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Hi Joker,
Attached are two images and an edited version of your level. Thanks for sending it to me.
First, refer to the file screenshot-market-graal2.png. You will notice that I circled several things in different colors.
The red circles indicate tile errors. The two I circled were the only tile errors I picked up on my brief review of your level. They are small, but they can bother some picky people. My suggestion to prevent further errors of this particular kind is to go slow and be thorough when you are creating your layering. Again, these errors are small, so it's no big problem that you missed them.
The yellow circles and outlines identify the cliffs. Your cliffs are fine, but there are some small changes you can (and I would suggest you) make to smooth them out as completely as possible. These areas of interest are circle in a darker shade of yellow in the top left portion of the image. (See the attached files reference-pics1.png and edit1.nw to see what tiles I used in my editing of it and where a couple of them are located on the EOA tileset.
The light blue circles indicate tiles that I would recommend removing or replacing with non-blocking tiles. Given the fact that this is supposed to be an event level and that players will likely be running around in such a level, it might be a good idea to take into consideration these blocking tiles hindering players' movement. A few, large, concentrated blocking areas are okay, but small tiles can easily be overlooked, and players can easily get worked up over them if they get trapped or stopped at a critical moment in the event. I would suggest keeping most single, blocking tiles, to the edges of the screen or around larger concentrations of blocking tiles (eg, trees).
The violet circles are meant to suggest that you take out some of the trees and replace them with various other detail. I did this in my edit of your level (edit1.nw). It's just a small suggestion to improve the appearance of the level so that the level does not have a big clump of condensed trees, but rather a flowing string of trees with bits of detail placed among them.
The dark blue circle covers the layering in the middle-left portion of the level. I circled this area to suggest toning down the layering there. Each individual instance of layering throughout the level is decent, but I think overdid the grass-grass layering a little. I would suggest removing some of the grass-grass layering around the level, especially in the area I circled in dark blue, and possibly replacing it with some grass-dirt layering, grass-water layering, or other detail.
A small suggestion is to edit the collection of light-green tiles to the bottom-right of the middle trees (I've seen some people call these flowers, while others call them walking stones). Either way, as they are now in your level, they seem out of place being the only tiles of their kind clumped together. Based on my interpretation of them as walking stones (stones that players would walk on to avoid trampling grass and flowers), I prefer to keep them chained (the diagonal way you positioned the weeds next to each other throughout the level) near things people would walk to (such as the sign in the middle of the level). At the very least, if you keep them as they are, introduce a couple more groups of them, balanced throughout the level so they don't appear so out of place.
Overall, your detail is alright. I prefer more detail in my levels, but as a functional level, I would say the amount of detail is okay. You could, however, try to introduce different detail tiles. There are a lot more tiles you could use instead of the weird looking swamp grass (blame the tileset) and weeds (though weeds are a nice way of filling in space). Ideas include the cut grass tiles, rooshes (rather, EOA's equivalent of them), cut bushes, and a few other single tiles.
You also might want to make more room between the bottom cliff and the line of trees.
The last suggestion I have to make is in regards to the boundaries of your level. Under the presumption that this is the only level in the event (as opposed to one in a collection of levels that form a larger map), I would definitely introduce barriers on the left, top, and right sides of the level (the bottom is covered by the trees). These barriers present logical obstructions of player movement (as opposed to players being prevented from walking further when there is nothing in their way (the natural boundaries of the level)). I do this in all edge levels in a map and single levels. Ideas for these barriers are trees, stumps, rocks, mushrooms, and especially fences, preferably all intertwined.
That sums up my initial suggestions and comments about your level. If you have any questions about my response, feel free to PM me either on the forums or online, or just post a response.
Good luck! |