Creating Geomorph Tiles - CityGenerator/Megacosm-Generator GitHub Wiki

The Geomorph tiles for the Geomorphdungeon Generator is surprisingly simple. Lets go ahead and make one.

Prerequisites

We're going to presume you're familiar with Git, Github and Gimp for this exercise; introductions to both are out of the scope of this document.

One thing that will be crucial however is the Export Layers - Python GIMP plug-in- download it, throw it in your plug-ins/ directory and make sure it's executable; it'll save you a lot of tedium.

Getting Started

  1. Checkout your megacosm repo.
  2. Under static/images/geomorphs/, create a directory with your authorname (letters and dashes only please.)
  3. Under your authorname directory, create a tileset name. All related tiles should be under here.

For our example, we'll be using "bubba", who is creating a "cavern" tileset.

Creating our XCF file

  1. Open static/images/geomorphs/samplegeomorphs.xcf
  2. Save the file as static/images/geomorphs/bubba/cavern/cavern.xcf

Before you Create a Layer...

  • Pay attention to which sides are "open" (Connects to tiles) and which sides are "closed"(no connections). This varies according to layer group.
  • Remember that you are carving out emptiness in solid rock- each layer should be more or less solid black (rock walls) or transparent (emptiness).
  • Pay attention to the alignment of connectors.
  • Keep your layer names simple. avoid #'s as they can cause problems with parsing later on.
  • Familiarize yourself with "View -> Snap to Guides;" you'll be enabling and disabling it often.

Understanding the XCF File

Each layer group (0 through 5) represents a "type" of tile indicating where the connectors are to other tiles. Only tile 5 is a true Geomorphic tile since all 4 sides contain the same type of connector.

Type 0

Tiles of this type have no connections to their neighbors; this could either be a solid black tile, or a small, unconnected room with a hidden entrance.

Type 1

Tiles of this type have a connector on the top (don't worry, they will be rotated by the map code to emulate connectors on other sides). Note that there are two openings- they should range from 40-80px and 120-160px, and are marked with guidelines.

Type 2

Tiles of this type have a connector on the top and on the right side. As before, there are guides to show where the openings belong.

Type 3

Tiles of this type have a connector on the top and the bottom.

Type 4

Tiles of this type have a connector on the top, right and bottom.

Type 5

Tiles of this type have a connector on all four sides.

##Design Considerations

A few things to keep in mind as you create tiles:

  • Not all paths need to connect.
  • Well-drawn dead-ends are just as valid as pass-throughs and rooms.
  • Remember that you're looking at a silhouette of the walls; any details you add should reflect that.
  • Try to have an even spread of all tile types.

Saving and Exporting

When things look good, make sure you save your xcf file, then click "File->Export Layers..." to use your new plugin.

  1. Use the bubba/cavern/ directory as your location
  2. Set the fileformat to png
  3. check "Treat layer groups as directories"
  4. click "Export Layers"

After you make future changes and export a second time, it will prompt you about overwriting files- click the checkbox telling it that it's OK and click overwrite.

As you can imagine, when you have 40+ tiles, this can be a HUGE timesaver.

Committing and pushing

Once you're done, git add and commit those files, push them up to github, and send a pull request.

I look forward to seeing what you can do!