Map production

I started off making the map by making the canvas, I used the character for scale as I need them both to be perfectly scaled ingame. There's no reason that the monster is used here, it's just I found that first.

Using the monster as scale, I made a really basic layout that copied the general layout of my concept art for the station. This version has the key positions of the doors correct, meaning that I can build around them without blocking or obstructing them, hopefully making the game easier to play. I also added a wall colour to make it clear that the wall is solid and not transparent, as well as adding smaller details like the door frame and skirting boards of the map.

I figured that it wouldn't be too time consuming to ask my peer for his opinion so far, and he made it clear that he thought the skirting board was the floor. This could be really confusing for the player, but I think the inability of the player to go up and down, coupled with the player animation walking alongside the skirting board, that any chance of being misunderstood is not something to worry about.

After choosing what to do about the skirting board, I decided to add the less general features of the room. This included the windows and sofa, both essential parts of the map to keep it from being too empty. My thinking on my concept art was to avoid empty space as it could be considered dull or boring by players, meaning that I could probably boost the game's reception by just having a few different coloured pixels in the living room. 

The shadows under the sofa and windows were added for realism to improve the player immersion, helping foster a good attitude towards the game as well as the belief it is higher quality than it really is. You can see how I used the 1 pixel brush to add a lot of shading and line work to the sofa, hoping it would be eye catching and impressive to the player.

Once I added the rain Gif I had made, the main room looked very good. When one of my peers was asked what they thought, they mentioned how other than a problem looking at the colour of the wall without getting a headache, the windows with the rain were amazing aditions to the map. This will impact the development in the future as I will be sure to keep the animation in the project no matter what.

I used the selection box tool to select the whole map, control c to copy it and then made a new project. Asepsprite knew what was in my clipboard and so gave the exact dimensions for the map, allowing me to keep the old version as a backup with no downsides other than the living rooms taking up more space on my hard drive. 

The main changes I made from the older version was adding a locker with some blood on the window so that the map could have some visual story telling, more detailed shadows on the skirting board, doors and walls as well as changing the wall colour to grey. The changing of the colour of the wall was to check if my peer strained their eyes less to look at a sort of cool grey, with him eventually saying that grey was much better. This change and reaction to the change is amazing as it means my players should be able to play the game for hours on end without getting a headache, lessening potential bad reviews as well as increasing playtime since people won't need to take breaks from the game to let their eyes recover.

You'll be able to see this map with rain in the background by looking at the gameplay video.

Conclusion

In conclusion, I believe that the map is perfect for my project due to multiple peers saying there aren't any glaring issues with it as well as it not being bland and having visual story telling. I'm certain that the visual story telling will be able to link well to adding interactivity into my game such as speaking interactions. This would be a great addition as it makes the game look professional as it seems well thought out, meanwhile it also makes it look less blocky since the doors are practically just rectangles compared to the bloody window and locker. This could really help to improve the immersion of players in the game since it would look more real. It also helps as it stops the map from being boring. An exciting, or at least interesting map, can make the whole game seem much better to players as well as upping the chances of people actually reviewing the game as they appreciate the detail and potential story behind everything. This could form a cycle where people review nicely and others download the game to see it for themselves, leading to a better reception by potential playerbases.