Room of the Week 2012 - Archives

[Quote58]

Well, here's a room.
[spoiler][/spoiler]
Not my best work, but it takes time to get used to someone elses gfx.
Anyway, as Red Monkey said, huge gfx collection. I'm helping to test it. This rotw is nice as it shows two completely different kinds of tilesets you can make with these gfx.

[X-tradyte]

Looks like I have some competition. Without further ado though, This took 3 days to make. My first RotW room since being back.

Good luck everyone, fair votes, remember.  :grin:

[spoiler][/spoiler]

[Charmander106]

Another Brinstar room.

[spoiler][/spoiler]

[Quietus]

Shadow put in another quality room.
Webber does the best work I've probably ever seen with vanilla tiles, and gets my vote this week.

Red Monkey: I really don't think the pink stuff fits at all. :neutral:

[passarbye]

Shadow gets my vote this week.
your rooms always give me good vibes.
:^_^:

[A_red_monk_called_Key]

shadow vs. monkie using the Massive GFX collection.
these GFX are new to the both of us. i will take to master using it. by looking at the two rooms together. i can tell that creating a GFX set is no problem, the new challenge is balance. i used too many different ground and plaint tiles, the final look is that the has good variety and zero sharp edges, but no flavor. shadows GFX set on the other hand has great balance and tons of flavor, but there is many sharp edges.

i thought it was a cool idea when squishy_ichigo defended his room, so
Monkie defense - not SM Ph, stargate, test room disregarding room size(could have been better), just saw a mistake in the filler tile what the hell was i thinking when i did that.
Monkie's Challenger statement - next week A small room of awesomeness including Waldo.

DCTheMachine - some stuff doesn't look right. the grass on the pipes and walls should be a different color. the pipes don't look good because they don't cast a proper shadow. your filler tile looks good.

ProjectXVIII - ?

Shadow96 - looks great i'll have to find a way to combine those BG tiles and make some damaged/cut off tiles for those temple BG parts. i think the black color in your in your green palette should be brighter. that upside down sea weed would look better as dark brown roots.

wildfire - ?

webber1900 - room looks great. only thing i don't like is the bottom. unless they were a different color those ground tiles used like that don't look good. zoomed in you can tell they need to be different shades.

don't know who to vote for yet.

[MetroidMst]

I will bring in my review for this week for once, because I think this week really deserves it.

[spoiler=A_Red_Monk_Called_Key]The room itself, and the design I have no problem with. That pink is kind of a mess though. It doesn't look like it fits with its surroundings at all. I have no issue with the palette itself, but the palette doesn't even begin to fit in. Which I guess I can understand, since it is Phazon and poison and all that so it will look weird, but even the Primes had their palettes match.

Design - 7/10
Aesthetics - 5/10
Overall - 5/10[/spoiler]

[spoiler=DCTheMachine]This reminds me of my first room, and that isn't a good thing as DSO likes to remind me often. One suggestion I would make for you is to try to figure out how to get things to blend better. The door tile tubes don't match up well with the purply/pinky tubes in the room. The positive stuff about the room is that it is way better than my first room. You seem to have a good idea about using layers to a certain extent, and that is a good thing to know about for starting off.

Design - 5/10
Aesthetics - 2/10
Overall - 2/10[/spoiler]

[spoiler=ProjectXVIII]Best new design I've seen in a while. Fact is, simple can often be spectacular, as Sil demostrated. With all the focus on detail, detail, layering, detail, more layering, and then detailing that layering you layered over with layers on the other detailed layers, this is very unique and that makes it stand out like very few other rooms can. The longevity of this is not nearly as long as hacks with detailing/layering out the wazoo though. You can change the neon green to some other color, but it will get old way faster than the previously mentioned detail oriented rooms/hacks. Still, for a first visual, this room is a great move away from the detail heavy.

Design - 5/10
Aesthetics - 8/10
Overall - 7/10[/spoiler]

[spoiler=Shadow96]This is a much better use of these tiles compared to your previous entry. What really helps this room out is the water base in the room. An interior lake is a very appealing visual for most players, and for those of us who like to imagine beyond just what we see/play in the game, it really helps bring the depth of the game/world to a higher level. As always, your work with the tiles is top. If there is something to complain about here, I find the really green/mossy filler tiles really uninteresting. They detract from the room a little with how different they are. If they were more rocky and less mossy they would probably fit better, and therefor blend in seamlessly. One thing about the BG I would point out is that it is pretty bland once you get above the water. Sure, the tiles are all flipped and the palette changes slightly, but it is just a solid rock wall. A little break in it, even just a hole showing nothing but black behind it, would really help. (PS: I noticed the bubble tile in the room. Immediate bonus points.)

Design - 8/10
Aesthetics - 8/10
Overall - 8/10[/spoiler]

[spoiler=Wildfire]This is actually a very nice room. The new grass tiles are okay, they don't blend perfectly with the vanilla grass base, but they work still. The blue is a very nice palette, and the room is well built. There is one thing I cannot get past though. Why did you leave the grey in the bubbles? If you had actually done the work to make them properly purple, this room would be much better. Since everyone knows I am a bubble fiend, I will say right now, this kind of palette sucks on bubbles. Pick a color, and make it that color. Don't half make it purple, and because the grey kind of fits leave it. If you don't have the room in the palette lines, you need to make it, redraw the tiles to fit, or not use them at all. (Same thing goes if you were trying for grey bubbles.)

Design - 7/10
Aesthetics - 5/10
Overall - 6/10[/spoiler]

[spoiler=Webber1900]This is a very impressive room for me for one particular reason. I can't use Green Brinstar for anything. You use the tiles well, and detail/layer them pretty good, and manage to make a good looking room with tiles I don't find that attractive. Another thing you do, that I like to do myself in large doses, is use solid black to help build the room. It appears to me that some think everything must be framed by some tiles, when the simplest, and often very effective way of doing it is using plain black between objects.

Design - 8/10
Aesthetics - 8/10
Overall - 8/10[/spoiler]

[spoiler=Verdict]Two rooms ended with the same score, but Shadow's room is more toward the negative end of the scale, and Webber's room is more toward the positive end, so Webber gets my vote.[/spoiler]

Keep doing weeks like this where I have to come out and post about the rooms.

[Quote58]

Red_Monkey
[spoiler]You're quite right about balance. It's very easy to make a tileset with the GFX C, but every time I find myself wishing that SM had more space in it's tilesets. There are two aspects of your room I very much dislike. Other than the two I like the variety in the ground tiles, the rounded feel, and the awesome use of the filler tiles.
Aspect one: The room feels sparse, like you used very few objects and plants. You have 8 colour chozo tiles at your disposal, and you decide to barely use them at all. Since you do use the tiles once or twice in the room however, it's hard to tell what kind of room it's supposed to be. A little chozo here, a little mechanical stuff over there, and then, Pink.
Aspect Two: The palette has too much contrast. The pink on it's own is a fine pink, but when you put it in the setting of that room, it's way to far from the other palettes. As MST was saying, even if it's phazon, it should match the other palette. I would've probably gone with a darker, less washed out ground palette, and idk about the pink. You did say it was inspired by an episode of stargate.
Over all, the room feels a little too empty, like your focus was all on things like ground tiles and filler, when you wouldn't need to have put the focus on that if you'd had more plants and objects for the player to look at instead. More plants are deffinatly needed, as well as other objects and a clear theme. Also, the pink looks strange on the grass, on the moss tiles it looks awesome, but on the grass, it feels far too out of place.
Score 3/5 [/spoiler]

DCTM
[spoiler]Well. for a first room this is, interesting. It's rare to see early rooms that use layering. but you seem to have a handle on how it works. Alright, so personally, I like the right hand side of the room, and hate the left. On the left we have cre tiles being used as cre tiles should not be used. People often do this when starting out but it's something I really dislike. The save station tiles should not used as corners for pipes. As well, the door tiles don't fit with the pipes at all. In terms of layering, it doesn't look great, the idea of grass on the pipes is good, but the way you go about it isn't ideal. that kind of grass needs to be put on top of something to look right. They don't look natural the way they are placed. The ground is full of sharp corners and the background, well the background doesn't fit. Now the right side, is a different story. the use of layering and grass is outstanding. If the WS tiles had a different palette to go with the theme, it would look even better. The use of the square block tiles is pretty bad, but then I look up at the top right hand corner of the room and the ground over pipe layering there is just great. So basically, your room is interesting. In some places, it looks great, and in others it looks awful. Especially with how the cre tiles are used. The room on the whole still feels like a begginers room, but looking at certain parts it shows potential. Keep it up, and continue showing rooms in rotw. 
Score 2/5 [/spoiler]

Project
[spoiler]Weirdest room I've seen in a while. In a way, I like the simplicity, which makes you focus more on level design and enemies. However, the level design doesn't seem great, or more, it's harder to tell when you can't see the enemies, or fx1 or anything. The theme has been tried many times by many people, and I think this room is better than some and worse than others. The tileset would certainly get old quickly if you only change palettes, so it needs something more in it. In terms of level design, I can't really say whether it's good or bad as Idk what enemies are where.
All in all, it's a strange room, and I'm not entirely sure what to think of it.
Score 2/5[/spoiler]

Shadow
[spoiler]Well first off let me just say this feels like Lush HD. instead of only a few ground peices there are a whole bunch, instead of little to no filler, there's all sorts of stuff. However, it's certainly more difficult to work with than my own gfx, but that comes with using any new tileset. That blue on the water looks really nice. On the whole the room is alright. I don't like how the blueish background filler meets the background filler from GB, the palettes are two different from each other. And the green filler clashes too much, feels out of place.
Score 3.5/5[/spoiler]

DS
[spoiler]Well. This room doesn't work as is. There are certain problems that just completely detract from the feel of the room. I won't explain your bubble problems cause the bubble master has already done so, instead, I'll focus on two other aspects of your room. First, the grass. Here's the thing about putting fusion plants into super, you have to make them fit. (I feel like I've explained this in a previous rotw, oh well)Fusion plants are by nature, skinny. Very simplistic because they fit with the style of fusion. However, super has a whole different way of making grass and subsequently plants. In 'lush' tileset, I've added substance to the fusion plants, especially at the base, so they fit in with other super metroid plants and grass and such. The way you have set up your plants, when you don't focus on the plants, and simply look at the room, they look okay, but the moment you look closer at the plants you see they feel very cut off. Like they weren't meant to go together.
Second, your layering. Not layer one on layer two, I'm talking about regular layering in your filler. The problem there is that bother the first and second layers use the same one filler tile. Which means it there's no real feeling of depth. What should have done to get that feel is either, A) made a seperate filler tile that was different enough to seperate it from the other or B) use all three filler tile types to have it slowly change from the lightest to the darkest until the darkest it as the edge of the second layer outline, then you start again on the second layer.
All in all, the room is alright, but it feels like it's trying to be a certain style, but it can't get there since the layering just doesn't look right, and the fusion plants don't fit. Also, bubbles.
Score 3/5[/spoiler]

Webber
[spoiler]I'll get to this gorgeous awesome slightly flawed room when I'm not so lazy.[/spoiler]

Good week.

[FullOfFail]

I'm sure most of what I'd have to say has already been done in terms of criticisms, so I'll just list my vote. I gave it to Webber for the creativity and complex layering. It's rare to see the default tilesets being used that differently still. It looks like an actual jungle now. Shadow would be a very close second. Everything in it looks good. But Webber's entry is too unique to pass up.

[DCTheMachine]

Thanks everyone for your constructive criticism and suggestions.  I know I'm just starting out and the pallets were the last thing I was thinking about with my first room (I was thinking 3 thousand other things at the time LOL).  I also realized after I posted that in my haste I had forgotten to take the brightness setting off in smile, so that's why the background looks whiter....sorry still learning here....
Note on Shadows comment, the room gets better towards the right side because I built it from left to right LOL, so you can actually see me learning throughout the room.  I screwed up the background though because I was messing with layer 2 and removed the background pointer when I shouldn't have LOL,  good lessons for the future.  Thank you all! Your thoughts help greatly to a first timer. I'm not even going to vote for myself LOL.

RedMonkey:  I'm always a fan of vast rooms and interesting colors.  The pink is a little loud....but I like the broken temple parts of the room.  I unfortunately know nothing about pallets yet, let alone using completely new tile sets, but I shall learn!!

ProjectX:  This room is neat because it makes me feel like I'm in the map instead of the game, plus there's something about the green that pleases my eyes. Metroid and green mix well in my brain.

Shadow:  I love run down, overgrown temples, and this is great.  These newer tilesets are awesome.  The only thing I think would make this room any better would be to remove the doors entirely and just have it with open entryways. 

Wildfire:  Layering is one of the things I want to really get good at designing in this game, especially in these cave/underground situations.  I like this room and the way the doors are cut into the surroundings.

Webber:  Speaking of layering....LOL  I think its great that you keep the original tile sets alive.  This room is like the demonstration of my ultimate goal in layering.  Its like the Brinstar room of my dreams!


It would be a joy to play through any of these rooms.  Great stuff everyone.

[Malpercio]

@DCTheMachine: Maybe because metroids are green...?
As for the rooms
voting Shadow, second place to Project

[JamieWebb16]

[Quote58]

Yo
[spoiler][/spoiler]

Top two lines weren't seen in game so there was no need to include them.

[A_red_monk_called_Key]

this room is inspired by JamieWebb16's room. i did every thing today after i saw his room for the first time, to show off the GFX C.



learned a trick to using the GFX C, use half the GFX set to make a room than add 1/4 more graphics to fix up the room, leaving 1/4 for what ever. still had space in my GFX set.

[X-tradyte]

I'm not posting a room this week but I must say, I thought James had a no-contest win this week. Until I saw your guises rooms.

I'm not gonna give my opinions out yet though. I'll keep that for voting.  :wink:

[passarbye]

@red_monk,  DAT CHOZO STATUE.... PASSAR DOES WANT

btw,
[spoiler=my 15 min LATE entry]

[/spoiler]

image does no justice, it has fog fx.
and yes, i know about the shitty BG.  :sad:

[X-tradyte]

Actually I believe that Chozo Statue is in the fusion CRE set that Cryshi made a while ago (Was is Cryshi? I'm not sure)

[Quote58]

actually, it's not just the fusion chozo, but you'll have to wait till the gfx collection is out to know what I'm talking about.

and ya, it was Crys who put a fusion chozo in the cre for ice metal.

[JamieWebb16]

I like how red monkey used my room's layout to show off that sexy GFX. :razz:

[A_red_monk_called_Key]

thanks JamieWebb16.

passarbye hopefully i'll be done wih the GFX C in 2 weeks. the statue and that bg will be in there and both will have multiple versions.

[passarbye]

okay, thanks red_monk. *waits patiently*

[X-tradyte]

I'm currently doing my own hacking, so for now I'll just put in spoilers for each person and update them as I have little breaks. For now, I'll do Jamie's and continue throughout the day and give my vote to the most /10.

[spoiler=JamieWebb16]Looking at your room makes me want to make love with the screen. This is truely a one-time type of room. It's unique and has a nice mix of vanilla tiles with not too many new tiles. I like it. But this is where you went wrong, imo. Your BG. Where is it? All I see is a big black spot. So with this, I give you...

8/10
That BG surely would've helped, bro.[/spoiler]

[spoiler=Shadow96]Shadow, I've seen your past rooms and I'm being completely honest when I say they blew my mind to another dimension. But this...this is lacking a lot to be considered that. I get the feel you were trying for, a nice lava room, heated and full of hell. But some of the clashing I feel..it doesn't work. Like the Orange with the darkness of the dirt tiles, it just doesn't feel right. Good design but, I just don't believe it has much potential this week.

7/10.
Sorry man, but that's my honest opinions.[/spoiler]

[spoiler=Red-Monk3y]Do I really need to explain the beauty and uniqueness of this room? Fuck no, it shows for itself. Excellent fucking job. It takes my vote this week.

10/10.
Couldn't be any more perfect.[/spoiler]

[spoiler=passarbye]The Background is pretty blank. It's a good room though, it has a nice icy feel too it, and it's greatly designed. However some of those overlapping corners kind of turn the room off for me. That Background though, that's the main issue for me. It just..it needs A LOT of work done to fit the room.

6/10.
Sorry man, really, that BG needs serious work.[/spoiler]

[Malpercio]

I almost voted shadow, I guess because of the palette, but then I saw passarbye's room, and maybe it's my ZMfag side but I like his tileset better.

[Quietus]

Voted for Jamie this week.  I particularly liked the purple in the main tiles.

[Qactis]

Red monkey for me. I'm loving those doors. The tileset mix is nice too