Iron Mapper IRONMAPPER Season 6: Trial 1

Iron Mapper
Iron Mapper is a mapping competition on Relic Castle. Each mapping competition, otherwise known as a "trial", will have a deadline clearly stated, and you will have this time to complete and submit a map according to the theme and criteria of the trial. Once all submitted maps are judged after the deadline (this depends on the volume of entries, usually a few days), the judges will post the results, and prepare for the next trial.


For more information (overall rules, how judging works, a list of trials) please visit the Season 6 Discussion thread.



Trial 1. Future Verdanturf Town

Deadline: Sunday, September 19th 2021

After playing a lot of Jam Games it is now finally time for Trial 1 of Iron Mapper Season 6.
Story and lore bring game worlds to life and being able to support and convey those through environments is an essential part of mapping.


Imagine this:
Hoenn:
With Devon Corporations engineers inventing mind blowing technologies Rustboro City has a lot of new workspaces. At the same time under Walter’s hand Mauville City continues to flourish and develop. Thanks to Rusturf Tunnel being completed, Verdanturf town is now seeing increased traffic as direct route between Hoenn’s most growing cities.

The challenge: Your job is to create the Verdanturf Town of this future. How did this change affect Verdanturf? Did Verdanturf Town profit? How do the many passing people affect the environment? Are there more people living there now? It's all up to you!

Please feel free to use the tileset you want to use. You are not bound to RSE tiles at all!

Have a fun time mapping!


The following criteria must be met:

• Any and all assets used in your map must be public or must be shared for public use in your submission post.
• All public assets used for your map must be credited clearly and properly.
• You may not use the tiles/tilesets uploaded by another pa^1rticipant for their entry in the same Trial as your entry. You can use the same public tiles, but not the tiles/tilesets that they made or compiled specifically for their own entry.
• Fogs and NPCs are allowed to be used. You must provide a fogless version of your map or it will not be judged.
• Your tileset, fogs, and NPCs will not be taken into consideration when judging, so they will not have any impact on your chances of winning.
• Your map cannot exceed 120x120 tiles.

Your judge for this trial is:
@aiyinsi


A tip from the judge:
"Humans and Pokémon are capable to terraform. You are not bound to the boundaries nor the layout of the past Verdanturf town."


Submitting your Entry:

Trial: 1: Future Verdanturf Town
Map Name: Some Guy From Kalos Opened A Café And It Was A Hit With Travelers And Pokémon Alike

Map:



Credits + Tileset:

Critique Requested: Sure!

Notes: I think Siebold and Wallace are going to get along swimmingly~

Trial: 1: Future Verdanturf Town

Map Name: Expansion of Verdanturf


Map:


Critique Requested: It is the best way to learn


Credits:

Notes: This is my first Iron Mapper, I apologize if I messed anything up. I did end up using Tiled instead of RPG maker as it let me do what I envisioned a little bit better, and it's what I have more experience with. I hope that's okay.

Trial: 1: Future Verdanturf Town

Map Name: Verdanturf City

Map:



and a little bonus, Verdanturf City during the evening!


Critique Requested: Yes, please!


Credits: Project Heliodor Tileset, Gen III Reloaded Tileset by TheDeadHeroAlistair (Buildings, Street lamps, Fence, Oddish and Oddish lookalike plant tiles)

AnonAlpaca's Flora Tileset (crops found around the middle-bottom section of the city)

Dreamyard, Mega Outdoor Tileset, Haunted Woods Normal Palette, Pokemon Center and Mart buildings, Odisea Outdoors, Park Tileset tilesets by Ekat99 (for very much everything else not listed already)

Notes:

In my head, the usage of the tunnel was just not ideal in the future for the amount of traffic between Rustboro and Mauville. And so, the people of Hoenn decided to dig through the mountain side to create a new path between Verdanturf and Rustboro. The people in Verdanturf still value the clean air and abundant nature found there, and have made a way to remain close to such nature while still adapting to the ever growing urbanization of Hoenn.

I'm verry sorry if the tileset is a little bit of a mess :(

Trial 1: Future Verdanturf Town
Map Name: Verdanturf University Campus
Map:

Critique: Yeah, sure!
Credits: Magiscarf, SailorVicious (Cave entrance), King_Waluigi (Cave entrance edited)
Notes: This is VU! Verdanturf University Campus! Wally decided to begin a small university, and 50 years later, it thrives!
Not only did Wally convert his old house into a sorority (The Gamma Gallades), but he also set up many other campus
houses/apartments! There's a nice little university market where the students can get some coffee and study! There are
pumpkins... And sunflor- sunflowers... And also a big ol' tree!

This is my first Iron Mapper, hopefully, it's pretty nice! I don't really like the streets very much, but whatever!

Trial: 1: Future Verdanturf Town

Map Name: Verdanturf, When did you last look behind your shoulder?


Map:


Critique Requested: Yes please!


Credits: https://eeveeexpo.com/resources/211/ - rse tileset


Notes: Was Verdanturf something else before it became a town?

Trial: 1: Future Verdanturf Town

Map Name: Virtuous Verdanturf

Map:


Critique Requested: Sure!




Notes: I don't use gen 5 tilesets very often, so I wanted to mix things up with this map.

Trial 1: Future Verdanturf Town

Map Name: A Fiery Verdanturf

Map

Tileset

Spoiler: Tileset

Notes: I was sort of inspired by what happens to Cinnabar Island in GS/HGSS. Building your town at the slope of a volcano can be risky, after all. Despite the completion of the tunnel, it would unfortunately see little use. Nature had other ideas in mind for Verdanturf. The town has been overtaken, with some buildings being entirely wiped out. Travel into the tunnel is forbidden to trainers who don't have enough badges to navigate the pools of lava.

Critique Requested?: Nah

Credits

Trial: 1: Future Verdanturf Town

Map Name: The Beautiful Neighboorhood of Verdanturf


Map:

No NPCs Version:

Critique Requested:
Absolutely!

Credits:
Alistair
Ekat99
Samdeman123124
Heartlessdragoon
Vurtax

Tileset:

Notes:
I had tons of fun making this map! I think I have a pretty unique interpretation of the prompt: What if the future isn't all big buildings, death, and destruction? What if the future is prosperous yet managed by the people? Almost everyone who lives here takes care of the town, planting trees and grass, ensuring that the many people passing by don't mistakenly ruin the enviroment. It's right next to Whismur Cave, a national park where many people traverse through on their way to the super successful Mauville. However, the development of Mauville has had it's detriments. The Battle Center has been moved to Mauville, along with the current one there. I hope everyone likes this map, and I look forward to hearing the judge's feedback.

Trial 1: Future Verdanturf

Map Name: Verdanturf Slums

Map:

Critique Requested: Yes please!

Credits:
Alucus
Kyle-Dove
Dewitty
CNC
MegaMew47
n1ck0411

Story:
Due to the increased traffic through Verdanturf (because of the finished Rusturf tunnel, as well as the rerouted cycling road), many people settled down to live there. However, Verdanturf was unable to keep up with the massive boom in traffic and popularity, and eventually fell into poverty, with the town that was once green and beautiful now becoming slums, home to the Sevipers and the Zangooses (Zangeese?)

Notes:
This is actually the first iron mapper I've created tiles for! The graffiti on the walls is fully custom. I think I may try doing more of the tiles for my projects as time goes on. Pretty proud of how it came out to be honest.

I chose to do a sort of "bad ending" for Verdanturf to contrast with the large majority of "happy endings" I was expecting. I played around with a few more ideas, but none were as good as this one.

Trial: 1: Future Verdanturf Town
Map Name: Verdanturf the tourist town
Map: Critique Requested: With examples, please!
Tileset: Credits: Yellow Garden by Ekat; Pokemon Sacred Phoenix Nature by Alienor
Notes: Tried to make the natural expantion - keeping the preexisting buildings )except for making the gym REALLY different), but adding a lot more to create a fun-to-explore location.

Trial 1: Future Verdanturf

Map Name: Logger's Straight Stretch

Map:


Critique Requested: Yes, please!

Credits + Tileset


Notes: Honestly, this turned out better than I had hoped. I'm just glad that I talked myself into participating!

Trial 1: Future Verdanturf Town

Map Name: The Rusturf Blockade

Map:


Critique Requested: Yeah, alright, why not?

Credits: Ekat for a lot of the custom tiles, some of which were edited (like the multi-story buildings, the Pokemon Center, etc.) Props to Aiyinsi too for the Emerald rip, which I used for the trucks and machinery.

Lore: A lot of people either went for dystopian or harmony with nature, so I thought - why not do both? I had an idea in mind of telling a story in this map and showing the aftermath of a Pokemon battle, but without using NPCs, only tiles.

Even after Devon gained permission to Rusturf Tunnel into a pedestrian walkway, their development plans for Verdanturf didn't stop there. Huge swathes of local woodland were cut down to make way for a light and airy suburb. It was a retiree's dream, a hotspot for artisan goods and clean as ever.

That is, until the Rusturf Roadway got approved. The residents were split on the decision, with some believing it would bring more customers to local businesses, while others insisted it'd disturb the local Whismur population more than it already had. And Devon, however unintentionally, made it quite hard for the locals to give them a piece of their mind. Eventually, this caught the attention of a ragtag team of environmentalists, who, according to them 'represented the interests of humans and lesser beings / Pokemon, the oceans, and forests, and rivers, and tribuitaries / oh, fine, let's go with - Mother Earth's more vulnerable inhabitants. Yes, that'll do.'

And so, when Devon started drilling, the Rusturf Blockade began...

Trial: 1: Future Verdanturf Town

Map Name: Devonturf

Map:


Critique Requested: Yes

The tileset is kind of a mess, as I was working on it while building the map. Adding, removing and editing stuff. It's also not formatted for RPGMaker.


Notes: I really wanted to focus on what a finished tunnel would do for Verdanturf. In this case I used the fact that it's very well connected to Rustboro and Mauville. Furthermore, Devon Corp is still growing and thus has the money to basically take Verdanturf over. They built three big factories and a large road. There are also some space efficient homes so many workers can live a short distance away from their work. They did build a park to sort of compensate for the loss of nature. Idea being that people can still go somewhere for some peace (even though the road makes quite a lot of noise).

This was my first ever Iron Mapper. Found it to be a fun challenge and will probably join the next trials as well :)

Trial: 1: Future Verdanturf Town

Map Name: Future Verdanturf Town


Map:

Critibique Requested:
Yes

Credits:
Pokemon Essentials; BoOmxBiG (https://www.deviantart.com/boomxbig/art/Hacienda-288012646)


Notes:
The small town has always been famous for its healthy air, with its main source of income being wealthy visitors. The newly built tunnel increased the amount of visitors, also attracting the eyes of merchants, who started selling their products to travelers, occupying the central square. The town's size have seen an increase as well, however, land prices are sky-high in the area, so most of the buildings here now function as a hotel rather than a private residence. A 5-star resort area was built in the corner of the town as well, used by the very elite, far away from noisy path taken by those who are just passing through.


If there exists a good way to find suitable tiles for a map I'm making, other than google, please tell me. The resort doesn't match well with the town, but its the best I found... Oh, and also, how do you export a map from RPGMaker XP, with NPCs visible and all?

Map Name: Wind over Verdanturf


Map:

Critique Requested: Yes

Tileset Credits: I made the tilesets myself but sevral of them are based off of various pokemon tiles


Notes: The strong winds that blow away volcanic ash from Verdanturf have been harnessed, turning the city into a hub of clean energy to go along with it's clear air, now boasting a park where pokemon that enjoy it's climate flourish. Rusturf tunnel has been widened out by construction workers to turn it into a roadway between the cities of Rustboro and Mauville, increasing travel between the two population centers like never before.

Trial: 1: Future Verdanturf Town

Map Name: E-COmmerce Verdanturf.


Map:


Critique Requested: Yes, please.


Credits: I only used the default Essentials tileset.


Notes: E-COmmerce Verdanturf. No, not E-Commerce Verdanturf. The E stands for Ecological, not Electronic. Anyway, welcome to the future version of Verdanturf. The locals have found a unique way to profit off the neighboring cities' growth: Selling fresh, high-quality produce. Verdanturf's rich soil is perfect for berries, and so they've been planted all over town. The battle tent has long made place for a research center researching berries. And with the arrival of both a specialized berry store, and the berry master, this town little town is well on its way to a sustainable and profitable future.

So yeah. There aren't any actual berry plants on the map. I couldn't be bothered to add 'em, since events don't count for judging anyway. Also since most of the entries rely heavily on custom tiles to convey the town's theme, I figured to give it a shot with nothing but the default tiles.

Does the flavour text make sense? Does the map actually conveys the feeling from the description? I'd love to hear yall's opinion.

Trial: 1: Future Verdanturf Town

Map Name: Verdanturf Station


Map:

Critique Requested: Yes, please! I ran into trouble with the trees and tried my best to make it work. Advice in addition to critique would be very helpful!


Credits:
Trees and Forest Entrance from "Pokemon Rejuvination" - Janichroma, Maruno&Pkmn Essentials Team, Amethyst, Alistair, Clara-WaH, Pyrolusite
https://www.rebornevo.com/rejuvdown/
Houses and Brick Trail/Gazebo from "Ekat's Public Tiles" - Ekat, Heartless Dragoon, Vurtax
https://eeveeexpo.com/resources/621/
Cycling Road and Lampposts from "Emerald Outside" - leilou, heartless dragoon
https://eeveeexpo.com/resources/211/

Spoiler: Tileset

Notes: With the flourishing of both Rutboro City and Mauville City, Cycling Road was extended to Verdanturf - and The Cycling Express was born! Similar to the Pony Express, the Cycling Express transports goods and mail from Rustboro City to Mauville/Slateport. Riders use the "Home Station" of Verdanturf to either rest between trips, or to exchange bicycles - Acro bikes being good for navigating Rusturf Tunnel and Route 116, while Mach bikes are ideal for Cycling Road.

The increased traffic of valuables called for the presence of a Police Station to deter thievery. The added security and population of weary travelers encouraged the opening of a casino. Increased noise and surveillance drove out the old residents, and a secluded Gazebo was contructed to remember the peaceful past. Further, with the extension of Cycling Road, Route 117 went unused and became overgrown until a forest was formed.

Trial: 1: Future Verdanturf Town

Map Name: Verdanturf Town


Map:

Spoiler

Critique Requested: Yes, please!

Tileset:

Spoiler

Credits:

Spoiler

Amethyst
Magiscarf
MewTheMega (or MegaMew47)
WesleyFG
Princess-Phoenix
Zeo254

Notes: Increased foot traffic in Verdanturf allowed the Contest Hall to ascend to Master Rank! Verdanturf regularly holds fun festivals for the townspeople and contest stars to enjoy! The town has become a popular place to visit for people all across Hoenn. Things are looking up for Verdanturf!

Trial closed.

Thank you all for submitting your vision of future Verdanturf Town. The results of this trial will be out in a few days.