Your example is pretty bad. Differing is essentially just blurring. You're not making any kind of transition, you're just blurring the edge a little bit.

How a terrain type transitions into another would entirely depend on what the type of terrain is and what it is transitioning into. Grass transitioning into dirt would be fairly messy, with patches of grass and dirt inside of each other. But grass transitioning into pavement would be much straighter and smoother.
Transitioning would also depend largely on art style.

That being said, games with the issue you've mentioned tend to be peoples first (or one of their first) games, and after a quick look, most of the games I saw didn't have this issue.

I agree that BYOND games need better maps and that most people confuse pretty graphics with good maps. But what you are going to cover isn't going to help people make good maps. A good map starts with a solid layout and foundation, if you do not have this, nothing you do will make a map look good, so this is what you need to be talking about before anything else. It's like trying to teach people to draw a person by starting with the lengths of fingers relative to each other. That doesn't matter if people don't even know what shape a human is.

Let's talk about purpose.



It doesn't matter how your tiles blend together. That doesn't make a good map. It doesn't matter how much clutter you have. That doesn't make a good map.

What matters is purpose. Purpose is everything. Why is there a house there? Why is that tree on its own?

Why is there a graveyard? What gameplay purpose does every individual tile give you?



A well designed map is a representation of the activities a player can expect to perform within that map.

How great your tiles look and how well they blend together, and whether your map has distinct biomes quite literally has no bearing on whether your map is a success or not.

One of the main reasons BYOND games showcase terrible mapping skills is because they lack an understanding of space and purpose. That's because BYOND games don't generally have purpose, and they generally have too much space for too little content.

This house is separated from the rest of the village. Why is that? Because it is important. Each of the other buildings has a different purpose than this one. Why is it next to the graveyard? Because this house's purpose connects with the graveyard's purpose. The house is owned by the village elder, who is responsible for his people's well-being. The graveyard is a reminder of his responsibility for his people. The paths to the two areas connect. The graves have messages engraved in the headstones that tell you how people of this village died. The Elder tells you quite a lot about the village's current plight.



This is the town's main market area. This is where the player will mostly spend his time while at this village. Notice how the Inn, the magic shop, the item shop, the weapons and armor shops are all very nearby? Notice how the inn is easily accessible from the village entrance? This is all done deliberately to give the player a quick entry/exit from town when they are working on progressing their character rather than entering into the story.



Notice how the entire market district fits within the player's screen? That's done deliberately to create a feeling of closeness and reduce meaningless travel time.



This is the entire tileset for this town. I deliberately limited myself to a 128x128 texture area for the entire town's tileset. The reason I did this was to reduce art load and decrease the urge to include meaningless details. Everything MUST have a purpose because I didn't have the room to spare for useless flavor art.



There's something special about that pond. What could it be? What's with that little statue on the lower-left of the screen? What could that be about?



Oh man, what's in that house? Who would live out here on the edge of the desert? Maybe a merchant that serves as the last friendly stop before the player enters a hellish wasteland?



The first thing you might complain about here is the total disregard for tile blending on the left side of this image. Why would I highlight this as a case of "good" mapping? Because you can never see that transition. It exists solely at the boundary of the game's viewport and the player will never see that these two areas don't properly blend. Look at the approach toward what is obviously a dungeon. Look how it builds the importance of the area above with the stairs and the statues.



Notice how the trees are escaping the island with the dungeon? It gives the hint that the evil beneath the land is spreading its hold over the realm. The bridge also serves as a divider between the mainland and the dungeon area, making it more memorable and isolated.



Man, if only those stairs weren't blocked... I bet that they would take you someplace cool! I wonder what you could do about it? See how the map gets tight? That would sure make enemy encounters difficult, wouldn't it?



Lastly, see how that cave has unique decorations? I wonder what's inside of it. You never see anything like those decorations anywhere else. That must mean that something unique is in this cave.


And if you really want to talk about purpose:



This is a very bland looking map, but every single object in the player's view has a purpose. The pressure plates trigger the door to be locked, forcing the player to have to move past the arrow traps to trigger another pressure plate that fires a fireball trap into the brazier, which acts as a switch that triggers a rolling boulder. The boulder rolls continuously, triggering the pressure plates that fire the arrow traps, hitting a teleporter trap, which resets its location to the beginning of the boulder corridor. The crate above the boulder acts as a logic gate which allows the pistons to determine whether the brazier is still burning or not before letting the player out of the trapped room. All of this creates a trap that forces the player to run through the trap quickly in order to escape. If he's too slow, he can't get out. If he's too fast, he may die from the arrows. Every element of this tiny portion of the level is designed around purpose. While the map itself may be bland, this is a particularly nasty trap and will create a memorable experience for the player.

With mapping, purpose is everything. Aesthetics like tile blending must take a back seat.

To reinforce Ter's point: at the end of the day, it doesn't matter how good your map looks if it's not fun to explore and play inside of.

I agree with Ter's summation, but don't think this was his point at all; his post emphasizes that maps should cater to the ideas they are created for within their design. Maps that are "fun to explore and play inside of" can result from good design if the map's design calls for it, but I would not equate a good map to a map that is "fun to explore and play inside of" because not all maps in a given game will require that same atmosphere or purpose.

In my opinion, a games maps have to be functional, but being function does not make the map automatically good, it's just one part of what makes a map good. A map that isn't functional is pretty much excluded from being good though.

Kats said:

If a map isn't fun to play in, then it's not a very good map. Either it's provides some kind of enhancement to the experience in some way or it's not a very good map. [...]

I don't agree with your idea that if a map isn't fun (subjective), it's not good. That would mean a map's purpose is always to be fun, when I don't think that's the case. The experience could be enhancing, or it could be transforming (in negative aspects as well, within purposeful guidelines).

---

Ter13 said:

This is the town's main market area. This is where the player will mostly spend his time while at this village. Notice how the Inn, the magic shop, the item shop, the weapons and armor shops are all very nearby? Notice how the inn is easily accessible from the village entrance? This is all done deliberately to give the player a quick entry/exit from town when they are working on progressing their character rather than entering into the story.

Would you consider the above to be good map design? I think I would. I don't think "fun" would be an immediate description of mine, though.

The purpose (natural player navigation) that it serves makes it a good map; some good maps can be designed for the purpose of fun, but not all good maps are designed to be fun.

Motherfucker, if you make another word bold.. >:(

Way to digress.

Baird wrote:

How about the lost art of game design around here?

Mapping is a facet of game design.

"Game design is the art of applying design and aesthetics to create a game to facilitate interaction between players for entertainment or for medical, educational, or experimental purposes."

Trying to educate the master at his craft, of his craft?

Shatan wrote:

Baird wrote:

Trying to educate the master at his craft, of his craft?

whatever you say, layman

Talent requires no professionalism.

for someone that doesnt know algebra, how to write, map, draw or program and never looked into game design or game design theories, you sure like to talk. stick to complimenting others

What does math have to do with creativity?

I do know how to write.

Map? You're a joke for even insiting, if a creative writer can create worlds with mere words he can definitely map it out.

No need to look into something if I threw my life away playing them. You get it? You know math and that crap, but my time spent doing what I was doing isn't completely worthless. Though it may seems to someone who lacks wisdom, someone who thinks paper credits is everything.

Complimenting others because unlike others and yourself around here, I'm not some irrational loser, I'm honest, as I'm honest when I think I'm the best because I see others flaws and strong points. Meanwhile everyone is just calling me a big flaw, or anyone they don't know, which is just a losering, a bias opinion.

You call BYOND useless and still around, say I'll amount to nothing but follow me around and feel the need to question or debate with everything I say or do here. My personality alone is making your jobless, untalented life have some sort of meaning. Think about what you do all day, whatever it is, you add a site and engine you don't care about and me, supposedly someone that'll amount to nothing, have some sort of space.

Buddy, I buy people memberships for the fuck of it, hell how you think you've gotten one? I've been winning for some time now. All you're is someone on the bench hoping I'd quit out of nowhere. But think about all you've done to me. Will I really quit anytime soon considering you've tried everything? To trying to humiliate me to fit into this pathetic community's forum? To constantly being a friend? But I never care, I'm not naive ever, I just don't care nor worried what someone so lifeless has to do or say to stop my progression.

Please continue downgrading my abilities on the forums to get served each, and every single time, all of you who try.

Shatan wrote:

I do know how to write.

Inarticulate drivel isn't proper writing.

Lifeless one, whatever you say.

Map? You're a joke for even insiting, if a creative writer can create worlds with mere words he can definitely map it out.

No you seriously can't map. Just look at how you cloned League of Legend's Summoner's Rift into your Pokemon game. It's like you don't even know what corners or dense areas are, or even how to map at angles.

Considering that project wasn't even actually considered to be a thing and I just rushed its core. But you'll take what you can get because your yearly income is based off what Quentin or your Mom gives you.

I'm honest, as I'm honest when I think I'm the best because I see others flaws and strong points.

I'm honest. You like many others here, don't have any strong points in game design. That's why BYOND has bad games.

For someone who sat around for years and continues to do so, you sure know how to judge others. Why learn something if you don't even use it. That's what separates the experienced from the inexperience. That's what makes you weak, stupid, and young. You say a-lot of bullshit, when it comes to design, like a blade in the dark trying to fight a man with night vision. You lack imagination, and spirit, a-lot of spirit. You say BYOND is useless, and it cannot make any money, silk made some money. Enough money where he doesn't have to ask his mommy for it. I love when you try to argue with me because I'll just bring this up every time. BYOND is useless to those who lack imagination and think that graphics and quality is everything. If Silk's design can do it, that means I can bank it. Meanwhile you're gonna stay in some corner, practicing with other engines for years, and sitting on our very forums simply watching, just, because, of me.

My personality alone is making your jobless, untalented life have some sort of meaning. Think about what you do all day, whatever it is, you add a site and engine you don't care about and me, supposedly someone that'll amount to nothing, have some sort of space.

Trust me, I know you do nothing but sit on skype all day interacting with other no names, or playing repetitive fps games.

I've been winning for some time now.

Wasting your money is the antithesis to winning.

All you're is someone on the bench hoping I'd quit out of nowhere.

I was just trying to be a good friend. You're too naive to see that. I only wanted what was best for you and you never listened to me.

For someone who's done so much and continue to try because you have nothing left to throw at the crowd against me I doubt it. Your well is empty. You've already tried everything.

Please continue downgrading my abilities on the forums to get served each, and every single time, all of you who try.

At best, I get my posts deleted by moderators.

No, that's what happens to me whenever I school you or anyone else you hangout with on this crap forum.


If you were ever truly annoying: http://prntscr.com/ad9e7x

But I should be able to tell some kid off. I'm done here, take your L.