Adventure Forums - View Single Post - Game-design: Open or narrow START of a game?

Mad Manny · 01-13-2012, 06:30 AM

I think we all like our adventure-games to be "open" (meaning for example a whole city to explore, 3 simultanious paths/trials etc) rather than narrow (only ever one objective at the time, usually constraint to a small area), but what about the BEGINNING of a game?

Do you prefer it when you start out with a narrow objective/area first and only after solving that are you allowed to step into the open part of the world?

Examples.
Curse of Monkey Island: Starts out locked on a ship, you first have to solve puzzles to get out of here before you arrive on the island (where things get really open).

Secret of Monkey Island: You are quickly presented with your THREE trials, and now you have the entire island to explore (apart from a few tiny obsticles).

Personally I've always advocated starting extremely narrow, so that the player feels like he's achieved something before throwing him into a big area where he could potentially be walking around for 30 minutes speaking to ppl without feeling like he's achieving anything, also starting really narrow makes the open part feel even more open, kind of like how most church-interiors feels really large because you first have to pass through a narrow entrance to get into it.
But lately I'm starting to change my mind, at least in theory I'm feeling like I just want to jump into the immersive open aspect and just walk around and talk to a few people to feel the atmosphere before I get cracking on solving anything.

01-13-2012, 06:30 AM	#1
Mad Manny Member Join Date: Oct 2011 Posts: 30	Game-design: Open or narrow START of a game? I think we all like our adventure-games to be "open" (meaning for example a whole city to explore, 3 simultanious paths/trials etc) rather than narrow (only ever one objective at the time, usually constraint to a small area), but what about the BEGINNING of a game? Do you prefer it when you start out with a narrow objective/area first and only after solving that are you allowed to step into the open part of the world? Examples. Curse of Monkey Island: Starts out locked on a ship, you first have to solve puzzles to get out of here before you arrive on the island (where things get really open). Secret of Monkey Island: You are quickly presented with your THREE trials, and now you have the entire island to explore (apart from a few tiny obsticles). Personally I've always advocated starting extremely narrow, so that the player feels like he's achieved something before throwing him into a big area where he could potentially be walking around for 30 minutes speaking to ppl without feeling like he's achieving anything, also starting really narrow makes the open part feel even more open, kind of like how most church-interiors feels really large because you first have to pass through a narrow entrance to get into it. But lately I'm starting to change my mind, at least in theory I'm feeling like I just want to jump into the immersive open aspect and just walk around and talk to a few people to feel the atmosphere before I get cracking on solving anything.