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DESIGNING FOR ODDS AND ENDS SUCH AS SIZE OF THE WORLD MAP ETC.
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KhaliCanvas Studios
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CloseI have been working on a game since February/March of this year. Its wayy above my pay grade. Done with a lot of the the basic foundations on Unity, such a speech system, combat system, save/load system, screen transition system etc. Recently I have been struggling with some odds and ends.
How many over world assets do I need?
How big should the map be?
How many quests should each area contain?
How many different types of terrains should I have?
and the list goes on and on.
The only method I can think to resolve these issues is just to make a quest or two, some of the world map, and just get a feel for it. Thought it might turn out to be fruitful to understand how others (all of you!) prefer to work and decide on these details.
Thanks in Advance.
How many over world assets do I need?
How big should the map be?
How many quests should each area contain?
How many different types of terrains should I have?
and the list goes on and on.
The only method I can think to resolve these issues is just to make a quest or two, some of the world map, and just get a feel for it. Thought it might turn out to be fruitful to understand how others (all of you!) prefer to work and decide on these details.
Thanks in Advance.
Darken
3952
I'm pretty sure most people just pick their favorite RPG and go off of their content numbers as a base. Then when you run out of time in development you cut needless content and aim for something that at least feels well rounded. But it really really really depends on what game you're going for.
If the world map has random or touch based battles then you simply design the space around how many battles you think the player should put up with before going to the next town (or whatever total trips are taken between places of interests). But then it could just be Chrono Trigger where the space barely matters at all aside from world building, (so as small as possible).
Idk a lot of questions are best answered with even more fundamental questions "What are they actually for?" "Why do you have quests?" "How do they give the player enjoyment and for how long?"
Otherwise, throw a dart at the wall and pick a number. Then adjust when you realize the logistics of how long it takes to make content for one area vs how much the player gets out of it.
If the world map has random or touch based battles then you simply design the space around how many battles you think the player should put up with before going to the next town (or whatever total trips are taken between places of interests). But then it could just be Chrono Trigger where the space barely matters at all aside from world building, (so as small as possible).
Idk a lot of questions are best answered with even more fundamental questions "What are they actually for?" "Why do you have quests?" "How do they give the player enjoyment and for how long?"
Otherwise, throw a dart at the wall and pick a number. Then adjust when you realize the logistics of how long it takes to make content for one area vs how much the player gets out of it.
Thanks Darken. This is a good starting point for this discussion.
Pitch:
Overhead 2D real time action open world game.
Quests:
The quests (the main ones at least) is part of the main story. Quests don't have to been done in order. But every main quest has to be done to reveal the final quest. Every quest has some sort of quirk or novelty to them, ie: finish in x amount of time. As of right I have listed 25 such quests.
I am trying to make something very odd in my own opinion, along with the lack of experience, and I am finding it difficult to draw conclusions from other game references for some of its parts. Side content apart from the quests listed above will take significantly longer to complete then the quests on the main story line.
Also working on this without any deadlines.
Some variables I can come up with are,
*the number of quests on the main storyline
*the time I would prefer each quest to last for
*the number of hours I want out of each side content
Pitch:
Overhead 2D real time action open world game.
Quests:
The quests (the main ones at least) is part of the main story. Quests don't have to been done in order. But every main quest has to be done to reveal the final quest. Every quest has some sort of quirk or novelty to them, ie: finish in x amount of time. As of right I have listed 25 such quests.
I am trying to make something very odd in my own opinion, along with the lack of experience, and I am finding it difficult to draw conclusions from other game references for some of its parts. Side content apart from the quests listed above will take significantly longer to complete then the quests on the main story line.
Also working on this without any deadlines.
Some variables I can come up with are,
*the number of quests on the main storyline
*the time I would prefer each quest to last for
*the number of hours I want out of each side content
grindalf
3556
you still need to say what style of game. 2d overhead action could be Zelda style(a small world where you revisit the same areas) secret of mana style where you virtually never revisit places and are on a constant huge adventure.
Will you have world maps like in the final fantasy games or will your areas be constantly normal size.
You also have to determine how long you want the game to take to play(for instance couple of hours like a very normal indie game or 20+ hours for a more professional feel)
If I was you I would be aiming for 20+ hours. This is the low end of the commercial rpg side of things.
you cant say how many quests without knowing storyline but I would say that each quest should be 15 minutes to 45 minutes long.
So you have 20+ quests with that kind of timeframe that gives time to travel to the next location and storyline bits in between to get you up to the 20+ hour mark.
Will you have world maps like in the final fantasy games or will your areas be constantly normal size.
You also have to determine how long you want the game to take to play(for instance couple of hours like a very normal indie game or 20+ hours for a more professional feel)
If I was you I would be aiming for 20+ hours. This is the low end of the commercial rpg side of things.
you cant say how many quests without knowing storyline but I would say that each quest should be 15 minutes to 45 minutes long.
So you have 20+ quests with that kind of timeframe that gives time to travel to the next location and storyline bits in between to get you up to the 20+ hour mark.
author=grindalf
So you have 20+ quests with that kind of timeframe that gives time to travel to the next location and storyline bits in between to get you up to the 20+ hour mark.
Thank you for your reply grindalf. But I am not sure what you mean by this last line.
With 25 quests and a minimum of 15mins spent on each it should take the player roughly 6.25hrs to do all the main quests except for the final quest.
13.75 hrs will need to be filled by everything else for the 20 hour mark.
This is what I understood.
grindalf
3556
I said 15 to 45 mins per quest. at 45 mins plus traveling time and story time that gets you 20 hours(People very rarely finish quests in the minimum time. Especially the first time they try that quest)
Although now I read your question again I think I understand what you are asking.
You don't really want advice, You want to know what other people do.
My game is procedurally generated so for the most part I don't have massive control over most aspects in my game. I have been setting up a collection of story quests though that link over to each other(you cannot take the next quest until the last has been finished) I have a few filler quests in this story quest section that have a number of tasks to do(for instance help 10 villagers) if my game is running a bit short I can just lengthen all of these tasks by a few numbers(help 15 villagers) to get an extra hour of gameplay in there(Its a bit of a cheap tactic I know) I cant help you with maps ect because my game is procedural.
Although now I read your question again I think I understand what you are asking.
You don't really want advice, You want to know what other people do.
My game is procedurally generated so for the most part I don't have massive control over most aspects in my game. I have been setting up a collection of story quests though that link over to each other(you cannot take the next quest until the last has been finished) I have a few filler quests in this story quest section that have a number of tasks to do(for instance help 10 villagers) if my game is running a bit short I can just lengthen all of these tasks by a few numbers(help 15 villagers) to get an extra hour of gameplay in there(Its a bit of a cheap tactic I know) I cant help you with maps ect because my game is procedural.
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