Prime's Storage Facility

[Primefusion]

Hello, and welcome to my gallery. You might find a few stray sprites but for the most part I do maps.

Here's some examples of my work:

If you're looking for some free-to-use maps for a project you're working on, I encourage you to check out my Map Pack.

Not taking requests at the moment. Sorry.

Edited June 27, 2015 by Primefusion

[Anouleth]

I think your mountains look a little bit off as well. A good tip is to try and balance out the amount of shaded and unshaded area on your mountains, since right now it looks like they're taller on one side than the other. But I think that otherwise, your maps look really good! You've clearly put a lot of thought and effort into making them look natural.

[Dr.Sholes]

They look good, can I use a few of them in my FE6.5 hack?

[Feaw]

Whey another mapper! I'm glad you joined, man.

You're not half bad. Quite good, actually. Your mountains are very plain, boring and look off, though. But with practice, you'll get better with them (I sucked at them as well, at some point).

Other than that, I don't really have much to point out. Just keep at it, and I can't wait to see more~

[Primefusion]

They look good, can I use a few of them in my FE6.5 hack?

The majority of my maps I've shown here are included in my own hack (which I may publicly release in the near future). So, unfortunately, I'm going to have to say no Sorry. Actually, I'm going to mark the "reserved maps" with an asterisk. If you want one of the unclaimed ones, we can talk.

Thank you everyone for your comments. I think the next time I try a mountainous map, I'm going to try a different style and see how it turns out.

[Dr.Sholes]

Alright, out of the unmarked ones can I use 7 and 8?

[Tangerine]

Let's face it there just aren't enough mappers around. But every now and then one will come along and get stared at awkwardly. I guess I may just be one of those crazy mappers. I've put them in spoilers since there's quite a few of them.

And so, to quote Mario: Here we gooooooooooooo!

11.

I've already been told my mountains look funny so I'll probably try to improve them when I'm feeling more motivated. Constructive critique is always appreciated.

* - An asterisk denotes that the map in question is reserved.

Good maps! The mountain thing has already been said, but I just wanted to add one more thing.

11.

There is something I really don't like about the paths on this map. They're all long and stringy with no breaks in it at all. Maybe it is not really a problem more than it is just a peeve of mine. Perhaps you could break that big path up into several smaller paths? Or just change the path itself to look a little better.

..this map from FE7 as an example of what I mean. The paths in this map look more natural. Like yours, it has one big path going all the way across the map (though not so extreme obviously), but it looks nicer and has more personality. I understand you might be going for more of a manufactured and "clean" road look as well considering all of the castles, but I think that look is kind of boring and the roads could use some flavor added to them.

Other than that, which could probably just be perceived as a minor nitpick or personal peeve, they look good .

Edited April 29, 2011 by Tangerine

[Chocolate Kitty]

Nah, I've said the same before Tangy

And yoyo primey boy

[Primefusion]

@Dr. Sholes - Yes that's fine, we'll chat over PM then.

@Tangerine - That map is pretty old, but I've taken your critique into consideration and I'm trying to make things look better. I should probably mention (though I'm sure many of you figured it out already) that #11 is chapter 2 of FE4. Albeit a condensed version.

@Hero of Time - Yo, Hero, what's happening?

Anyway, I was looking through my Photobucket and noticed I missed a few so here we are:

Pretty simple indoor map. Meh.

This one's riddled with errors but since I made it for a mapping competition some time ago, I don't currently have plans to improve on it.

This one, well I really was just bored.

Edited April 30, 2011 by Primefusion

[Primefusion]

Double post for great justice.

Here is my latest brain child:

And with that, my map trilogy is complete! Can you spot it?

As always, feel free to critique.

[Primefusion]

Been a little while since I last updated. Time to drag this topic out of the second page with this:

Made it for the SoS mapping competition.

[Primefusion]

Well, no one has really been replying to my maps

However, I really would like feedback on this. I've been working on a mapping tutorial lately to help steer people in the right direction.

Introducing Part I: The Great Outdoors

[spoiler=Introduction:]

Maps are an important part of any Fire Emblem game. They set the mood of the chapter

and in general can make the playablility of a chapter that much higher.

Good maps are just as important as well made portraits and can really detract

from a game if done inadequately. In this tutorial we'll be covering the basics

of mapping as well as the do's and don'ts.

Note that this is more of a guideline (Though some things are pretty much required) and

should be treated as such.

To show how we get from point A to point B I'll be using this map to showcase

the principles I'll be lecturing about.

You may ask, "What's wrong with it? It gets the job done." Maybe. But honestly,

this map is lacking and would really detract from any enjoyable experience to be

had.

So let's go through things step-by-step.

[spoiler=Exhibit A: Tile Spam]

Tile spam will be defined in this tutorial as an excessive amount of the same tile

placed in a consecutive manner. Wordy, I know. Basically, it's slapping down a lot

of the same tile over and over.

Tile spam is a very common issue among aspiring mappers. Seeing the same tile over

and over makes the map very boring and uninteresting.

Fortunately, it's also one of the easiest issues to overcome (At least in my opinion).

Here are two techniques that should be used together to help overcome tile spam.

1) Using multiple grass tiles.

If you look at the tile set:

You'll notice I've circled a few grass tiles. You shouldn't be using just one grass

tile in your maps. To help get rid of tile spam, trying using a combination of all of

them.

You may notice that when I mix in some of the other tiles, it breaks up the monotony

and now things look more like a blank canvas rather than an ugly pattern. This is good.

Use this in conjunction with...

2) Light grass

The light grass is used to show that clumps of the grass have grown in a non-uniform

manner(Which is completely natural, only humans cause grass to grow uniformly).

Try adding some light grass to the map to cut out more tile spam.

So you've got your light grass and you think all is well, right?

Well, no. You see, there's a problem. All the grass is square-ish in appearance.

Grass does not grow in straight lines naturally (Again, only humans grow grass in a straight lines).

So what to do? Try this technique instead.

Use the square light grass to create an outline of how you want your grass to look.

Then, you'll want to use the border grass tiles (The ones that are mostly dark grass with a little bit of light grass on the sides)

and add those tiles all around. Like this:

See? Much smoother. Notice that there are indeed some straight lines left.

This is because nature is pretty random and kind of does as it pleases. Leaving a

couple straight lines will help account for this.

I've actually got one more tip on tackling tile spam, though it isn't required and

not all outdoor maps do this.

3) Cliffs

Cliffs add vertical height to your map and can add that extra "Umph" to take it from

drab to fab.

So let's use them.

Hmm....Hopefully you notice that just like the light grass, these cliffs are

unnaturally straight. Last I checked, cliffs were jagged and went all over the place.

Let's do the same:

There we go. Now I don't have to run to the bathroom to hurl.

NOTE: For design purposes, you'd actually want to add clifs before adding in

light grass. However, since it's kind of optional I decided to talk about it last.

That concludes basic tile spam for grass.

"But, Prime! What about those forest tiles? Aren't those spammed?"

Yes, those forest tiles are indeed spammed. However, I'm going to talk about forests a little

later along with a few other things.

Right now we should chat about roads.

[spoiler=Exhibit B: Roads]

While in modern times roads are generally straight, we need to remember that Fire Emblem is anything but modern.

In the ye' olde days roads were foot paths that were worn down over time. They were inconsistent, broken up, and

generally wandered all over the place.

The roads in the example map are straight, uniform, and uninteresting. So let's apply some of the basics I was

talking about.

Notice I removed some of the light grass to accomodate the roads. Don't be afraid to change parts of your map

design. You want your map to look as natural as possible.

[spoiler=Exhibit C: Mountains]

Ah, mountains. The bane of many mappers. They can make or break a map and will seem very daunting at first. Don't worry

we'll go through this section pretty slowly.

Everything within either the red box-shape-thing, or the circle are your mountain tiles. Before we jump right in though

I should probably explain a few things.

Mountains follow a peak-valley-peak-valley type of flow kind of like this:

Because of this, shadows are formed on the right side of where ever a peak has reached it's pinnacle.

It's important to note that the transition from light to shadow is smooth and never direct.

You would never want to make your peaks like this:

It's much too drastic and unrealistic. Instead use the peak tiles:

To create a smooth transition from light to shadow.

But mountains aren't just one peak and that's it. Like I said, they follow

a peak-> valley -> peak flow. What are the valley transistion tiles?

Those are. Use them to make more interesting, dynamic mountains:

Well, we're getting somewhere. Hopefully you've noticed things are looking way too

straight. When's the last time you saw a straight mountain in real life? I'm guessing never.

In fact, mountains go in many different directions. Sometimes they split or merge at the peaks, other times

they do so at the base. Make sure to make it look as natural as possible.

Notice that I used some "Pure Shadow" tiles. As in, tiles that are just shadow and aren't for transition.

You'll find them here:

Make sure you don't spam them!

Ideally, you would make your mountains before anything else on the map. However, I didn't think it would

be a good idea to start off with what is arguably the most challenging aspect of outdoor maps.

In addition, remember that mountains aren't required for every outdoor map. Think about context and if

the region your map is made for would have mountains or not.

[spoiler=Exhibit D: Forests]

This section goes hand in hand with tile spam but should probably be saved for towards the end of

map creation. Remember how I said the forest tiles were spammed too? Find all of them here:

See how some of the tiles are "fuller" than others? What I mean by that is some of the tiles

have more trees in them than others. These should be placed together with other forest

tiles to create a big clump of woods.

Each tile has a specific purpose. Some are meant to be placed on the edge of a dense

forest (Whether it be top, bottom, left, or right) while others should be in the middle.

Play around with them to get a feel for how they flow.

However, we've got a couple issues going here.

1) Forests don't grow in a rectangular pattern

2) Certain parts of the forest should be more dense than others. Or conversely,

certain parts of the woods should be "thinned out" in comparison to other parts.

The first seems rather obvious, we'd do something like this:

However, the second part may not be quite as obvious and like I said has two options.

Option 1 is to use the thicket tiles:

To show that the forest gets denser as a unit moves further into the woods.

Option 2 is to break the forest up and show that there are clearings where

trees haven't grown in as much.

As you can see, the forest has been thinned out more.

Which option you choose really has to do with context.

Do you want your forest to be a natural barrier to direct

the flow of the map? As in, do you want to make it so

that the forest stops units from proceeding?

Or, do you want the forest just to slow units down?

These are things to think about if you plan to have a large

expanse of trees in your map.

[spoiler=Exhibit E: Empty Space]

Another section that goes together with tile spam but I felt was better left

for the end of the tutorial.

Empty space is basically an area of your map where there isn't much to look at.

It's barren and uninteresting. So where's the empty space in our map?

All over the place really. So what can we do about it? Frankly, the possbilities

are nearly infinite. We could add rivers or lakes. Or maybe incorporate forts, homes, and

villages. A few more mountains would certainly do the trick. It's really all about

how you want your map to feel. Is it a map by the sea? Or is it in a very mountainous region?

Think about these things as you decide how to proceed. For now I'm going to give a few

general suggestions to fill in the gaps.

Adding some forts and houses is a very basic and effective way to help reduce the amount of empty

space.

But wait! Trees don't have to be just for large forests, they can stand

in small clumps here and there too!

Notice how I also added a road up at the top.

Perhaps we should do something with that funny looking pond? Some

moving water would add a nice touch.

Hang on, before I jump straight into water, let me point a couple things out.

There's a difference between the water tiles. Some are meant for oceans and

large lakes while others should be used for rivers.

The ocean and lake tiles:

The river tiles:

NOTE: The tiles in the upper right corner of the picture are

actually meant for oceans/lakes. (Very wide rivers too I suppose)

So let's try using some of the water tiles:

There, looks a bit better doesn't it?

[spoiler=References:]

Just like spriting, having good map references really helps you

to understand the principles behind mapping and also offers some

good inspiration.

Serenes Forest has a large collection of maps from each Fire Emblem

game. Check out the home page here.

Just choose the game you want to look at on the left and look for

the chapter maps link. References are your friend! Don't be afraid

to compare your map to others.

[spoiler=Conclusion:]

So this concludes the outdoor mapping portion of this tutorial. Remember that

good mapping takes practice and effort. It's not something you'll just pick

up overnight. Just keep working at it. Show off your work and let others help

steer you in the right direction. I hope you learned something in this tutorial.

If you follow these guidelines, I'm positive you too will be able to take a map

like this:

And turn it into something like this:

Have fun and watch out for part II where I talk about indoor maps!

Let me know what you think!

[Chocolate Kitty]

Well you know I still think your mountains look a bit odd sometimes, but I think they're getting better by far, nice.

I made a tut for mapping before too actually for a class lol but I lost it xD

[Primefusion]

Well you know I still think your mountains look a bit odd sometimes, but I think they're getting better by far, nice.

*Whispers* Psst, you should point out the odd spots

[Chocolate Kitty]

I'm sorta tired right now, I'll get to it tomorrow, I've been busy.

[Feaw]

I have to say, I really like your mapping tutorial. It should come in handy, and will help improving all the novice mappers out there.

I'll maybe toss in my own cents to cover the things you've missed.

And I'll also try to comment on your maps.

But atm I'm busy, but probably tonight I will get the chance to do so.

[Primefusion]

I have to say, I really like your mapping tutorial. It should come in handy, and will help improving all the novice mappers out there.

I'll maybe toss in my own cents to cover the things you've missed.

Sounds good. My biggest problem was the order of introducing problems. Right now it's kind of all over the place =/

And I'll also try to comment on your maps.

I look forward to it

[Feaw]

Well, I can't seem to find something you missed in your tut.

As for the maps, I can't spot huge problems in them.

Mostly just your mountains needing a bit more work, but that'll will come in due time.

You can also try and improve your paths a wee bit.

Don't really have anything else to say (sorry about this, I'm feeling exceptionally lazy, and I have lots of other things on my head).

But I promise I'll comment whenever you post new maps in which I think you can improve things.

[Primefusion]

Decided to make an indoor map before I jump into part II of my tutorial.

I tried my best to avoid height problems

Let me know what you think.

[Feaw]

Weeeeell I don't like the big clumps of wall at the bottom.

The rest of the map seems good, if somewhat boring, though.

[Primefusion]

I got some ideas after thinking about it for a minute.

Edited May 28, 2011 by Primefusion

[Feaw]

Yup, that's much better!

It's still kinda big, imo, but it's excusable now.

[Primefusion]

Please read the new revised Part II: To the Castle! farther down the page.

Edited May 31, 2011 by Primefusion

[deranger]

These should probably be added to the pinned section.

[Primefusion]

I'd like to get feedback on this first before adding it to the spriter's resource.