Locations

No matter what system it was for,  or how old it is, or how it was created, all RPGs share a vital element: maps. Because of their importance, this is an element of the game that the developer usually spends a great deal of time working on. No matter how well-written it is or how good the graphics are, maps are going to have a big influence on players opinion of your game.

Let's take this for example:

On the left is a screenshot of how I originally designed an in-game forest. It is literally a tiled screen with a path through it. On the right is the final version of that same forest after it had been revised several times. It took a much bigger effort, but I'm much happier with the result that I'd have been if I just half-assed it and called it a day.

That isn't to say that maps have to be super complicated to have any degree of quality to them. On the left is a shot of Ami's hometown Vhespia. It's nothing fancy or complex, but it still serves its purpose just fine.

The fact that it doesn't have 50 stores or an extreme amount of detail doesn't make it poor quality or badly designed. Vhespia is a very poor village, so it makes sense that it would be small in size and not have much to offer.










In contrast to this, Megarah (shown here) has numerous points of interest and offers things small villages like Vhespia don't. Even though Megarah has a far bigger map than Vhespia, it too was designed simply and straightforward.

The reason for that is I didn't want players to have to run around and scour the entire city looking for something that I could have easily placed in a more obvious location. It frustrates everyone when this happens, so I wanted to try and prevent or reduce as much of it as possible.

This same reasoning applies to dungeons, but to a lesser degree. Some of LifeWeaveRs dungeons are simple to navigate whereas others can be an outright pain in the ass. The one thing they all have in common is I tried to find a balance between difficulty and frustration level. If the dungeon is too complex players may get frustrated and quit. If it is too easy, they may get bored and quit.

I decided not to post any screenshots of the dungeons, as I felt that the game would be more enjoyable if players explored it for themselves instead of just following a picture.

Well, I guess just one would be fine.