In this post, we’ll present how we develop town maps. In this case, we’re using the initial town of the White Mage prologue, Galice, as an example. It should be noted that outside of the mapping, creating a new town, especially on a new continent which different flora and fauna requires the creation of a substantial amount of new art which somewhat slows the development process compared to if we could simply perform the map development.
As with all maps, we start with a blank canvas:
We then add our base layer, which in this case is a short grass tile. This is an auto-tile but with ~20 variations so that clear periodicity is reduced:
The next step is to add the dirt paths that map out the walking paths of the residents within the city:
Galice is a port city and so we add beach sand and ocean water tiles on the eastern shore:
Next, we need to add Tall Grass which acts as a collision barrier to avoid players walking off the map or getting lost in the forest (not present yet). In this case, we’ve added both normal (green) and beach (light tan) tall grass:
At this point, we’re ready to start adding the buildings for both shops and resident houses, as well as any key buildings. Galice has 4 shops (item, equipment, inn/pub, and synthesis), 4 resident houses, and the Red Crystal building where the White Mage works. Some of the key considerations in this step are selected proper walls, roofs, and windows for the style of the town. In this case, Galice is styled on a Mediterranean village will terra cotta roofs and white plaster walls (with the exception of the Red Crystal building in the center). The Red Crystal building uses a red/crimson roof with large stone bricks for the wall and stained glass windows:
With the buildings done, we’re ready to add the trees. Since Galice is the first town on a new continent, this meant creating a variety of new trees so that you, the player, can easily feel that you’re in a different place when you’re in either Greenwater (from the Hunter’s prologue), Ashwood (from the Gray Mage’s prologue), or Galice (from the White Mage’s prologue). These new trees included several varieties of Ash, Hornbeam, and Weeping Willows (although we’re saving the weeping willows for a later dungeon / town):
We’re not quite done decorating the eastern shore with palm trees, but you can see an example on the lonely eastern beach. We may also need to add some seashells, small rocks, etc. to finalize the beach area. After the placement of the trees, we add the final touches such as flowers, shrubs, ferns, signs, and NPCs to the map to create the final version:
Now that the town is 95% done except for a few additional decorations on the eastern shore, we’re moving onto the mapping of the interior buildings. We’re also nearly complete with the mapping of the the initial White Mage dungeon, the Coastal Cave, and hope to share it in a future post.
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