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Building design in 2D

Discussion in 'Game Design' started by PuppyPolice, May 27, 2020.

  1. PuppyPolice

    PuppyPolice

    Joined:
    Oct 27, 2017
    Posts:
    116
    So I was thinking about how houses works in 2D in many games, where you have the house in say a square box kinda building, but once you enter it might be totally different in layout compared to how it looks on the outside, so the question became instead of switching scenes from a layout scene and a outside scene where you interact with the house, why not have the layout in the outside scene and only remove the roof so they layout is exactly as the house look at example down below,, left is a house and once you enter it changes to the layout on top so I was thinking what was the pros and cons with the both, I mean looking at the one with the layout at the same scene as the house, it makes me feel like it is more immersive feeling where you can just walking right in and the outside mirrors the inside but there must be a reason to why people build it like the the one on the left, so I was wondering design wise, what do you think the pros and cons of the different layouts are?



    Just looking at it quickly, the one on the right will make villages a lot larger since if it gonna follow they layout of the inside, houses are gonna take a lot more space, maybe it makes it easier to design the layout if you split em up into two different scenes, though I feel like it breaks immersion if you enter a small house and it is huge on the inside, honestly I was wondering what would make you choose one over the other, thoughts, ideas?
    edit: examples
     
    Last edited: May 27, 2020
  2. EternalAmbiguity

    EternalAmbiguity

    Joined:
    Dec 27, 2014
    Posts:
    3,144
    This "breaks immersion" only as much as it does for the village scene to be larger than it is on the world map.

    It's the same thing.
     
  3. Red-Owl-Games

    Red-Owl-Games

    Joined:
    Feb 4, 2015
    Posts:
    28
    This is very specific. :p

    "loading" option
    i this option was the default, but probably because of system resource/platform limitations, not because it is designwise necessarily better
    + allows for completely different layouts outside and inside, which can make sense because they're conceptually the same
    i I think this option better suits how people perceive spaces. When you're inside, your movement options are more limited, as such, you tend to perceive everything in greater detail. When outside, you move faster (e.g. walking/running). If you were to put a sidewalk into your kitchen, it would seem disproportionally large, while outside it's simply a path to walk on.
    - you have to keep yourself in check and not make a crazy large interior space
    + you can make a surreal large interior space, which is a cool effect.

    "remove roof" option
    + nice surprise effect where you can peek into houses and immediately see what's inside
    + would allow you to quickly guess at a buildings function by looking at the general layout
    - when changing the inside, you have to take the outside size into account and vice versa

    Anyway, I think that as always, it depends on what effect you want to achieve for the player's experience. Generally speaking I think the "loading" option offers more flexibility, as you can don't have to pay attention to layout that much.
     
  4. PuppyPolice

    PuppyPolice

    Joined:
    Oct 27, 2017
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    116
    I "might" be thinking of which one I should use. :p

    I agree that loading option gives you a lot more wiggle room to tailor make the players experience and honestly while thinking and coding it all, makes it easier to mix and match different layouts since you do not have to consider how the house looks on the outside you just change a string and boom same house different layout.

    Though the issue I have is how other people experience it, I know most gamers born in the final fantasy 1 - 6 era are used to it since that was the default back in they day and realize part of the reason was also to save space, every byte counted back in those days so having building the size of the indoor layout might not always be feasible and with generation they really made some amazing things with what they had, still very nostalgic over the whole thing but now a days we got processing power and storage space up the wazzo space is not an issue.

    Though the issue for me is then, now with all that extra memory space, would people prefer to make building more inline with the sizes they are pictured as, how would people react to it, myself I still have a preference for the loading type, but I think it has a bit to do with nostalgia, if we removed nostalgia how would people perceive the differences, I mean both would work in a game and could look great but what pro and cons would each approach have, what are the pros and cons for gamers how do they perceive it, so many questions!
     
  5. Red-Owl-Games

    Red-Owl-Games

    Joined:
    Feb 4, 2015
    Posts:
    28
    Well, the only way to know how 'people' perceive this is to test it (with your target audience)! Kind of a showstopper but if you don't take that as an ultimate test it's all just speculation.