Environment Art: Bydale

Hello all! Harry here, caffeinated environment artist. I had meant to blog earlier about work on Bydale (the first map we've worked on so far), but since that fell prey to two jobs, three films, drinking, piracy, and food and sleep (just kidding [about the last two]), we have gone months without an environment post. But now seems like the perfect time to begin, as we herald in

The Birth of Bydale
(That's the largest font option)

     Chapter One: The Vision


This has been a wonderful area of exploration as we learn how the system works and what exactly we can do with the maps, and how to do tiles and all that. The same exploratory nature is true for the art, and we played around with various sorts of matte painting and two dimensional work (Joe is an Illustrator man, while I'm more of a Photoshop kind of guy [is Photoshop more "humanities"?]) and 3D modelling (Joe, meanwhile, knows Maya and all kinds of fancy stuff, and, I think, is a little horrified at the limitations of good old Sketchup).

 

As a side note, I personally tend to use a combination of edited photographs and free hand drawing for most of this (thank God for the massive online wealth of Photoshop brushes). Please also take note of Naked Blue Man above, as he may become a bonus unlockable character (if I have any say in the matter, which I probably do not).

We decided on a lovely isometric perspective, such as you shall see below. I grew up with awesome "Euro" RPGs (what's the real term for that?), like Baldur's Gate, that had pre-rendered isometric map scapes, and I was excited to try and capture something of that ilk. I myself am relatively inexperienced in the kind of games an engine like RPG Maker usually creates (the kind of fantastical, insane RPGs like the Final Fantasys and Chrono Trigger and other games I'm ashamed to say I haven't played), so I think my style was a little more subdued and "realist" than the kinds of art that RPG Maker comes with, and Joe and I have worked to achieve a harmonious union between our two artistic visions (which I'm excited to share with you below).


     Chapter Two: The System

To digress for a moment about the actual RPG mapmaker system, most of the images for the tileset in a map are stored in one big image file, which is fixed width but with infinite length. This means that if you have one big group of images (a tree, for example, would need much more than the 32px square of one tile), if it runs over that width, it has to be split up into two or more parts. While the building elements tile with each other, there are a lot of standalone elements as well, and this is something we had to take into account.

Here's where I got to after playing with tiling building tilesets for a while:

I chopped down that original barracks idea (with the tower above) into tiling fragments, and then made roof tiles to appear flat on to the viewer, and the joining tiles between angles, to make more complex architecture. Fun times. Meanwhile, Joe created this awesome watch tower, which is a fine example of a freestanding element:

(Of course these things changed in the final version, as you will see below.)

Another good discovery we made was autotiles, which exist in a separate image file, and basically act as a paintbrush on top of another texture tile, as you can see in the dirt in that last picture. You drag and click, and it makes the edges look nice. It makes life a little easier. Here's grass, thin grass, dirt and cobbles all autotiling:

Next, as a word of explanation, RPG Maker can layer tiles three deep (which isn't much and provides the occasional logistical problem when I want to put a ton of stuff on top of each other). In that way an image with transparency (like the watchtower) appears on top of the grass placed below it (you really have to think three dimensions in two dimensions to do this stuff). This came in handy when I realised that we could layer transparent autotiles on top of other tiles. That may sound like gibberish, but it means that I could make a brush just for long grass and shadow and paint it all over other stuff. Basically it's an easier way of making stuff look pretty. You'll see.

     Chapter Three: Making Pretty Stuff

Enough logistics, and on to fun art development things. After creating basic architecture I moved on to different textures and variations.

A pleasant whitewashed wall and thatched roof, and "empty wall" for stalls and lean-tos and so on. I also made a grass shadow autotile to appear on top of grass. Next, additional architectural eye-candy:

I was actually very proud of the overgrown grass fringe at the wall base. Things like that that you never notice.

Stone walls, and then stone to wood and stone to plaster:

And window slits and stone doorway. Hooray! So that was the main village architecture out of the way. It was time to begin thinking about the more specific Bydale elements.

     Chapter Four: A History Lesson, and a Recipe for Socioeconomic Prosperity

The country of Ametona is small and technologically simple. It's pretty much a feudal mediaeval society. Bydale is a village kind of out on the frontiers of Ametona; it's an agrarian community, but because of its fringe quality, it also has a military presence (not as much as the fortress town of Municro, which is the next big phase, but enough to keep them safe).

Therefore Bydale needed farming and country industry life, with also the ability to defend itself. It has wooden defensive walls, and some worked plots within (and here I break into screenshots from what is now the current iteration of Bydale, fresh out of the oven):

There's the palisade wall in the background, and a big granary tower and a bunch of nice smaller elements. We made trees and foliage as well (more to come). Also check out those sunflowers.

In addition to this, Bydale has a section devoted to the upkeep of its guards and soldiers, including barracks, training ground, and a little forge.

(^ Development)

In terms of commerce, you saw the market area around the central square above (below the granary). Here it is again, with well and trough and bucket.

 
(The bucket is kind of the focal point of the town, if you will. Everything revolves around that bucket. Perhaps it's some kind of idol. We're getting an animator to do NPC actors, so hopefully they can make a bunch of people prostrating themselves around it.)

Going back to commerce (from pseudo-religious caffeine rant), the biggest building in Bydale is the inn, which houses itinerant labourers and tradespeople, as well as travellers (and of course lively frolicking and festive merriment).

It's conveniently signposted (if only everyone weren't oh so illiterate!). I love what the clotheslines add. Also look! The new watchtower. You'll be able to climb that ladder in the game.





     Chapter Five: The Future

So that's about all I have to say about environment art for now. I could go on for hours about entertaining details we had fun sticking in (scarecrow, ivy, horse hitch, wheelbarrow . . . bucket, obviously), or the learning curve for drawing trees, or how awful it is to do all this with a mouse (Wacom tablet is supposed to arrive today), but the caffeine is beginning to wear off and I should probably eat something and try and kick my life into shape.

Next up we're working on fields and wilderness, and we prepare to confront such issues as hills and cliffs and groups of trees. (My new solution to everything: transparent autotiles. See above.) We should also have some more eye candy like ruined walls and wagon wheels and massive ballistas (of course). And water. That one's going to be fun (like really challenging). Then it's on to Municro, and the architecture of an old fortress city.

Whew. And look! I did it all without swearing! Fuck yeah!