* The separate maps will have the size off 320x256 or different dimensions?
You will need to adjust the size based on the scale of the tileset your using. For example if an LA tree takes up 4 tiles, and a MC tree takes up 6 or so, you will need to scale it 50%.
Personally I think the buildings and the trees will give the biggest problems. If you're gonna adapt to the dimensions of the sections to this, you need to do it for every part of the map, which might give a bit of a stretched look in the result.
I think keeping to 320x256 pixels is the best and allow the creators some creative licensing with the maps to put in the various objects. Although there probably needs to one person who will put the various parts together and see that the objects at the edges align.
* Which resources do we use? VGMaps, Spriters Resource or others?
I'm sure you can find resources from eveywhere. A lot of members probably have some.
Agreed, but we do need one set of resources to use to avoid graphical issues. And it has to be easy for anyone to get. 4Sword says that we have to create our own resources and that ZFGC shouldn't become a dump for resources archived somewhere else. The creators of those resources probably wouldn't like it either. But I can also see the dilemma, that creating those resources will take much work and the most are already available somewhere else. People might not like ripping resource that are much easier available somewhere else.
* What program do we use to create the maps?
I could create a simple map editor if you wish. Its not a hard task.
Personally, I don't care much what we use. As long as it easy to use to put different tiles together and that parts of object tiles, like trees need to be transparant. It would also be nice if it were easy to create custom tiles when needed.
* What file format does the map need to be in?
If your intending on importing them into GML, its probably easiest to have each layer of the map rendered as a seperate image. Although it might be an idea to write an importer for whatever binary format the maps will be stored in during development, though that would probably be harder for you.
I have to agree with Miles07, but instead of eliminating the interactive objects, we put in the the smallest version of the interaction, like the destroyed versions of the plants and grass and opened doorways.
On another note guys, if your going to be using the same basic techniques and swap&replace's in the maps, you might look into writing an automated covertor, which looks at an LA map and converts it into what it thinks is a good representation of it, then have human tilers go over it and make corrections. I did something similar to this with LA-COOP.
That is definitely a possibility, but I think it won't be as much fun as putting them together.
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OK, from the replies above I can set these guidelines already:
- The main tile size is 16x16 pixels. For some decorative purposes tiles of 8x8 pixels are also allowed.
- We stay true to the size of the tiles and objects from MC. Objects won't be shrunk to match similar objects from LA.
- Making custom tiles are allowed, but offer a small sheet of the custom tiles along to the new part of the map, in order for the custom tiles to be put with the resources.
- We start mapping from Mabe Village and continue following the story.
- Name the parts of the map according to the area in the Game and the grid coordinates. For example the top left most area of Toronbo Beach, just below Mabe Village Library, is Toronbo_Beach_1-1. And the part to the right of that Toronbo_Beach_1-2. Some areas may have some special building which can be taken in the naming like, Toronbo_Beach_2-4_Tail_Cave
These are the guidelines that don't seem to need a discussion anymore. If everyone agrees with them I put them in the first post. Oh yeah, I put in some additional guidelines, to naming conventions and using/offering custom made tiles.