OCEAN'S PROFILE

Alright, if you're up for it, you can give this a shot.
http://rpgmaker.net/games/3470/

It's short (probably not longer than 2 hours if you do everything in it) and isn't far from that type of game.

But no one is arguing that. Yes, it's okay for there to exist a graphical map of the world or at least the area taking place, and all of those do it in different ways, from selecting your area to flying to it or whatever. What we're arguing is this:

You know the classical Final Fantasy/other jrpg deal, the worldmap(The huge map that you walk across to get places). Your sprite is usually small, and you travel across some expansive map to get from place to place...
Do YOU like that?

Worldmap that we walk through to get places, as in Traditional RPG overworld style, usually fighting random encounters and going across to find the next dungeon.

I actually hate traditional RPG world maps. I really liked Secret of Manas way of doing it, and I find the only times I do enjoy world maps more is when you have freedom to fly around. Flammies theme was just really memorable. If world maps are there so you can have easy access to the points you've been to or something, no problem. However, if they are a bunch of walking with random encounters where the goal is "find the next area" in a huge open field, then I just get bored. Especially if they look like this:

With just grass, forest tile, mountains, water, and random encounters all over. Seeing the actual places is far preferable because there's actual variety and each place will more or less have its own look.

If anything, at least Chrono Trigger didn't have encounters in their worldmap.

. Final Fantasy 10 is a prime example of why I feel games without an overworld are too linear. That entire game it felt like you were just running in a straight line.

It wasn't because you had no overworld that you felt you were running in a straight line. It was because... you WERE running in a straight line. Had there been a greater freedom of exploration within the maps themselves (and not just one big open area), some choices of things you can do before you move on, perhaps even different optional areas to visit if you'd like, then it wouldn't need an overworld to try to hide the fact that it was in fact linear.

author=DorianDawes
I always find it slightly comical when you can enter random people's houses and loot through their belongings. Yes, this man is a great hero and all and fights for the people, while helping himself to their shit. Though I do enjoy a bit of exploration. I think the best way to probably get around the silliness of entering in random houses at will would be to find a way to work the gameplay mechanics into the storyline.

Also, I'm not too sure if I like the idea of coloring all entry doors a certain way and giving the player that code, it detracts from the immersion level, and reminds you that you are indeed playing a game. Sometimes, it's just better not knowing. Yes, it may be inconvenient to the player, but life is inconvenient. We don't always know which doors we're allowed to randomly break in, now do we? We just have to barge in and try it.

Now that would be interesting, make a game where when you break into someone else's house, you actually get arrested for it.

Menus and bars, small characters with SNES graphics, and numbers don't detract from the immersion level, but a simple way for the player to instantly tell if a door is locked or not will? I don't think it's necessarily how "realistic" it is for it to be immersive. I guess if you paint neon green on the doors then it would, but not if you're just adhering to strict rules about how the game works. If a door is dark brown, it can't be opened. If it's light brown, it can be, for a small example. That way, if you just always 100% keep to that rule, the player will never have to think about it again, unless they're curious and want to make sure that rule always holds. You don't even have to tell them that it's a rule, just put a mandatory area where those 2 door types are present and they'll figure it out soon, as long as again you never break that rule. I would go even further and have like a chain lock or something so they don't even have to wonder. It's not even the only way to do it, it's just an example of something you can do to have players easily recognize what you can/can't enter without having to waste their time. You can have it set up so the door graphic looks faded and blended into the background be locked, and some doors that really pop out be openable too perhaps.

Games are built on rules. This is why players get frustrated if a developer breaks one. For example, this bird hurts you, and you avoid all birds from then on. Then, you have one bird that looks just like it much later on and it's never hinted at being special, but suddenly that bird you need to touch to teleport to the next area. Or another one, where desks never have anything in them, and suddenly the game without a clue given to you, expects you to search an ordinary desk in some other house in another town for a key. That will get players stuck for quite a while.

I disagree on the houses not having doors at all if they aren't to be entered. Not strongly, but just somewhat. Sometimes it really is just there to show that this town has more than 3 shops and a mayors house in it. Make houses/doors inaccessible is fine, make some doors not visible is fine, but you do that too much and players might instead wonder how NPCs get inside their own houses. "What, do they enter from the window or something?". I guess it's also a fault for those who make their towns 300x300 and just plop the player there and tell them to look for x house without any way of knowing where it is. Or you can make towns pretty small and have the player explore all of it and have something, at least interesting NPCs/some items reward for doing so.

author=kentona
Pfffttt quit agonizing over this. It is a 10 day project. 10 days!! That alone is an accomplishment and a worthwhile learning experience.

You done good.

Yeah, actually the intent was not agonizing it. I'm thinking of it differently. Like, I've learned so much from when I started, that using plans from when I started ended up being not as good as I thought. It is obvious but I think it shows how much I changed from when I started. I did mention that it was a good learning experience, I just don't think it was too much other than a dungeon crawler really. I guess I didn't have time to do more than that.