Subterra Areas

Subterra is constructed a bit differently than the other towns. With most of them being around the middle with areas surrounding them, the town of Subterra is actually the first place you enter, with all the fields extending deeper underground from it. This, combined with the much narrower design space from being underground led me to construct the areas like one big, continues dungeon. It takes the form a massive mining operation surrounding a large whole in the ground. But first is the Upper Mines, where the player can get a feel for the area; large, straight lines with plenty of offshoot passages hiding goodies.

The center of the dwarven mining operation, as well as the center of the area as a whole. This place didn’t need to be too complex, as it mostly serves as the point the rest of the areas spin out from. That being said, this is also probably the place that suffers most from the limited tiles that come with the base RPG Maker. The wooden scaffolding looks fine, but there weren’t really any elevator or dumbwaiter parts, and I simply could not get a good cliff fading into darkness to work.

A dark reflection of the Upper Mines, this is the most dungeon-like area outside the actual dungeons; various rockfalls block the way forwards, and side paths have to be taken around before you can clear them out. Or you can just Smash the rocks if you have that skill.

This place is where I got to have some fun with the whole underground thing: instead of just rock walls and mine carts, here I got to have a bunch of greenery and water, like those underground ecosystem caves. 

Unlike the Upper and Abandoned Mines, the Lower Mines are an area the dwarves only just recently got to, and as such, are still mostly digging; hence the lack of tracks and much more winding paths. This is also where one of the dungeons, the Crystal Cave, starts to bleed over into the field area, allowing for some more visual variety.

This is where all the open space for the Subterra areas wound up: a massive, underground lake that you get to ride around on in a boat and visit various islands to look for treasure. That being said, I didn’t want the player to get too lost, so lines of shallower water lead between the actually required islands for the side quest involving the dungeon. But that’s not to say there isn’t anything if you go off the path. There are plenty of hidden secrets if you brave the open waters.

The Crystal Caves is another place where I experimented with having objects inside the dark areas, and I really like the effect it created. There’s not too much else to say about the area, other than the boss is probably one of my favorites; they have multiple skills that require you to interact with the combat systems in interesting ways.