Forest Town Exterior Tutorial

[Exer1]

This is my first tutorial, so please go easy on me!

Layers:



Layers are pretty easy once you get the hang of them.

Layer 1: This is where you lay down the grass/dirt/water.

Layer 2: Trees and houses can go in here, also maybe small bushes or plants. Or fences.

Layer 3: This layer is for the more detailed tiles. You can also put trees on this layer, to make trees even closer to each other.

Event Layer: This is the layer were all the magic happens. If you don't know how to use this, shame on you.

Forest Town:



A reasonable size for a forest town should be around 60x55 - 80x75. Forest towns are usually small, and mainly consist of 3-4 houses. Sometimes they may have a small shop or inn, but that's on a rare occasion. Also, you do not want to set any monster groups in your town, unless it's being attacked by random monsters. Towns are usually safe havens, so let's keep it that way.



Adding music to your town helps the player get into the game more. If you're making a small, far off town, I'd suggest going with a slow song.



Starting with layer 1, click on the fill tool, and fill in the empty space with grass.

Let's save the houses and roads for a little bit later and jump to the second layer.



Click over the tree tiles, and start to make a border around the map edges. You always want to make an opening somewhere on the map, showing where the entrance/exit is. Remember, this is a town, IN the forest...or maybe even at the end. It's up to you.



Then, if you want, you can click onto the third layer, and add a few more trees, to make them even closer.



Next, go to Layer 2 and start playing around with the housing tiles. Fool around with the tiles and get to know them. Making houses are simple and fun. You can also use the thirdlayer for excess parts of the house.



After making the basic outline of the house, it's time to add windows!

Now that you got the windows down, it's time for the door! The door can be a little tricky if you've never done it before.



First, create an event where you would like the door to be, in the Event Layer.



Then open up the graphics and scroll all the way down to doors.



Pick the door of your choice, or the one that you think would best suit the house. You can either set it so that when the hero comes up to the door, they can either walk into the door to go inside, or have to hit the action key to open the door.

Now you're probably wondering, what's the point of a door if it leads no where? Well, make it go somewhere.



Make a Transfer Player Event (Teleport) and click a location on another map, where your hero will be, once they go through the door.

Now, go back to the first layer, and click on the dirt or stone tile. (You need to be on the Second Layer for the stone tile) and make your paths.



After that, adding some water wouldn't hurt.



Now all you have to do is add a few more details, (i.e. flowers, different grass tiles, hills, fog, etc...) and voila.



Comments much appreciated! <3

[The Shadow]

Not bad, but the end resultate looks empty.

If I where you, I should add more plants, and maybe some darker parts of the grass. It looks a bit flat and empty.

[Exer1]

I couldn't find the darker grass lol.

But thanks

[Edsta]

I think its quite good lol:) Well i guess i can use the tree idea for my forest Thanks i would to use darker grass because you don't see one shade but heh..If ya can't find it i won't moan just remember that for when i do plains and that. Thanks for tut though.

[Exer1]

Hehehe, thanks

I have the light grass and the medium grass, I re-looked, still can't find the dark one

Wait, is the light grass, the regular grass, and the darker one, the dark grass?

[Edsta]

I've always assumed so... don't take my word but i think so because of there only being 2 shades i assumed one was regular and the other one was darker:)

So i think thats how it works

[johnny-ragnarok]

You could always try using the trees autotile to make it look as though it's in a deep forest, or something? I hope you know what I mean. And I have to concur with Castinio, it looks a little bare, but on the other hand people in the deep forest, far away from any major town or city, probably aren't concerned whether their village looks nice or not

Pretty good tutorial mate, added to my favourites with all of Nouman's..

[Exer1]

Haha thanks

The ending pic could've been better.

I was just trying to get it done quick so I could post the tut at the time lol.

[elfyelf]

Good of use i could use this for future towns,
although i didnt use that tile set for a forest town(elves) this is how mine turned out, not many trees but ok.





http://i119.photobucket.com/albums/o144/elfy99803/town.jpg