Iron Mapper IRONMAPPER Season 5: Trial I

Ekat
Heartless Dragoon
Morlockhater
Nemu
Ross Hawkins
Pokemon Dawn
Slimshady
Thedeadheroalistar
The-Red-Ex
Vurtax
Zein

Original tiles by Magiscarf
Original Lyra sprite from the Gen 4 OW sprite pack by Neo-Spriteman, VanillaSunshine, PurpleZaffre & Maicerochico and AtomicReactor

I made the church and cross tiles.
The rest are recolored, edited, or just straight up gen 3 tiles that came with essentials.

The Reborn Team.
The Rejuvenation Team.
NathenxBrewer.
Morlockhater.
Myself for some small tiles and edits.

I love the subtle storytelling in this map. The book mysteriously beside the gallows, the elevator alluding to further carnage, and the single closed door hiding the one room with unsullied bedsheets... As a player, all of these little things would make me ask many questions, encouraging me to explore more to find out what happened! I think the sheer amount of blood across the map is a bit much; by the time I walk past the receptionist's desk, I would already be desensitized to the blood and wouldn't find it shocking or interesting as I continue exploring. "Less is more" might be a better approach here, to help highlight the rooms/areas that you wish to put more emphasis on!

I love the details on this map! Often, details maps can make it difficult for players to know where they are and aren't allowed to walk; however, your use of paths made it easy to know what was important and what was simple decoration. I like the fact that there's only two of those black holes/pits and they stand out so much, because it makes me want to find out more about them. I'm going out on a limb by assuming that the furnace to the north is meant to function like a building of sorts, though I'm not sure if the player is intended to start from the southern blood-lake or not. The lake itself feels a bit empty, and if the player is intended to come from it, I would want a bit more decorations there to keep them interested! There are a few tile errors, specifically with the decorations under trees and the shadows not being semi-transparent.

Wow, this is a beautifully detailed map! (Maps?) You've done a fantastic job at creating not only a single map, but an entire inner-connected area with lots of potential for great storytelling. Who are all the people in the cemetary? Why is the Ultra Wormhole in the crypt? What's behind that blocked cave outside the house? What are the red eyes? How am I going to cross those holes in the floors?! I think the highest praise I can give to this entry is that I could see this being an entire game's worth of content just in this image! Although the reception room of the mansion is a little small compared to the size of the mansion, its consistency makes it an interesting place to explore. I think a few areas are unnecessarily large and void of meaningful content, such as the dirt path near the north-eastern exit, the path leading into the cemetary, most of the cemetary itself, and the farm land. Though these areas look fine when viewing the whole map, they may become cumbersome for a player to walk through when there isn't much there besides decorations. There are a couple tile errors with some of the scarecrows in the farm.

A city map is always nice to see when they aren't required! The cracks around the city leave me with a lot of questions, and I wish I knew what caused them! Was it an earthquake? Was it a Pokemon? Why are all of the exits blocked off? It's definitely a creepy energy! Though there is a maze-like quality to the whole map, some areas seem completely inaccessable depending on where the player starts (which isn't entirely clear), such as the northern-middle road and thus the grassy block near the top-middle of the map. Is the player intended to be able to jump/hop over the cracks in the ground at some point? Overall, I enjoy the detail put around the map, but there isn't an immediate goal that stands out. (Irrelevant to the actual critique because we aren't taking tiles into consideration, but I'm very curious: What was the motivation behind the Japanese graffiti on some of the buildings?)

What is with that golden grave?! That was the first thing my eyes were drawn to, and I imagine it will be the first thing that truly captures the player's attention! Already, something feels amiss... Why is it gold? Why is it fenced off? Why does it have a big boulder on top of it? I'm already getting the spooky vibes that there's some zombie or vampire being contained, and I don't want to stick around to find out! And then it just gets worse if we manage to get through the backdoor and find all these bodies and a creepy entrance to some crypt or ruins! This is quite a scary mystery being set up! I think the unnerving atmosphere could be heightened if the graves were not so perfectly aligned; perhaps their perfect organization helps add to the uncanny feeling of that golden grave and that might be the vibe you were going for, but I would prefer to see less square rows for a graveyard that doesn't seem to be in a very fancy place! There are some tile errors with the mountains at the top: the transparent ones should be replaced with the non-transparent ones if they are on top of other mountains, but it's such a small thing that it could be chalked up to personal preference!

I am deathly scared of the ocean and this map is not making it any better! It actually triggered that thalassophobia of mine, and that's pretty impressive for a Pokémon-styled map! It would be exciting to see what would happen here in-game... I'm picturing a boss battle or some kind of Legendary encounter, maybe even story-oriented! This map truly captured how it feels to be the player, which I heavily appreciate. I can actually feel myself using Dive somewhere and dropping into this map and being absolutely terrified! Though I do enjoy the sheer amount of eyes, I think the map overall could be improved with a slight downtick on them. The idea of multiple creatures staring at you in the deep depths is horrifying, but when it feels like a school of them, it has a bit less impact than it would be if there was only a handful! I like that the map is more focused on the creatures than the map itself, and the map itself is quite pretty and well-decorated, but I would've loved to see a bit more to look at, and more to explore or progress through. Despite those criticisms, this map did a fantastic job at capturing the theme!

The first thing I noticed was the use of the taller grass near the church! It may feel like a small detail, but I think that detail is what really elevated this map to me. It makes perfect sense that the grass near a building would grow taller than the rest, perhaps supported by the walls. It draws attention to the church itself, and would really catch my eye as a player. The inscriped statue in the top-left is another great piece of detail, making me ask a lot of questions like "what was so special about the person/Pokemon?" and "is their spirit still lurking around here...?" I would suggest making the grass patches bigger, even if you don't want them to be required to walk through, just so it's easier for the player to hunt for Pokemon by running around! In the same light, some areas are very cramped, but especially the one-wide gap between the ledge and the church. It seems like the exit to the north is relatively important, it deserves a good path to it much like the statue has! I also recommend adding more rewards/incentive to walking through the grassy parts; the hidden item in the bottom-left could be moved all the way to the right-side and be a perfect reason for players to walk through that bottom-right grass, for example!

We aren't judging based on tileset or style, but I do want to take the chance to say it's awesome to see a Gen 2 map! The thing I like the most about this map is its unsettling use of symmetry vs asymmetry. Though the structure of the building is relatively symmetrical, very few of the items are. You can even see hints of how the room may have been decorated before it was abandoned, such as the two southern sofas being in relatively the same place, but one of them being turned to face the wall. The cushions and radio give me the creeps, and would make me wonder if I was truly the only person inside the mansion right now! It is surprisingly large, appearing quite small on my monitor until I took into consideration the one-tile sized player in Gen 2 and what the Gen 2 viewing space actually is. I don't have any direct criticism of the map itself; I wish I knew what was behind those 3 doors, but perhaps I would be too scared if I was the player - it's bound to be an adventure either way!

This map makes me feel nervous, and here's why: the name of the map suggests that we're in a forest, so I instantly imagined a forest like Viridian or Eterna. But then I open the image and see this little town?! Or perhaps it's simply the grounds of the mansion up there. The town looks like it's abandoned, and I wouldn't know if I'm going to find people living in these houses or not. And at this point, I don't even WANT to know what I'd find at the bottom of that well! Despite not being too scary of a map on its own, the precedent of what leads up to this map is quite unsettling! I also love the use of the marsh tiles here; it makes the whole area feel gross, humid, and damp, and I hate that in all the right ways! It gives me vibes of graveyards during the rain at night, and the dead trees help push that atmosphere. The marsh aesthetic isn't used very often by devs, so it's great seeing it here! It does its job as a "town" just fine, but could be a bit more interesting. Since it appears to be branching off of a traditional Forest, perhaps throwing around a few hidden items and wild grass could bring more incentive to exploring it? Regarding technial mapping parts, there are a few places in the map that look as though the player could walk there (the area directly left of the mansion sticks out the most to me), but I'm not sure if they actually could be reached. I know doors tend to be "events" in RMXP, but seeing the small houses without doors feels incomplete for a mapping challenge! There's a few tile errors with the trees on the right-side of the map, which are missing their edges, too.

I like the overall layout of this map! It has great elevation changes, which is something I think is often forgotten about by some devs! The spooky blood drops being used to lead the player in the right direction is a very neat touch, but I wish the overall map had taken a bit more of a "maze" idea to truly push the blood drops to their full potential. While I enjoy the map's general layout, I feel it could be stronger by approaching that "maze" feel, because it is currently a simple circular loop. The only branching path the player can choose is in reference to the cave entrances near the beginning and middle, and I can only assume the caves meet up anyway and create another loop inside of the core loop. The building at the top-right is quite ominous, but given that it's so early in the player's path, it doesn't strike me as TOO scary. Maybe moving it to be hidden off near the bottom-left of the map would be a nice place to put it, perhaps further rewarding the player for taking the southern-facing ledge in that area? In many places, the path feels a bit cramped, only having one or two tiles to move through. If you hope to keep the general layout the same, I would recommend widening some of the paths so the player isn't claustrophobic for the entire time; claustrophobic paths are great in small doses though imo! As for tile choice, the trees are a little hard on the eyes and don't distinguish themselves as barriers or boundaries that well!

I like the seclusion of the mart, especially with all of the trees surrounding it! Usually marts won't be found so ingrained with nature, so I get the vibe that this mart has been abandoned for an insane amount of time! The single dead tree in the top-right gives me the creeps... My main critique is that I wish this map was larger or otherwise had something else going on with it! As a single map, it feels like the inside of the mart will be the most interesting part, and the outdoor parking lot doesn't have much going on for it. It's certainly spooky and ominous, but it's missing something to help it stand as a small map. The fact that it's small means that it has to really be interesting to stand strong on its own! There are some tiling errors within the trees, specifically on the left & right side, and with some of the shadows near the top.

This reimagining of The Skeld is great! It reminds me almost of a "mini Skeld", perhaps even a prototype of the one that properly exists in Among Us. All that blood is nerve-wracking! I think the place where this map shines is the little "stories" told around where the murders appear to have happened. The blood spots nearby some of the vents, the blood under the coffee near Security, the lunch someone was having in Storage, and even a kill right before someone got to the Emergency Button! And all of these are just things I thought of myself; it's up to each player to decide what truly happened to cause all these blood splatters. Fear + Imagination = Horror, and I think that's where this map shines! I feel like some areas might be a bit too big for the general scale of the overall map, specifically the cafeteria. There isn't much to see near the north-side of the cafeteria, so it might've been worth it to add a few more "decorations" there to keep it interesting. I love the loop from the south-exit of the cafeteria that leads into the east-exist of the cafeteria, and I wish there was a path connecting Storage and Security so another loop could be added! (Irrelevant to the actual critique because we aren't taking tiles into consideration, but you did a great job with your custom tiles!)

I love the flow of this map! It truly feels like a real building that one would be able to explore in real life. In a video game, it's easy to take some liberties, but I always love when I get a little bit of realism for particularly memorable areas. The room in the top-left is the first thing that caught my interest, especially because it's locked behind a door. To me, it looks like they were trying to excavate something, having moved aside the statues to pull up the floorboards... But maybe it was less purposeful, such as a Pokémon going berserk and destroying that specific room! I don't know! That's what makes it so scary! Not even to mention the weird cult cirle in the basement, which instantly gives me the creeps! My main critique is with the first two rooms, the foyer and the hallways with 2 statues near the bottom of the map. Keep in mind the view-size of the player! I feel like they're quite empty, which isn't inherently a bad thing, but they're also quite large! I like the "openness" of them and the pillars put in to add some visual interest, but right now they're simply existing without much purpose. Perhaps a rug in the foyer would make it less similar to the rest of the mansion. With the hallway room, I think the spot under the window is a great place to put a sofa, and then maybe a rug in the middle of the room as well. It would tell a bit of story, perhaps that this was the "common room" of the mansion where Rocket Grunts were able to relax and chat on their breaks or hold meetings with each other. It may even be a good opportunity to show how abandoned or not-abandoned the house really is! The top-middle room with the stairs doesn't have shadows for its walls, which seems to just be a small oversight.