Is the first enemy encounter area in your game a forest?

[stramin]

I just read a topic made on 2015 where a guy talk about this and I noticed that indeed, the first enemy encounter area in my game IS a forest, and also the first enemy encounter area in many RPG games I played.

This fact make me think I am not being enough creative in my game and I would like to know how many people in this forum is doing the same and get a real statistic about it.

--- edited ---

I changed all the following words: "map", "dungeon" and "monster area" for "enemy encounter area".

 

[Soulrender]

My first map starts in Academy where my main protagonist works, then in his House, third is forest.
(Maybe not exacly third, because each Main map is separated into smaller ones creating illusion walking on one map, divided by sections)

 

[Sleepy Kitten Games]

First map is kind of an island of sorts (albeit a really really small one), second is a village, third is inside a house in that village. After that, it depends on what the player decides to do. But eventually there's a forest in there, since the village is itself inside a forest.

 

[stramin]

My first map starts in Academy where my main protagonist works, then in his House, third is forest.
(Maybe not exacly third, because each Main map is separated into smaller ones creating illusion walking on one map, divided by sections)

Is then your first monster area a forest?

I think the academy and the house are not dungeons, right?

 

[Soulrender]

It's hard to say "monsters" because I took kinda different approach. My game sticks to fantasy style, where you can meet all kind DnD creatures, but they very rare, most of time you encounter regular animals, wich some of them are aggresive, neutral or coward toward player.

But generaly, yes, forest is a 1st type of map, where battles begin.

Edit: academy and house are regular indoor arrangements.

 

[wilpuri]

In my game project the first enemy encounter could be in forest, but it’s a side-thing. Following the story the player won’t get into a forest in while. Not sure actually yet if you can skip the woods completely.

But it is true that it’s easy to just do the things others do. My main ”dungeons” are mines. The game is set in a 1950’s small town, but the dungeon crawling aspect is very close to a standard fantasy game.

 

[matheus872]

The project i'm working now does'nt have monsters, the place of the confrontations depends to the choose history line...

But a farm, a kitchen and a laboratory are the maps.

 

[Milennin]

My RM2K game doesn't even have RPG type of encounters, and the majority of the game plays out inside a town.
My RM2K3 game starts on an airship, which serves as the tutorial area with some monsters appearing on it, but then crash lands in a forest, the game's first real dungeon.
For RTP, the first area with monsters is a town. There's not even a real forest map in the game.
For my other MV project, the first area with monsters is a forest dungeon.
My MZ project will be sort of a remake/reboot of my RM2K3 game, starting on the airship again, and then leading into a forest as its first dungeon.

Nothing wrong with forests as beginner areas. It never bothers me in any games I play.

 

[bgillisp]

Nope on any of my projects so far. My released game the first dungeon is a cave, with encounters there. My current game in progress the first encounter is on a beach.

 

[TheGentlemanLoser]

it's a sewer which is I'm pretty sure the modern/scifi equivalent of a forest, but not TECHNICALLY a literal forest

 

[Tiamat-86]

my 1st monster area is usually either plains or cave.
dungeon dividing 1st and 2nd town usually either mountain or forest though.

@TheGentlemanLoser i would classify sewers as a cave.. modern forest would be a park for large city or just going into the woods for a smaller town.

 

[GmOcean]

I'm in the early stages of my project, but currently no. In the future that may change with a high probability due to story direction.

The first few encounters the player would come across currently are all scripted and plot driven. But as far as random encounters go it's currently either open fields or mountainous area.

 

[TheGentlemanLoser]

well this is cyberpunk so the parks are crumbling graffiti-covered concrete wastelands full of rusting children's play equipment and collapsed gazebos patrolled by vicious, murderous drug-addled gangbangers...and if small towns w/ that much living greenery around them even exist, you don't get to visit any

 

[gstv87]

mine is a forest, but because it's an ambush.
the player is defending, and the enemy comes *to* them.

teeeeechnically it's not even the first encounter either, in both timeline and gameplay.
very first "encounter" of the gameplay would be a training room in a barrack.... very first "encounter" of the story, by timeline, would be an open field.

it's not less creative to start in a forest, or have the first encounter be in a forest, depending on the setting: if your main set is a city, most of the time there will be an area surrounding it where you would not see an enemy approaching, as opposed to on an open field.
that area will most likely be *a forest*..... for obvious reasons.

 

[CraneSoft]

I do use a literal forest in my urban fantasy game - in my third area. First area is a cavern.
Using non-forests as the first area doesn't make you creative, what matters is whether you can get creative on making said area so it is actually interesting to explore and doesn't feel like generic forest/sewer level #639.

 

[RCXDan]

Interesting question because I kinda fit it but also not really. In the first game I've ever made, you are ambushed by giant monsters in a forest-y grotto, but they're an unwinnable encounter you're meant to run from. The first actual playable map has you fighting puppets in an underground dungeon quite literally designed to teach new adventurers how dungeons work, so...

The second game I've made has you fight zombies spawning out of a church graveyard, but other than that no actual fighting in forests.

 

[Zia]

Mine starts on the subway, another by tripping into the closet and on another is when the protag sleeps.

 

[Aesica]

Mine starts off in a small cave in a town called Forest Glen, if that counts. But it's not really a woodland village so much as a small town with a big research facility in it. The first dungeon is a shrine and the second is a cave.

As it turns out, there's only one "foresty" dungeon map in the game and it's more of a mountainy forest than a true forest. Why? Because I [bad word here]ing hate mapping out forests.

 

[ImaginaryVillain]

First actual fight? Space around what amounts to a "Wonderland".

 

[PixeLockeT]

The game I'm making on RPG Maker right now is an online RPG, but none of the places players can choose to start at are forests, unless we change that. So far:

Players can start in a village with the castle nearby, and a lil fields area.
Players can start in an evil kingdom set under the water.

We do plan to add probably one more starting area.
So far none of the mainline beginning quests have players directed to the forest either.