Question about continuity between maps...

[Hayden]

Alright, I'm not sure if this questions is going to make sense, so apologies in advance.

I've got most of this short narrative game all blocked in. I haven't done all the art yet, but I'm using a few different packs to block things in how I want them.

One thing I'm wondering about is how important it is to have continuity between different maps.

This game is all set on a space ship. It's got some different bedrooms for the crew members, a cockpit area, a cargo hold, engine room, etc.

So, at the moment, to get to the engine room, you have to south to the door. It then transitions to the new map. In the new map, the player is standing at the top of the room, looking down, which makes sense right?

But would it be bad to have it so instead the player came out at the bottom or side of the room or something?

With this engine room for example, if the player came out at the southern end of the room, I'd then be able to show more of the front of the engine asset I'm doing for that room. Obviously, from a continuity point of view, that doesn't make sense.

Just wondering what you guys would do here.

 

[Finnuval]

But would it be bad to have it so instead the player came out at the bottom or side of the room or something?

yes it would as the player would likely still be pressing the arrow key to move and thus immediately head back out...and that gets annoying fast!
I would instead move around the location of your maps. You want to show of the engine room? Have it in the North so players anter it from the south (or to the side and enter west or east).

That's my two cents anyway

 

[Andar]

it largely depends on how you setup your game, but as said the player needs to be able to navigate without problems.

However there are a lot of ways to go around correctly - not only resorting the rooms, also don't forget that a spaceship may have more then one floor - so instead of the player leaving through the bottom side, place an elevator there and have the exit to the elevator be on the south end of the engine floor below.

 

[MushroomCake28]

My two colleges above me have good points.

In other words, you game can work differently than other games, but what is important is that the whole game is coherent and intuitive. Even if the movement between maps is different from other games, as long as the player gets it it's alright.

Example: You could have a room in which if a player goes completely left, he will appear on the right of the room. Teleporting to the opposite side is intuitive. The opposite of intuitive (and bad case) would be to have the teleports completely random and no coherence between them.

 

[Wavelength]

Generally better to transition to the same direction when possible to prevent disorientation, but it's not a bad crime to do it differently sometimes.

Lots of professional games do it, and while it might misdirect the player and force them to accidentally backtrack a screen, it usually won't be a bother beyond that. So if you have a room where it's important that's important to view from the "bottom" side followed by one that's important to view from the "top" side, it's OK to violate the order of where you'd go in and come out, but it would probably be even better to use a solution like @Andar's and use an elevator or staircase for the transition there instead.

Except where I make the occasional hard cut (e.g. transitioning between the entrance to and the inside of a cave), I try my best to make the transition between maps completely seamless in my game - which means I duplicate the final 6-7 tiles (on the top and bottom edges of the screen) and the final 8-9 (on the left and right edges of the screen), and I avoid putting any moving events in the final 17x13 edge of any map unless I can know for certain where they will be (to duplicate them on the next map). With no transition animation, it's hard to even tell that you've changed maps.

 

[Hayden]

yes it would as the player would likely still be pressing the arrow key to move and thus immediately head back out...and that gets annoying fast!
I would instead move around the location of your maps. You want to show of the engine room? Have it in the North so players anter it from the south (or to the side and enter west or east).

That's my two cents anyway

Oh, yeah, I forgot about players still holding the button. That'd be annoying.

I was thinking of just moving around the location of the map, but I wanted the cockpit to be shown from the bottom. Guess I'd ahve to pick.

it largely depends on how you setup your game, but as said the player needs to be able to navigate without problems.

However there are a lot of ways to go around correctly - not only resorting the rooms, also don't forget that a spaceship may have more then one floor - so instead of the player leaving through the bottom side, place an elevator there and have the exit to the elevator be on the south end of the engine floor below.

An elevator or even some stairs is probably a good idea.