Custom Tokens and Charater portraits. (newbie post)

Hello All, Newbie here!  I just wanted to drop in a test the waters here.  I am working on a few sets to add to the Market Place, and I felt like I shouldn't charge anything for my first premiere set.  With that I do have a few questions.  I noticed that not alot of maps/tokens are 3/4 birds eye perspective, or isometric style (a la Zelda, FF, etc)  But alot of them are top down.   Is there a general preference? Also, I am a big cyberpunk fan, but I don't know how much of a need there is for cyberpunk style packs.  What are the masses really looking for? And pics for clicks!  :)  

There's a huge lack of cyberpunk/shadowrun suitable tokens and especially maps. Given the grid layout,  I expect the most common perspective would be top-down.  Isometric is actually a bit of a pain to implement.

Do you have any info on why the Isometric design is a pain?  Like links and the like.  I did a search but I can't find any relevent info.

Most of the tokens I use in my game for generic baddies are top down. The maps I use are also generally from a top down perspective. However I will use portraits for more important or unique character tokens. Tokens that are drawn in such a way that the number of squares they take up is fairly obvious when they are stretched is also a plus for me (i.e. when I stretch the dragon to Huge and it takes up 9 squares but some of them look unoccupied is slightly annoying for me and my players).  Not a big deal but it always makes me happy when they scale well. I would love to do some cyberpunk stuff, but alas neither of my groups is really up for it.

I guess what I am looking for is market research.  What is popular, what is lacking, etc.  Trying to fill a void...

Grymjack said: Do you have any info on why the Isometric design is a pain?  Like links and the like.  I did a search but I can't find any relevent info. Plexsoup has some isometric map tiles on the Marketplace. These are his instructions for making an isometric map: - Turn off the Roll20 grid - Make a new page - Set the Page Size to 96x96 - Set the Scale to ""1 unit = 7 feet"" - Set the background to a nice, dark color - Go to the Map layer - Start at the top left corner and lay tiles from back to front - Right click on tiles and set ""To Front"" or ""To Back"" as required This is a lot  more work than is needed for most map designs. On top of that, Plexsoup has some notes on playing isometric games: - The ruler will only show proper distances along cardinal direction. ie: diagonals will show the wrong distance. Counting squares still works fine. - Dynamic lighting requires special care around doors, because you want players to see the door. - Character Facing is less obvious than in top-down play. Rotating side-view character tokens will make them ""lie down"". Great for showing casualties! To change facing, right click a character and ""flip horizontal" I mean, you can get some stuff that looks pretty cool ( see this thread ), but for a lot of people it's more trouble than it's worth to do isometric.

Grymjack said: I guess what I am looking for is market research.  What is popular, what is lacking, etc.  Trying to fill a void... Cyberpunk is few and far between as far as what's available so it's lacking content, it's also a niche market as the vast majority is D&D/PF. Same can be said for Star Wars, Call of Cthulhu. I believe maps tend to sell better from a DM's perspective as players romp through encounters but token sets tend to last longer as 'durable assets' As far as maps, there's plenty of set-piece maps, but not many lego maps for building exteriors/interiors. And by lego I mean corners/intersections/t-sections for actually building a room at the shaping level as opposed to room blocks. Allows DMs to build custom scenarios rather than fitting a scenario to a map, could be also considered a 'durable asset' but players go places so different themes for such sets would do well I'd reckon. Also marketplace is low-volume so I'd estimate 10s of dollars a month pending on the content.

What about map elements; desk, chairs, rugs, lamps, etc.  That can be added to the map layer to church up a map?  Is there a demand for that kind of stuff?

There's lots of element packs out there in terms of chairs/tables/desks/etc, but varient themes could work. I think your cyberpunk tokens would do moderately well. Assets that have reusability and customization tend to do good too as it adds value outside a single encounter.

Should I focus efforts on doing the Character/NPC tokens top-down, Isometric, or just a bust-style pic?  I notice the trend for top down, I dont know if thats the standard preference.

Isometric is not as complicated as it sounds above. If you are only wanting to play on a flat map, it just takes a few clicks in GIMP or Photoshop to turn any top down map into an isometric one (explanation&nbsp; HERE for Maptool, but it is exactly the same for Roll20). True iso maps (with elevations) are a little more difficult to produce, but it would be easy enough to make a set of pieces in this style. But there is not much incentive to do it as interest in iso gaming seems to amount to zero. The rollable table tokens make it perfectly possible to move and orient tokens. That's probably the easiest part to solve. See thread here:&nbsp; <a href="https://app.roll20.net/forum/post/2252322/roll20-isometric" rel="nofollow">https://app.roll20.net/forum/post/2252322/roll20-isometric</a> Note that using the rollable table tokens would make it possible to use iso tokens in different positions for the same character (standing, crouching, running, fighting...). I am probably going to do it for at least a few scenes in my own campaign, should be fun. So, the problem is not the possibility to play in isometric view. It is already possible and not very complicated. The problem is, I think, that lack of isometric ressources means that peoples don't play iso. And if peoples don't play iso, there is not much incentive to make iso ressources.... If you want to produce for the marketplace and not for your own games, you should probably forget isometric.

Very cool art! Fantasy games make up the majority of tokens, and games. &nbsp;Have a look at the last Orr report for roll20s demographics: <a href="http://blog.roll20.net/post/116828584295/the-orr-g" rel="nofollow">http://blog.roll20.net/post/116828584295/the-orr-g</a>... I think Shadowrun has a decent base of players, but so far all that's available are my Shadoware tokens and one pack by Devon Night. &nbsp;I'm certain that the fans could use more choice! &nbsp;Star Wars is problematic unless you have the rights to make stuff for that IP, and I find most sci-fi is pretty specific other than that. &nbsp; Top down definitely sells best, but offers the least detail. &nbsp;I suspect it's because for bust styles you can just hit up Google and throw the results into tokentool, but top-down is far harder to find. There aren't many, if any, cyberpunk maps. &nbsp;Bars, offices, clubs, warehouses, factories, penthouses, flops, etc. Hope to see something from you soon :)

Thanks Alan for the INFO!!!!!!!&nbsp; That demographics is eye opening.&nbsp; 68.94% of all games on Roll20 are generic Fantasy.&nbsp; Well it looks like I know what direction to take for my work.&nbsp; LOL

Yeah it's also a reason why Sci fi, cyberpunk, and modern genre stuffiis less supported.&nbsp; However, if you get some traction in fantasy token, maybe you'd consider a few other styles to help Roll20 flourish? Excited about seeing your work!&nbsp;

I have some map packs and portrait style tokens on the marketplace. The map packs definitely sell better than the tokens. I think a lot of people prefer top down, but a) I personally get confused with a lot of minifig style tokens on the map, and have always used portraits, and b) there are already a lot of great too downs. They make the vast majority of what you get if you search for tokens. &nbsp;So...do with that information what thou wilt. One thing I do feel like I should warn you about...Copyright and the OGL. Read up, protect yourself. For example, Talz are copywritten and you will get crushed by a Disney Lawyer Hammer if you try to sell unlicensed Star Wars art for money. Generic "humanoid space ruffians" that have a rebel fighter flavor to them would be safe, but stick them on a tauntaun or show a unit patch or distinctive helmet, and you're playing with fire.