Iron Mapper IRONMAPPER Season 6: Trial 1

You kept the original Verdanturf vibe. I love the café. It fits so perfectly.

The bottom part might do with a bit more decorations.

Good use of trees and house placement to make a very square town not feel square.

Good use of decorations to give a vibe to certain parts of the city(balloons, flowers, bushes). By also changing other elements like path width/texture, elevation or closeness of houses for example this effect could have been enhanced.

The paved floor is something that the city planners intentionally place. Therefore while those non symmetrical road ends might look good, they don’t make sense. On the other hand on something more natural like dirt paths it would look great.

Whenever there's no paved road there’s the possibility of having the dirt paths being wherever people would go. Like for example the entrance of the cave or to an extend the houses at the bottom. It would also make the transition to route 117(east) more natural if the paved path would transit into dirt path immediately.

I love the stories the NPCs are telling. Some are placed in a way that is hindering the player(numel hiker, Wallace, Steven)

Great job of incorporating the growing aspect through the build sites at the bottom.

While there is a walkway, the player is incentivized to walk on the street. (there’s no way to not be on the street after the tunnel + easy of use vs the not optimal routed walkways) The cars are in the players way though + making them aware that the street is not for them, therefore disturbing that aspect.

There are a lot of different buildings and no unique style. While or a transit city that is expanding like that you could totally do an “old” and a “new” district. They should share building style in those. And I can see your effort in trying to do it (top left = original Verdanturf, then a diagonal strip of new and then build sites). Having skyscrapers like the one in the top right at the bottom or the blue house at the top right might have been the way to go though, to make it more clear to the player what house stems of what era. Especially because they portray completely different worlds (saving space vs having a lot of space).

All your roads have the same width. Varying road width is a great tool to make your city more easily navigatable by having main roads be wider/more developed/more used/ any other indication that fits the lore than side roads.

Great job of making this feel like a transit city.

The vehicles are kinda wild. The top car is driving/parking on the right side of the road while the lower one is on the left side. The truck at the west side of Verdanturf just doesn’t give a damn about lanes and just takes the center of the road. It might be lore though. I do appreciate how the two cars are off the road to make space for the player. The truck is in the way though unless it’s a player transfer entry and exit to the map by talking to said truck or the person that we see in the evening version that might be the truck driver.

I like the little bits of lore that are sprinkled in there with the many plant areas/trees in houses, the old tunnel, tree stump/log benches, etc. (#oddishIsTheBestVegetable)

Due to the road + walkway being so wide there is a lot of empty space, that could be filled. Even in the evening version of the map having an additional NPC or two would not hurt. I really love the story the ones that are there tell though.

Great integration of spaces to explore.

The evening fog is gorgeous.

I love the idea. No hint of increased traffic through Verdanturf Town though(trial theme). The tunnel and Route 117 are not even connected through a path.

The path being the same color and texture as the shadows is confusing.

The path in general doesn’t feel like a real path. When drawing a path remember that they always indicate where people go/are supposed to go. The player will also intuitively try to follow paths. The part starting at the top building making its way in between the sign and the tree then threading in between the houses is great. But then it feels like it should make a hard turn to the right where the mart building ends instead of going to the bottom to go back up unless there is some reason not to go there like a fence, flowerbed, etc. Instead the path that is suggested by the path is blocked with chairs and a table. To the left there is no reason why the path shouldn’t also go to the left and directly connect to the house either. The path also doesn’t continue beneath those two towers at the bottom left. I would have expected it to go to and through the arc. Specially because the path connects from the arc to the houses above. Also the style of the path changes between the curved path from the main building and the straight layout in the apartment area.

The entries/exits of the map are far away from anything important. The player has to go a long way to reach those first. Having to mountain come forward a bit so the cave exit is closer could have cut down on extra steps the player has to walk. Similarly the entrance of Route 117 is basically blocked with that tree and scarecrow and could have been shifted down below the market, which if it also has the PokéCenter would be great to immediately be able to heal after battling through the route. It could also have been shifted up and towards the middle to connect better to the main university building if the player is supposed to get there first.

Other than the exits the building layout is solid. Great use of splitting the map into multiple districts to tell a story.

The border feels very natural and together with the decorations you chose makes Verdanturf feel very in touch with nature.

The bottom left tower looks like the player should be able to walk behind it. Part of the behind is blocked by the house, so the player might or might not be walking into it without visual indication.

If this trial was about comedy you’d have won. The title together with the pyramid made me laugh out loud. With your note it actually made me think about the lore.

There wasn’t much changed about Verdanturf. I like the little addition of the flowers on the left, making the pretty boring town at least a bit more interesting. It could have been integrated into the layout a bit better though.

Changing out the flowers and placing bushes did you a disservice as it takes away that bit of color that helps a lot when making an all green place like Verdanturf more interesting.

Tile-Error: The top of the cave entrance is missing.

the trial theme which included was increased traffic was not incorporated.

Shifting the Pokémon Center to the right by one tile would have made it so the player can just run against then fence and then up to enter it.

Varying up road thickness would have helped with splitting the city into more and less traveled areas. Having the bottom road be thinner than the top road would have made it easier to tell the main road vs less used roads.

I love the dirt paths you used, but the ground beneath the doors of the houses on the bottom street might look better as dirt path. The one leading to Route 117(east) too.

Great job of making the bottom border look interesting by varying the tree line. Consider doing the same for the other 3 sides.

The lake in the middle kind of looks underwhelming for a central point. Presenting it better by for example having it centered with symmetrical flower arrangements surrounding it might look better.

I like your vision of Verdanturf town. It feels very much like a in the woods, in touch with nature town.

At the cave exit, Pokémon Center and next to a few houses there are trees that seem like planted there by people. Those look fantastic and give a certain character to Verdanturf. At other places you used them to fill where there was space in between trees. And that also looks great. I love how the bottom right looks. But it is inconsistent with the rest of the map. The setup to the left of the bottom left house looks weird to me.

Roads are an indicator of how traveled a certain area is. The double path at the Pokémon Center and the crossroads right next to it are a great use of this. I would have loved that path to be 2 wide at least in between the two. Maybe go somewhere go somewhere like the exits. If you want to convey the traffic going from the cave through the route it helps if they are connected with a proper street or at least a wide dirt path. Differnetiation of roads like that also helps the player tell apart which path will take him to the next place vs exploration paths.

Most tilesets have a darker grass tile to use below forest trees. That makes it look more dense for one and also makes it easier for the player to recognize where they can walk and where not. Lighter colors tend to catch the eye a lot. So by making the non playable areas darker the player will have an easier time concentrating on the important stuff.

The tileset has to be made public for participating in iron mapper.

The highway blocks the players vision for quite some time and makes it so there is nothing interesting gameplay wise in the middle of the map. Either integrating the highway into the town (making it accessible to the player) or having it next to the playable part of Verdanturf would have probably been better. Making it solid and have the player take a tunnel beneath the highway would have also been an option.

Great tile choice to convey the feel of your vision of Verdanturf.

Right amount of decorations. Also great placement.

Varying the road tile and or thickness to show different (planned) traffic could have given your Verdanturf slums more structure.

Tile error: didn’t use the brick to grass transition tile to the right of the bottom right building. Also right of the tree below of that building.

Great job varying trees in the forest. (spotted two trees missing their top in the left strip)

I like how you convey lore through ground texture. I would have loved transitions in between them instead of having grass there. Your tileset didn’t have them and we don’t judge tiles anyways so it isn’t negative in terms of judging. It’s just something that I like to do to make those transitions look more natural.

A few of the road connections are a bit awkward. The stairs on the top left would have looked better if they were centered to the path. The same goes for the bottom right path. Having it be a tile or two longer would have made the entry into the market more natural. Additionally if you get rid of the flower pot at the yellow stall there would have been a straight path through the market. And straight paths are easier to traverse than non straight.

There are a few 1 wide paths (park entries, market). Making the paths 2 wide would also make entering the path easier. Ever tried entering a PokéCenter on a MachBike? (If not: I have and I needed like 500 tries cause I’m bad and that’s frustrating)

By using the main road you did a great job of separating the “mandatory” area from the “exploration” area. And there really is a lot to explore. I would love playing that map.

There’s a lot of signs. Usually signs are scarce and signal the player “there’s something important here”. Overusing them will make them lose that effect. Not as important things are usually just NPC texts which also has the benefit of adding livelihood to a location.

You used a lot of different flowers in the two parks. I think just using 2-3 and focusing more on arranging them in an interesting way would have looked better.

Disqualified for tileset issues.

Having a path to the right of the lake would have made the Pokémon Center easier accessible from the east route.

The fountain doesn’t really fit the theme that you nailed pretty well on the rest of the map.

I like the way everything in Verdanturf is just totally disconnected from the main path crossing through the town showing how little travelers pay attention to Verdanturf.

Gotta love when a blockade ends in magma puddles on the street. poor dude that gets to clean up afterwards

Use a different tile for accessible vs non accessible areas. It will make navigating your map easier for the player.

Great use of different road tiles to differentiate districts. It conveys the maps lore and makes it easier to navigate.

Great job on differentiating the districts very different but still incorporating the town theme into all of them.

It’s a shame that the battle tent area seems to be inaccessible.

Great job at decorating. The decorations tell the lore of the map pretty well (except for the blockade … I want a movie on what exactly happened there. Before I read your notes my guess was a volcanic erruption burried an invading alien species and the people trying to fight back).

Be wary of one wide walkways without walls to line them up. They are pretty annoying to nail. Specially because there is one on the way to the PokéCenter(between the barrier and the shelf below the PokéMart). I would have considered swapping the mart and the center to make it easier to access.

Great implementation of the trial theme.

The map is designed in a way that the player doesn’t use the road(cars are in the way + walkways). The pedestrian crossings are great for showing the player where to cross the street. So there ideally shouldn’t be cars on it. Another one to get from the top left to the top right area would also have been great. Even if the player can walk on the roads, paths are there to help the player navigate.

Try avoiding one wide spaces in areas then player would want to blaze through.

Having paths on the paved floor might have helped structuring the sub areas.

The park is great to add lore. The surrounding forest as well as the path at the top right also is a nice touch showing the roots of Verdanturf.

The blue trucks in the top right are blocking the obvious way to the top right house.

The exit building to the east is offset to the path. It will look better a tile higher.

Use a different ground tile to make clear that the player can’t access the tall grass above the top flower field.

There is a lot of empty space on the map. Compressing the map would have made it better. It makes backtracking easier and less boring.

A few examples: The path in between the flower fields is pretty long with nothing happening. Consider having it take a more interesting route or make the flower fields shorter.

The distance between the PokéCenter/Mart and the path is longer than it needs to be. Shifting both down a few tiles would make that space gone.

The left of the resort is not used. Blocking it off wouldn’t have hurt.

When placing paths try to think about where people would walk. There is no reason to just go to the bottom of the map unless you want to get to the resort. In which case the path would take a turn to the left and end at the resort entrance. The same goes for the path that is branching off to the middle of the houses.

You did a great job of placing the border trees in an interesting/natural shape.

Nice use of a road to show the increased traffic. The same goes for the varied path thicknesses.

There is too much empty space that could be compressed. It makes the time the player has to walk way shorter and if they need to go somewhere repeatedly way less annoying.

I like the idea of the map, but it might have been more interesting to have a wind park area, and the housing area split up to make the different locations in Verdanturf more distinct. It prevents a map from feeling repetitive. The lake area does a really good job at this.

I like the flowers.

Great layout. I love your clean style. It emphasizes the players options, making it exciting to explore the map.

Nice way to guide the player either to the research institute as soon as they come out of the cave through the gap in the path towards the mart or towards the bottom houses if the player comes from the right.

Let’s start with the trees since you were asking for that:

Tilesets usually either have a tree with more shadow around or a darker ground. Use that in forests to make it easer for the player to recognize that those areas are inaccessible. The eye is drawn to lighter colors. It also would have made the forest entry look less awkward if the forest actually had a darker ground.

The forest entry being a lot denser than everything around it looks a bit weird. Consider having it dense around it and then make it less dense in steps. It will look more natural.

The pavilion is higher up than it needs to be. Lowering it a few tiles would have still made it feel secluded while making the player walk less tiles as well as give a more interesting reason than just path to go there from the PokéCenter entrance. Specially because it already has its own path as buildup.

There is one major path exit and three trampled grass exits to the city. The player would assume that the major path is where they are supposed to go while the three trampled grass paths are exploration. I don’t know where the forest leads(I guess Route 117), but the pavilion is a dead end while the rusturf tunnel is not. So if I’m a exploration focused player I’d want to go to the dead end pavilion first, while I would want to skip it entirely if my only goal is to beat the game. Paths are a nice way to indicate such things so the player can customize their playthrough intuitively to their preferred playstyle.

If there is a lot of traffic from the cycling road to rusturf tunnel it would make sense to have a pretty straight way towards it.

I would have swapped PokéCenter and PokéMart for easier PokéCenter accessibility.

Although being on the verge of too much the decorations are well placed to make the map look interesting.

This version of Verdanturf town could have used a bit of separation into different districts. And they already exist. Contest hall area, PokéCenter area and living area. Use paths and decorations to differentiate them so things don’t start to blend together. Using elevation is a pretty standard way of doing this. Also using different road tiles and thicknesses works wonders in adding structure to a location. Having the path leading to the contest hall be decorated with lots of benches, balloons or maybe flower formations would have made a nice buildup to make the mast rank contest hall look and feel more special. Maybe also having an area with less decorations than another is an easy way to make one area look less busy than another. There are many ways of differentiating areas within one location and more structure usually helps the player navigate and adds lore by implementing how the people move and treat their environment.