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Platformer Elfscape: Ancestors is telling the story of a temple Guardian. She is asleep, waiting for the prophecy to come true - when the Chosen One shall descend underground, he'll fight a victorious battle against a Demon. One day, the Guardian is awakened, and she quickly realises the Chosen one is nowhere in sight. She needs to find him, and quickly - her life energy depends on it. Elfscape: Ancestors brings 24 levels, distributed into 6 environments, through which you'll be accompanied by an epic story told through visual-novel-like elements. Supported using public funding by Slovak Arts Council (www.fpu.sk)

Post news Report RSS (#25 Dev Diary) Game map & Fancy level tiles

We're currently working on a game map and we want to make it interesting. The level tiles will represent the level's most distinctive features and environment colour scheme.

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Game map & Fancy level tiles

Dev Diary 25


Hello!

The newest game feature we’re developing is a map. But instead of a classic parchment type map known from the majority of games, our graphics designer Kika chose a different approach.

We already mentioned there are several level environments in Elfscape:Ancestors. These environments are graphically separated and each of them has some distinctive graphics features that set them apart - colours, decorations, themes, enemies…

We’ve decided to also use these distinctive features in the map. Moreover, not only features of different environments, but also important features of each of the levels in that environment.

Map tiles of different environment levels
Map tile 1 Map tile 2 Map tile 3

Each level on the map will be displayed by a small tile representing its most distinctive feature. The level tiles are drawn in a style similar to elven runes and temple reliefs. Each tile has a square slot for the player token, which will appear over the tile when the level is being played.

Red arrow points to the player token square slot
Map tile - player square


Surrounding the player slot are long rectangle "spaghetti" stripes, woven into various shapes and patterns. Combined with additional details, such as leaves or thorns, they create a stylized pictogram of the level. The special story event rooms have a bigger pictogram to mark their importance.

Special story event room tile
Special map tile


Take a look at examples of some level's distinctive features on a tile:

(A) Distinctive features: leaser cross and plant motive

Tile vs environment A

Environment vs tile A



(B) Distinctive features: glowing spiral and orbs in industrial settings
Tile vs environment B

Environment vs tile B


The levels will reveal themselves on the map through a simple "fog of war" system when the player visits them.

Sketches of the map tiles
Map tiles sketch


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