LET'S TALK ABOUT MAP DESIGN

Maps are an integral part of most games and they are very important. A lot of the time we make maps look a certain way without really thinking about the design and sense of such things.

The recent discussion in the Screenshot thread over restaurant (and shop) mapping has shown that it might be a good idea to discuss map design and talk about general and/or particular kinds of maps and how to go about designing them.

Let's start with something simple - the humble store.


Here's what I posted in the Screenshot thread and my general take on designing a realistic store.


One thing I would like to point out is that if you're going for a certain style, it is okay to ignore realistic stylings. If your shop is set in a cave, it's bound to be more cramped than if it were set in an emporium, for example. Think of the discussion in this thread as guidelines instead of hard and fast rules. And while you're at it, check out the second half of this month's Podcast as the Game Dev Corner this time around focussed on maps and mapping.


Feel free to bring up other ideas and 'themes', too. The thread is half to help with understanding layout and design, and half to discuss it.

author=bulmabriefs144
There's something you should know. Prior to the supermarket, most stores were not self-serve. It took people like Selfridge and Clarence Saunders to make the idea of self-serve stores. Before that, a store like this would actually be the reality. "You want a potion? Wait here, I'll get it from the back."

Having loads of shelves is not realistic. Having a backroom area is.

Not necessarily true. I grew up in a podunk hole in the wall 'town' of 2 block radius. We had a small shop that was set up like the one I showed (a little different since the counter was next to the door) - you went and got what you needed then brought it to the counter and paid. Every small store I have ever been in has been set up in that kind of way - and we're talking late 80s, early 90s here - well before the advent of huge-ass supermarkets. (This store also doubled as the petrol station AND post office). Granted, there were some items that couldn't be grabbed by customers - bullets, smokes, alcohol - and frankly, they'd be the equivalent of potions and the like if you think about it. So...

Anyway, if you have a shelf system, it should be interactable, such as asking if you want to pick up the item, and then going to cashier to buy.

Look, there's realism and non-realism. The idea of game creation is to find a good balance between the two to cut down on awkwardness for the player. Forcing them to search shelves is bullshit unless your game is like Zelda where you have items to pick up and purchase on the spot.

Besides, if a chest has multiple items in it, do you force the player to look through it each time for that item or just give them all? Do you force the player to check the bodies of the slain or give the items at the end of the battle in a handy little bundle? Do you force your player to physically walk themselves to their bed and get in when sleeping at the inn or do you jump-cut to a new day? Do you make the player wait all 8 hours while sleeping? NO, of course not. Because small shortcuts in gameplay are fine when they help out the player and make things streamlined, but that doesn't mean you make a dungeon map that is a square with two chests or that your inn doesn't have beds - because you want the player to feel like the world is real in some way.

You can have a good looking, realistic-seeming store without the annoyance of searching high and low for your items. It's a thing that is recommended. But just because you have a salesman behind a counter doesn't mean your store needs to look like shit.

You don't have to get utility out of the map for it to work but, you know, you can also add NPCs browsing the shelves to actually sell the idea that *GASP* your town is inhabited by more than shop clerks. It adds depth and realism and helps the player buy the illusion that your world is a real place as opposed to just being bland and empty, and making every shop looking like every other fucking shop in the world.

Don't make your shops like that unless you're doing a NES clone/fangame. It's extremely lazy.

Besides, like LockeZ said, it's a whole three steps more than in that other store and adds a hell of a lot more to the illusion of your town being a real place instead of some empty buildings and two NPCs.



As for the roguelike stores, they're a neat idea. A lot of games have used them before and they work well, especially since treasure is placed on the map when opening a chest. It adds cohesion. It'd due to that cohesion that they work well, though. If you picked up treasure automatically and enemies handed their drops right into your hands then it would be strange to have a shop scatter items around to pick up and use, but because enemy drops actually drop on the map and treasure drops do the same, it makes sense that shop drops be on the map too.

XD
My time inflection is skewed weirdly. "The other day" tends to be a few months back while "Back in the old days" becomes the 80/90s. Unless actual dates are said, in which case, okay.

That said, old time shops actually had the shelves visible behind the counter so that customers knew what was for sale and could physically see the items to choose from. There were also small tables/shelves along the sides of the room where certain foods could be checked by the purchasers - fruit, vegetables, oats, etc.

Keep in mind that shops started out as market stalls that gained permanence over time, so the layout was 'show goods in front of the buyer' around the counter. When a shop actually became a store the same ideas were in play. There was always a display of the items for sale, whether the salesman had to go into a room holding the actual sale items or not. Displays always played a part in store life not matter how far back you go. All that changed was the service itself.