Journal

Creating the Northern Dryades Forest

Posted by:

Creating the Northern Dryades Forest

How do the maps in Last Dream II come to be? This post walks through the process and shows the intermediate steps in their creation with the screenshot at the top of this post being the nearly final product (without small plant decorations).

We start with an empty canvas (an empty scene in Godot language):

All that’s present is the Player which is barely visible at the bottom of the screen. The next step is to add grass base and then the dirt path.

Once we have the basic structure of the map, we then add the “Tall Grass” which serves to control where the player can move.

The next step is to start to add trees. To avoid the forest looking ’tiled’, we utilize 15 different pine tree variations (3 sizes, each in 5 different shades).

And we keep adding trees to build out the forest. The screenshot below shows the Northern Dryades Forest approximately 20% complete.

And eventually, we create a dense, realistic forest for you to explore…

The final step (not shown) is the addition of the minor details such as ferns, flowers, rocks, and other elements that make the forest feel more real.