefered) screenshots from old games to show what you would like to see.

every opinion counts.

Maybe something like that




or that:

Well your own tileset is the best reference at the moment: perhaps you could try to use hints of the elements and shapes you've used there as a referrence?

Experiment on a few different things and be prepared for our feedback.

I prefer the Secret of Mana style which has not as much details and colors as your tilesets (i'm refering to wookland tileset / btw. i love your cliffs and water ).

The colors in matt's SoM screenshot are a lot softer. Your woodland grass for example: light green blades on dark green background (thats hurting my eyes while playing). It might be better to make that color step more softer like light green blades on medium green background as you will see in the screenshot.

I think the details in your tilesets (leaves, trees,...) are to small, make it a bit (50%) bigger and i'm happy

The old woodland village: the house looks geometrical perfect und to clean at all. random twiners and maybe cracks would be cool. - And dont use too much colors

(if my english too bad that you dont get the meaning of my message, i'll tell you in german )

Here are two screenshots...

Secret of Evermore:


Zelda 3:

please post your opinions about the already made tileset in the Woodland Tileset thread. this thread is about finding a concept for new tiles, not discussing old ones again. thank you.

Sorry I couldn't find a better example, anyway this one shows a good choice of colors. About the woodland village I'd like it to have houses made of wood of course, probably with a basement of stones, parts made of big rocks, as well as a rocky chimney, and a roof as in the picture. This is my suggestion

I really like the style there and the general concept of using what's available from the nature as such. I especially like those hay roofs.

no idea from what game this is, but it comes close to my original idea:

(too bad it's filtered that strong. although i enjoy the realtime image post processing capabilities of modern computer hardware while playing old roms it is very disturbing when examining pixel art)

Seiken Densetzu 3 (Secret of Mana 2):


@Secret of Mana: i think those houses don't fit into a forest enviroment very well

@Secret of Evermore: that hut is from the stone age scenario, isn't it? much too primitive in my opinion. but we could maybe keep the idea for a village in a tropic/jungle enviroment

@Zelda 3: Zelda got a very unique minimalistic style. although that concept works well for zelda i would like to avoid using it as a reference.

@Sword of Mana: the building looks very organic. i'm not sure if i am capable of doing something like that. but i can try of course.


thank you for the creative input so far. what i would like to read now are some complete concepts like elven said with

I'd like it to have houses made of wood of course, probably with a basement of stones, parts made of big rocks, as well as a rocky chimney, and a roof as in the picture.

a concept like "i want you to make it look like on this (...) picture" is acceptable, too.

Damn I've been looking for that screenshot from the house on top of the mountain in Tales of Phantasia for more than an hour. Yeah that's a good example of how I'd like it to be. But the rocky part could be a bit higher and as I said I'd prefer a non-wood roof, even if a wooden one it's ok (maybe we could have both )

http://hitchcock.itc.virginia.edu/Slave ... NW0125.JPG

Return of the african hut pics!

But there are some elements you could use: the lack of finishing and polishing the materials into something smooth that fits perfectly and the usage of whatever is available. Crude, yet simple and effective enough.

to wrap it all up, that's the plan of action:

a stone base of about a half meter, then wooden board walls like on the first picture in my post and then straw roofs.

when there aren't any other proposals i'll show you a first version soon.

version 0.1:

(maybe a little bit more texture on the stones?)

Crush wrote:version 0.1:

(maybe a little bit more texture on the stones?)

...And more shading. I think the highlights on the rocks shouldn't be at the visual edge of the rocks, but at the top. Just imagine where the light would hit the rocks perpendicular to its surface.

Also I think the boards should have a higher value and lower saturation.

It's a good start.

Hmm before concentrating on the details, I'd think about the structure, it seems to me as if the building is too weak, I'd make the vertical boards at least the same width as the rocks they stand on.

Another idea crossed my mind, it would be cool to have blocks so we can make different kinds of buildings: completely wooden, rocky or mixed.

wider vertical boards (sure that it looks better that way?) and more agressive shading on the stones:

about the colors: i'll adjust the colors when everything is finished. it would be pointless to do so before i can see everything together.

about the tileset organisation: yes, i think that would be a good idea.