Why do games tend to stick to the same environments?

[lixerman99]

Why DO games generally stick to the same environments? Which of these locations seem a little familiar... 


- Dusty middle-eastern towns


- Generic grass fields/hills


- Modern Towns


- Factories


- Sewers


Is it just me that thinks we really need some more damn locations? How much I want to see more games based in deserts and proper tropical environments. Why do games (especially RPG's which have the ability to truly make this locations filled with awesome stuff to explore) seem to have a phobia of this?

 

[Shaz]

I've moved this thread to General Discussion (Video Games is to discuss specific games). Please be sure to post your threads in the correct forum next time. Thank you.

 

[Hudell]

I don't think deserts are underused in rpgs.

 

[lixerman99]

I don't think deserts are underused in rpgs.

What RPG's could you suggest that have large desert areas? Or do you just think deserts are boring?

 

[Alexander Amnell]

What RPG's could you suggest that have large desert areas? Or do you just think deserts are boring?

   Golden sun, most final fantasies, the earlier elder scrolls games, wasteland, fallout, the amber throne, multiple dragon quests, wild arms, borderlands, the last remnants, secret of mana and on and on the list can go. Deserts are definitely not underrepresented (and neither are tropical environments really, though rpgmaker specifically does seem to suffer from a lack of available tiles in that biome compared to others) in rpgs.

 

[lixerman99]

   Golden sun, most final fantasies, the earlier elder scrolls games, wasteland, fallout, the amber throne, multiple dragon quests, wild arms, borderlands, the last remnants, secret of mana and on and on the list can go. Deserts are definitely not underrepresented (and neither are tropical environments really, though rpgmaker specifically does seem to suffer from a lack of available tiles in that biome compared to others) in rpgs.

I stand corrected, I guess. I suppose i'm just not finding these games for some reason - i'll check out your list, thanks.

 

[cekobico]

FFXII has Dalmasca Westersand and Estersand. The main city is even located in between it. 

 

[judgemental]

lack of imagination, i suppose.

 

[Valryia]

There is a upper limit on how much you can weird out your audience. A certain degree of familiarity is neccesary.

 

[Andar]

A lot of reasons - one of them being that you need to get the graphic resources for everything (a completely new environment is a lot of work for even a group of artists), the need to store the tilesets inside your game (either to keep download size small, or because a game cartridge with more memory is more expensive in production) and the need to map everything and more.

 

[Henryetha]

The game size is a big problem here.


I don't like to make compromises because of the game's size and I also think, for a deep game immersion and to provide the best possible experience an amount of resources is just necessary..


On the other side.. nowadays the majority of people use to have fast internet + 500GB minimum disk space.. and if you don't upload your game on a garbage server, downloading - let's say 2 GB - should happen in a few minutes.


Sure there are locations, where download speed is still an issue, but the future trend goes to faster internet in general (and everywhere) and I think it's just a matter of time.


Of course the game itself needs to be worth it.


And it depends individually like.. how many hours of gameplay a game generally provides.


So with short games one actually hardly as any other choice than to stick to a few environments.


However, on larger projects this shouldn't be an issue imho.

 

[lixerman99]

The game size is a big problem here.


I don't like to make compromises because of the game's size and I also think, for a deep game immersion and to provide the best possible experience an amount of resources is just necessary..


On the other side.. nowadays the majority of people use to have fast internet + 500GB minimum disk space.. and if you don't upload your game on a garbage server, downloading - let's say 2 GB - should happen in a few minutes.


Sure there are locations, where download speed is still an issue, but the future trend goes to faster internet in general (and everywhere) and I think it's just a matter of time.


Of course the game itself needs to be worth it.


And it depends individually like.. how many hours of gameplay a game generally provides.


So with short games one actually hardly as any other choice than to stick to a few environments.


However, on larger projects this shouldn't be an issue imho.

Very right but my original comment was less about 1 game have every environment ever and more about different games having varied environments even if each game stuck to a few or even just 1 like many do

 

[noctiluca]

I think some people just get too caught up in the RPG tradition when designing their games. It's not even something most people think about, it's kind of like how if you ask someone to draw a cloud they will draw a round white scalloped thing (generic cumulus). Pretty much everyone can recognize it as a cloud, but in reality there are so many different types. It's the same as landscapes, people have this generic idea of what "forest" or "grassy field" looks like and work from there instead of researching real-life locations for inspiration. There are dozens of types of forests and a field could be anything from farmland to a savanna.


Either that or they are using premade graphic packs and are limited to what's available in that market. In that case even if they wanted to do something very different, they'd be limited to what they can actually use.

 

[Feenick]

I'd say that it's because of the ease of designing/mapping out those generic areas that allows them to persist.


Let's say you want to make a forest. Of course, there's various types of forests, but let's narrow it down to a short list:


-generic RPG forest


-'realistic' forest [lots of leaves on the ground, etc.]


-hilly forest


-puzzlewood


Of the four here, the first is obviously the easiest to design; just throw some trees down on some grass in a vaguely mazelike pattern, maybe throwing in a river, and you're good to go. Actual forests are a bit more complex like that, obviously; you'd have to put down some leaf matter where the trees are [and those trees would definitely wouldn't be the default RPG Maker ones], various types of undergrowth to prevent players from wondering too far off, and paths to show where to actually go, but beyond that it wouldn't be a exorbitant amount of effort.


Hilly forests would be where it starts getting dicey. I can't say I've played an RPG that's done that sort of environment decently [please give me examples of this sort of stuff]. In addition to all the stuff above, you'd also have to show changes in elevation; cliffs, but also gradual rises, streams with many small waterfalls, and so on. I wouldn't wish the task of making a puzzlewood-like map of any decent size on my enemies, seeing how it's the sort of environment that actively resists implementation via 2d tiles (and I doubt parallax mapping would deal with the problem of moving through such a forest). Sure, it could be done - but would you want to spend a huge amount of time on what would end up being a relatively small area? 


This problem extends to plenty of other area types as well; as areas get more 'interesting', they also get far more difficult to lay out, draw, and build. When you have an RPG's worth of areas to do that for, you don't want to spend all your time on a single portion of the game, unless that area is absurdly more important than any other area in the game (unlikely).


The problem isn't one of lack of creativity: the problem is that of implementation. 

 

[BigToastie]

The issue is limitations of resources, its easier to create forests and tundras with the default resources on MV over deserts, as you want additional graphics (such as animal bones, different layers to create dunes etc.


Its about the detail, you dont just want a field of sand to represent a desert. 


I will eventually hit this issue and will figure out the best way to approach this but, not got to create the desert areas for awhile yet ) hehe