Contest - Disguise's Tileset Resource

This includes all the various entries for the contest along with my comments on each. (Note: No entries are currently available for download)

Contest Entries

Option 1:

Tileset Name: Author:

Volcano FireSword

Cool Day 2 Ice M A N

Windstorm Fortress BlurredD

Iron Crown (Second Prize) CelL

Cracco Mini CraccoBoy

Grapevine Acid

Terrestial World Red XIII

Option 2:

Dark Marshland Moonblaze

Grassland Paradise Another Jazz 2 Fan

Fluff for Thought Toxic Bunny

Small Factory Violet CLM

Rootalopicus (First Prize! ) ET

Option 3:

Chez2 N0body

Volcano

Really not a bad set. I was impressed by the texture and quality of the normal tiles, definitley a winner in that category, and you even managed to fit in different variations of the same block. The theme is good too, with some nice ideas for background eyecandy. It has a few letdowns though where the set could've been improved. Sucker tubes were the first, the quality doesnt quite match up with the rest of the tileset. Second one is that black block. Definitley could've used some texture, you had a lot of colours to play with. It's funny how one tile can make such a big difference, but in this case it does, the amount of space it occupies on the screen is a lot. I can tell you now if you improved the background this would've been an option 1 winner.

Cool Day 2

Hmmm, Icey told me he rushed this a bit, and it shows. It's an average set overall, but there are some weird elements to it. The perspective isn't constant, the sucker tubes are different to the normal tiles, and the other thing that's a bit weird is the theme. Well, there really isn't a solid theme. There is some grey for the blocks, green for the surface, some purple background stuff, brown tubes and the destruct block is another colour aswell.

Windstorm Fortress

Very nice tileset, the background on this one is really well done for the amount of tilespace given. The normal blocks are pretty much near perfect in their design, with the rough little border and the smooth texture on it, looks great. The one problem I do have with it though is the theme. Everything is just a bunch of blocks (Mez-like). Its a pretty obvious choice in small tilesets, squeezing it down to the basics saves a lot of tilespace, but you pay a big price in forms of eyecandy. The other problem I have is the amount of colours used, the whole tileset is some form of grey (excluding the tubes and signs).

Iron Crown

Yet another great tileset. Has a nice variation in colour, very good (and original in a way) theme to it and a nice amount of extra eye candy. Enough to give it the option 1 winner status. As for looking for at negative points in the set, I couldnt find any. There was a small mistake in colours in the mountain tile (3 down, 3 across), but its barely noticeable and shouldnt make a difference. It's funny, this set hasn't got the best background, or the best normal tiles, but it has no real big negatives that could've been improved a lot. A balanced tileset is always the best tileset

Cracco Mini

Hurray for the christmas themed tileset! The only christmas entry in the contest, and as a christmas tileset I must say it does a very good job. The theme is bright and colourful, and has a christmas tree to complement it all. Only problem I have is that there is a lack of background eyecandy, a christmas tree every now and then isn't enough to fill up the blue background, but 40 tiles is a big limitation for those kinda things.

Grapevine

An average set. I can't help but think the background is too bright. Running around in the example level can get confusing after a while. The texture on the normal tile looks a bit strange, it doesnt ttile that well and seems to be a bit blocky. My biggest complaint is the lack of diagonals, every tileset should have diagonals, they give so much more to a levelmaker to play with. Having only one destruct block and using those extra tiles for diagonals would be a better choice imo.

Terrestial World

Red told me he had some problems with the set, but still submitted it, YaY for Red for doing this. I'm guessing he had a problem with the textured background, as that doesnt work, but there is no law that says every tileset should have a working textured background, so I'm not too bothered about that. The theme is very strange (hence the name), I've never really seen a totally purple tileset before. There are two main problems to the set, the one is a lack of background eyecandy, a raindrop will never do the trick. The final one is the lack of tiles. There are no real border tiles to the blocks, so everything just ends up ebing 'cut off' at places. Once again an attack of the tileset limit.

Dark Marshland

This was the first entry that I got, and I was really impressed by it! It was exactly what I was looking for in a tileset for option 2. Didn't have a single gradient, had all the necessary tiles, and a lot of effort into a nice background with the extra tiles. I was pretty sure this was a winner through most of the contest, but it got beaten by a later entry. Can't really find anything bad about the set to comment on, good job!

Grassland Paradise

If i'm not mistaken AJ2F had to draw his tileset in paint, which is a great feat on its own. However, that leaves the tileset to look very 'MSPainty' with very little to do to make it look otherwise. The textures could be better, but once again thats part of the limitations to paint. If there were any real improvements that could've been done not regarding paint issues I think more background eyecandy would be better.

Fluff for Thought

I don't know if this is christmas themed or not, I think it's somewhere on the border, but I can say one thing for sure though, this tileset is fluffy! The design of the tileset isn't bad, has a nice range of background and foreground eyecandy aswell, but the main problem I have is the lack of colour. Everything in layer 4 is white (excluding the tubes). Some multicoloured fluff would look better (but be harder to make with 16 colours).

Small Factory

We all love colour reduction in programs like Paint Shop Pro, until it goes wrong. This set is a good example of that. The background eyecandy looks great, but the actual tiles in layer 4 suffered a lot from colour reduction. Tilesets should be fairly balanced, and a ba;ance in quality between the tiles is no exception. Just got an idea on this set, the yellow platforms could be made thinner, that always smooths out the gradient. I'm curious to see the normal version of this, I'm sure its great.

Rootalopicus

This isnt a great set, this is an AMAZING set! Really I've decided to leave the best for last this time, this is by far the competition (and Option 2+ 3) winner. FOUR different colour hues were used, each with only four colours, and when you look at the tileset you cant even notice it. I checked three times to make sure there weren't any extra colours, and had to zoom in on the tileset by a considerable amount just to notice the four different colours. The whole tileset is smooth, and the detail put into the textures and drawings such as the branches (that I have almost mistaken for being Jungle brances at first sight) are amazing! The example level is also great for showing it all off, so many possibilities. This is a MUST DOWNLOAD. Way above my expectations, and could even compete as a great tileset against normal tilesets with no limitations. Congrats to you ET!

Chez2

The only tileset entry for Option 3. I must admit this was a hard one because of all the colour hues that had to be fitted into 16 tiles. The set itself has a strange theme (if any), filled with orange tiles and a green mesh for background eyecandy. If anything I can say it is blocky, but doesn't have much in regard for eye candy.

Contest

Page 1: Contest Rules
Page 2: Contest Entries

	Contest Entries
	Option 1:

	Tileset Name:	Author:

	Volcano	FireSword

	Cool Day 2	Ice M A N

	Windstorm Fortress	BlurredD

	Iron Crown (Second Prize)	CelL

	Cracco Mini	CraccoBoy

	Grapevine	Acid

	Terrestial World	Red XIII

	Option 2:

	Dark Marshland	Moonblaze

	Grassland Paradise	Another Jazz 2 Fan

	Fluff for Thought	Toxic Bunny

	Small Factory	Violet CLM

	Rootalopicus (First Prize! )	ET

	Option 3:

	Chez2	N0body

	Volcano
	Really not a bad set. I was impressed by the texture and quality of the normal tiles, definitley a winner in that category, and you even managed to fit in different variations of the same block. The theme is good too, with some nice ideas for background eyecandy. It has a few letdowns though where the set could've been improved. Sucker tubes were the first, the quality doesnt quite match up with the rest of the tileset. Second one is that black block. Definitley could've used some texture, you had a lot of colours to play with. It's funny how one tile can make such a big difference, but in this case it does, the amount of space it occupies on the screen is a lot. I can tell you now if you improved the background this would've been an option 1 winner.

	Cool Day 2
	Hmmm, Icey told me he rushed this a bit, and it shows. It's an average set overall, but there are some weird elements to it. The perspective isn't constant, the sucker tubes are different to the normal tiles, and the other thing that's a bit weird is the theme. Well, there really isn't a solid theme. There is some grey for the blocks, green for the surface, some purple background stuff, brown tubes and the destruct block is another colour aswell.

	Windstorm Fortress
	Very nice tileset, the background on this one is really well done for the amount of tilespace given. The normal blocks are pretty much near perfect in their design, with the rough little border and the smooth texture on it, looks great. The one problem I do have with it though is the theme. Everything is just a bunch of blocks (Mez-like). Its a pretty obvious choice in small tilesets, squeezing it down to the basics saves a lot of tilespace, but you pay a big price in forms of eyecandy. The other problem I have is the amount of colours used, the whole tileset is some form of grey (excluding the tubes and signs).

	Iron Crown
	Yet another great tileset. Has a nice variation in colour, very good (and original in a way) theme to it and a nice amount of extra eye candy. Enough to give it the option 1 winner status. As for looking for at negative points in the set, I couldnt find any. There was a small mistake in colours in the mountain tile (3 down, 3 across), but its barely noticeable and shouldnt make a difference. It's funny, this set hasn't got the best background, or the best normal tiles, but it has no real big negatives that could've been improved a lot. A balanced tileset is always the best tileset

	Cracco Mini
	Hurray for the christmas themed tileset! The only christmas entry in the contest, and as a christmas tileset I must say it does a very good job. The theme is bright and colourful, and has a christmas tree to complement it all. Only problem I have is that there is a lack of background eyecandy, a christmas tree every now and then isn't enough to fill up the blue background, but 40 tiles is a big limitation for those kinda things.

	Grapevine
	An average set. I can't help but think the background is too bright. Running around in the example level can get confusing after a while. The texture on the normal tile looks a bit strange, it doesnt ttile that well and seems to be a bit blocky. My biggest complaint is the lack of diagonals, every tileset should have diagonals, they give so much more to a levelmaker to play with. Having only one destruct block and using those extra tiles for diagonals would be a better choice imo.

	Terrestial World
	Red told me he had some problems with the set, but still submitted it, YaY for Red for doing this. I'm guessing he had a problem with the textured background, as that doesnt work, but there is no law that says every tileset should have a working textured background, so I'm not too bothered about that. The theme is very strange (hence the name), I've never really seen a totally purple tileset before. There are two main problems to the set, the one is a lack of background eyecandy, a raindrop will never do the trick. The final one is the lack of tiles. There are no real border tiles to the blocks, so everything just ends up ebing 'cut off' at places. Once again an attack of the tileset limit.

	Dark Marshland
	This was the first entry that I got, and I was really impressed by it! It was exactly what I was looking for in a tileset for option 2. Didn't have a single gradient, had all the necessary tiles, and a lot of effort into a nice background with the extra tiles. I was pretty sure this was a winner through most of the contest, but it got beaten by a later entry. Can't really find anything bad about the set to comment on, good job!

	Grassland Paradise
	If i'm not mistaken AJ2F had to draw his tileset in paint, which is a great feat on its own. However, that leaves the tileset to look very 'MSPainty' with very little to do to make it look otherwise. The textures could be better, but once again thats part of the limitations to paint. If there were any real improvements that could've been done not regarding paint issues I think more background eyecandy would be better.

	Fluff for Thought
	I don't know if this is christmas themed or not, I think it's somewhere on the border, but I can say one thing for sure though, this tileset is fluffy! The design of the tileset isn't bad, has a nice range of background and foreground eyecandy aswell, but the main problem I have is the lack of colour. Everything in layer 4 is white (excluding the tubes). Some multicoloured fluff would look better (but be harder to make with 16 colours).

	Small Factory
	We all love colour reduction in programs like Paint Shop Pro, until it goes wrong. This set is a good example of that. The background eyecandy looks great, but the actual tiles in layer 4 suffered a lot from colour reduction. Tilesets should be fairly balanced, and a ba;ance in quality between the tiles is no exception. Just got an idea on this set, the yellow platforms could be made thinner, that always smooths out the gradient. I'm curious to see the normal version of this, I'm sure its great.

	Rootalopicus
	This isnt a great set, this is an AMAZING set! Really I've decided to leave the best for last this time, this is by far the competition (and Option 2+ 3) winner. FOUR different colour hues were used, each with only four colours, and when you look at the tileset you cant even notice it. I checked three times to make sure there weren't any extra colours, and had to zoom in on the tileset by a considerable amount just to notice the four different colours. The whole tileset is smooth, and the detail put into the textures and drawings such as the branches (that I have almost mistaken for being Jungle brances at first sight) are amazing! The example level is also great for showing it all off, so many possibilities. This is a MUST DOWNLOAD. Way above my expectations, and could even compete as a great tileset against normal tilesets with no limitations. Congrats to you ET!

	Chez2
	The only tileset entry for Option 3. I must admit this was a hard one because of all the colour hues that had to be fitted into 16 tiles. The set itself has a strange theme (if any), filled with orange tiles and a green mesh for background eyecandy. If anything I can say it is blocky, but doesn't have much in regard for eye candy.