Topic: Hydra Castle Labyrinth (PC)

[ozzy88]

Hey people!

I've done a sloppy map of Hydra Castle Labyrinth. It's an indie metroidvania game that you can download for free. So google it and try it out if you feel like it. Deceased Crab also made a 100% Let's Play of it, if you'd like to see the game with commentary.

I've been looking around trying to find a place where they would accept maps for this game and so I stumbled upon this site. Seems like you might have higher standards then I can provide for now. I mostly made it so that I may help people that gets stuck and anyone deciding to make speed runs of the game. 

Attaching 1/4 of the main area map so you can see what I'm blabbering all about.

I really like what you guys are doing and hopefully I didn't cause any trouble

[ozzy88]

Here's the second dungeon. It's one of the more well made maps I've done so far.

[ozzy88]

So, I've made the Main area map pixel perfect. Only some VERY minor errors with it as far as I can tell. So do you accept maps that have enemies on them?

Please say you do, I'd have to pretty much make it from scratch otherwise

[Will]

Enemies are optional but otherwise perfectly acceptable in a map if the enemies have a fixed position or at least a fixed number. You can also add bosses to the maps if you want to. What should not be included in a map are random enemies that spawn endlessly. Keep up the good work. 

[ozzy88]

OK! Thanks!

Now I only need to make a label for it and add a pretty background colour. I was thinking of using the Title screen as label and edit in my + others nicknames there, and I've seen you should also add your name somewhere on the map cept in a gradient that is 1 away from the map colours.

So, I'll be ready to send this in for verification/feedback really soon.:

Edit:

Ok, no background colour needed for the main area *facepalm*. So trying to think of a good way to label it if at all since it's a completely sqare map. hmm.

[Paco]

very minor? i wouldnt call it that. i would redo it again to make it perfect. i want it to be perfect as possible.

enemies is always okay. i also try to mark down what treasure is there and more info on my maps.

[ozzy88]

Well, that previews is not the current maps state. The minor errors I'm speaking of is that I've screwed up a little bit of texture here and there. I am planning to make a version with item locations as well, but that would be after I'm finished with all dungeons.

The files are too big so I can't share them here. We'll see if it gets accepted and what I'd have to improve when I submit it.

In the meanwhile, keep on rocking guys \m/

[Peardian]

If it weren't for some of the sprites breaking the pixelly grid, you could very well shrink all of the maps to 25%. Having every pixel be 4x4 pixels really takes up a lot of space.

[ozzy88]

Good news everyone!

I've successfully removed all enemy sprites in column A (I'm using the same system as chess for files and layers names) as well as two other parts. Wasn't as tricky or tedious as I thought, just copy/paste most of the time.

Still no word from the guy taking the submissions so I guess it's not getting up on the site this weekend.

[JonLeung]

So I'm "the guy", eh? 

Sorry, I don't respond to every email.  Because I have a full-time job, and other things that take up my time during the week, I typically only reply to submissions if I really need to, assuming I even get to the email before the weekend.  (And this past Sunday there was Mother's Day and other matters.)

A quick glance at what you have sent me so far, and I agree with what Peardian said.  Each pixel should be a pixel, i.e. 1:1 ratio, not 1:16.  You have it blown up by a factor of four in each dimension.  Unless the game really looks like that?  Because the enemies break the "pixelly grid", as Peardian mentioned?

Nothing wrong with enemies on maps, but if they are represented, it's best to have consistency with how they are placed (i.e. starting position, same phase of animation, etc.) that it's often neatest not to worry about them.  As Will said, it doesn't work too well with endless or random enemies but for bosses it is easier.

[ozzy88]

Yes! "the guy"!

Ok, I guess my map will get rejected for several reasons. I'm not sure if I'm getting what you mean by "breaking the pixel grid" but I think I do, and if so, yes the enemies do that.

And with being a newbie at this I've done some fixes to the map that might not make it suitable for scaling down :/

Like the pictures are all the same amount of canvas sizes, but when I put them in they miss 1 row of pixels, so what I've done is copy paste the row of pixels above or beneath it. This messes up the grid. But at least it looks better then having white lines in it. Maybe I can deal with that some time somehow, but for now it's cleaning duty!

The plan is getting done with removing enemies and correcting some more errors before next weekend. Then I need to go to the help forum and start looking real good for how to add item locations in a nice looking way.

Thank you for your time Jon =)

Edit:
The enemy sprites move...would be hard to capture them all at their starting position. Keep in mind, my intentions when taking the pictures were not to make a map that meets your standards. I just wanted a map that didn't look like the one I found on some blog. It had health bars and character sprites in every screen...

But I'm missing a picture in a dungeon, I need to know what item is in every chest and more or less start from scratch with one dungeon. That dungeon is in the dark so you gotta run around and take lots of pictures to be able to map the whole thing...I didn't do that since...you know.

Got so much to learn about this, and this is prolly a simple map to make compared to most others on the site.

[JonLeung]

I didn't say I'd reject these.  (Unless you want me to.)  I've certainly put up a lot worse.

You can always resend corrected/improved maps later on.  It is sometimes a tricky issue if you want to replace someone else's map, but if it's your own, yeah, go ahead.  I can think of at least a few people who do that near-regularly, but that's okay, it's always nice to have something in the meantime while striving for perfection (or at least towards it, with something better).

I think most mappers get better over time, so I don't think I need to discourage new ones by rejecting their first works for relatively minor things that more experienced mappers wouldn't do, if they are still useable maps.

[ozzy88]

Updates!!!

Done with removing all enemy sprites for the one I submitted. I've also cleaned it up + made dungeon 1 as good as I can get it. Dungeon 2 is almost done as well but after that...it gets a bit annoying. So I think I want to add item locations and such as the next step. Since that might take a while I might as well submit the map for the main area/overworld now.

There are still some very minor errors such as messing up a bit with wall texture and the lava is not consistent. It's apparently animated. Huh, the things you learn by paying more attention.

I am more then happy with it's current state so this may end up being the final result for it.

So you'll get another map in the in box soon Jon, sorry!

And thank you all who have been taking a bit of interest in this project so far

Edit:

I'd like to get some feedback on the label I made with credits and the title screen. I think it looks pretty bad but I don't know how I'd make it better. So I'll hold the submission until I get word from you guys.

[ozzy88]

Guess I'll submit this now. And the first two dungeons.

Now taking a little break from this project and later on I'll come back and "improve" it as said before.

I really hope that I could have gotten some of you interested in playing the game by now. It's free, it's metroidvania and soon if you want to make it a bit easier for you, there will be a map showing you where to get all items.

Huzzah!

[ozzy88]

You are not getting rid of me just yet. 

The next step is to add what's in the chests in the main area. I've been thinking about different methods and what I got going right now is what you see in the picture. I think just showing the item inside won't be enough, guess a legend of some sort explaining what the picture is of could help. Not sure how I would make all of this look nice.