This is the beginning of another tileset review.
Grove Shrine is a tileset by Labratkid/LarK of OLC. I downloaded it and after I saw it I immediately made a level with it. This level still wasn’t completely finished when I was writing this review. But now I’ll start with reviewing the tileset and I’ll tell some of my experiences as well.
Possibilities
I looked at the tileset and I immediately liked it. It’s really simple but has everything I’ll need for a level. So I was starting a level with it. I’ve looked in the example level and I saw some tricks with the tileset. I’ve included them in the level as well. The tiles in the tileset are well created. It’s not that bad if you flip them. Some of them are the same when you flip them. It wasn’t so hard to do eye candy. The example level showed alot of the eye candy you can use in the tileset.
Easy to use, or not?
This tileset is fairly easy to use. The platforms to walk on are easily made, and they have 2 different slopes that are perfectly for a good layout in a level. The eye candy in the tileset wasn’t hard for me. Shouldn’t be too hard for others either. Finding the exact tiles for the platforms can be annoying, but I haven’t had alot of problems with it. The tileset fitted perfectly with the idea I had in mind for my level. I think that this tileset is a good one for people who don’t want to use an overused tileset.
Eye candy
To go further about the eye candy, there is enough in my opinion. Some stones and flowers can be placed on the ground. There are also trees, pillars, waterfalls etc. It’s possible to transluce the pillars and waterfalls. There were also unmasked versions of the pillars and other things. The backgrounds are simple. The mountains are easy to place. The sky that should be placed in layer 8 is light blue. All other stuff I didn’t mention was nice.
Masking
There were some invisible tiles in the tileset. Those invisible tiles aren’t very useful, but there are invisible tiles in several tilesets. The masking of alot of tiles is really simple. There are messages in the sky and some of the tiles under it. LRK likes to put them in there, I guess. The other tiles look good enough.
Conclusion
This is a very nice and simple tileset. I like it alot. I don’t make levels with a tileset alot after I just saw it once. But I were just willing to make a level and I had a theme in mind. The level will probably be in a pack, but I will probably ask several other people to beta test. If it’s good enough I might want to upload it. Now back to the tileset, it fits a level based on fruit, and it’s good to use if you just want to make a level based on nature. I recommend anyone who wants to try something original to try this tileset, and do a good job with it.
Download : Yes!
Build with it : like I said, yes.
Final rating : 8.6
Wheee! A tileset!
Tiles: Like the Labrat said, This is a cartoony tileset. Although it seems to fit Jazz 2 in the strangest way. Like the apples in the begining match the tree as if it was part of the tileset, kinda. The grass is a bit low I think it could have seemed less….mowed down.
Eyecandy: Not much here for foreground, just some rocks, trees, and very small flowers. Very fine trees and rocks and flowers, but There could have been more. Although, aplied in the right way would be fine for a ok level. Alot of some of the stuff is for layer 5, including the waterfall which is only animated on a log type bridge (And not animated too well, but I don’t care).
Event tiles: He has vines and destucts. No hurts, or hooks. The hooks can slide…but no hurt tiles? Come on! We all need those!
All in All: I like this, And If I like the tileset I keep it, If I don’t it’s binned. So guess what this is going to stay on my hard drive. And who knows? I might just make a level out of it. You get a fine…nine.
9
Starting Comments
I luuuv your tilesets! :)
Well, this tileset has about everything an average levelmaker would need. Some vines, invisible tiles, masked messages… :P Yep, not too much, good platform blocks… Well, this is worth a 7.5!
Good thing
Cornerless pieces of wall. I need that a lot… In Natures Ruins you have the vertical outside block, the horizontal outside block, but NO cornerless block, making in impossible to make bigger blocks! Good job on this one!
Bonus Points: 1.0
Bad thing
Missed the V- and H- Poles. (Although you can use the pillars for the ‘castle part’.
Bonus Points: None, no substraction either.
Score:
8.5
Download Recommendation:
It is worth a try to make a good level with this one.
Further Comment:
GO LABRATKID! I love your tilesets! COMMANDER KEEN 4 EVER!
The music brings me back to the days when I was still playing DOS games (gotta love Tyrian =P).
As for the tileset I thought it was pretty good, but I didn’t like the hills because they looked a bit too daggy and something you could make in a matter of seconds. But the tileset is easy to use, and has everything you really need for a level. Waterfalls, caves, ruins, it’s really good. As someone said before, it was missing V and H poles but I’ll let that slide.
I give this an 8, and a download recommendation.
8
Yeah. I made a review!
Now on to the review.
Eyecandy:
The eyecandy was excellent. There is lots of eyecandy such as: trees, hills, a bunch of different signposts, some destruct blocks, some buttstomp blocks etc.
Graphics Quality:
The Graphics Quality is excellent. It is a bit cartoony but that dosen’t make it bad Graphics Quality.
Example Level:
I like the example level. It shows how to use this tileset very well. The hills are used in the background, there are some trees which I agree with Neon PSY that the apples look like they are part of the trees, some destruct blocks and also some butstomp blocks.
Music:
The music is an excellent choice. It fits the level very well. Good job on picking the music.
Conclusion:
This is one of the best tilesets i’ve ever seen! Keep up the good work LRK.
Overall Rating:
I think this level is good enough that it deserves an 8.0
Download Reccomendation:
Yes! This tileset is excellent. I think everyone should download this tileset. I hope to see ons of good levels made with this tileset. I might be one of those people.
~Bloodrabbit
Nat
10 Jul 2005, 09:02
8
Well you should make Textures…
The tileset is big enough to build a good lvl…Yes it really looks like Cartoony tileset But…Cartoony tilesets are often easy to make…so try making The Real World! hehe…here 8 is good enough… 9 is too much!
Hahahahahaha
The music is awesome
I’d give you a 10 for the use of it but OI cant because imrt tirexcd
DL recommendation everybodys
Tileset, by 
