How to Design a Good Overworld?

How does someone like myself create a Decent looking overworld?

I think that's a question that only you can personally answer.

though think about it like designing a city or a neighborhood.  you need a major thoroughfare that you use to get around, some side streets that are a bit slower and more twisty, and various little "parks" for secrets to be hidden in.. etc

think back to games that had an overworld you liked, play them again and identify what you liked and why.  use that to design your own.

Cubear wrote:I think that's a question that only you can personally answer.

though think about it like designing a city or a neighborhood.  you need a major thoroughfare that you use to get around, some side streets that are a bit slower and more twisty, and various little "parks" for secrets to be hidden in.. etc

think back to games that had an overworld you liked, play them again and identify what you liked and why.  use that to design your own.

Thinks for the reply, I will definitely do more research on overworld design from other games and try to incorporate them in my own hack.

Jeffreygriggs2 wrote:How does someone like myself create a Decent looking overworld?

There are a lot of ways to build some good looking overworlds. But usually the way I build an overworld is I make certain areas in the game themed around something, and then I usually just try to build an area based on those themes. So say for example I wanted to build like a Sunken Village or something. I would basically just build my area based around that theme.

This may not be too helpful but I find that it works a lot for me, and to make overworld areas better you just really need to become more experienced with building the overworlds and stuff. Hopefully that helps you out, if not I could try to explain my process more in depth.

Letterbomb wrote:

Jeffreygriggs2 wrote:How does someone like myself create a Decent looking overworld?

This may not be too helpful but I find that it works a lot for me, and to make overworld areas better you just really need to become more experienced with building the overworlds and stuff. Hopefully that helps you out, if not I could try to explain my process more in depth.

How do I become more experienced in building overworld areas?

Jeffreygriggs2 wrote:

Letterbomb wrote:

Jeffreygriggs2 wrote:How does someone like myself create a Decent looking overworld?

This may not be too helpful but I find that it works a lot for me, and to make overworld areas better you just really need to become more experienced with building the overworlds and stuff. Hopefully that helps you out, if not I could try to explain my process more in depth.

How do I become more experienced in building overworld areas?

Overtime really. As you build more and more areas you'll start to realize what's good in an overworld and what's not good in an overworld.

Just from rom hacks i play, there is a huge difference in atmosphere by adding detail. You dont want a field to look like a open area of nothingness, add trees, bushes, grass, rocks, look for every detail you can add to look like a real place.