[BRAINSTORMING] 2D - Character not moving, which system would you prefer?

Kaemalux

Hi again! My game is at a certain point where i need to take an important decision: i would like to have the character not moving, it would save me a lot of issue (fuzzy movements, collisions, touch inputs...) and it would be simpler to play. The problem is how would you think this could be achievable. A system like Knight of Pen and Paper (nice mobile game), the player simply arrives at locations and HUD pops to decide if he needs to rest / purchase items / upgrades equipments / do quests... In other zones it can battle, spawning the party. This setting is both fantastic and simple in my opinion (as the game itself) but it shows without any secrets / tricks what its happening, so i would like something more enjoyable. Currently, i made town maps with nodes that are clickable (not all the map itself) and if the player click on a node, the player moves there: if there is a npc or an house or something else with whom interact, event pops up. I am quite satisfied, but honestly not showing nodes to the player could be annoying, forcing him to click every place to see if the party can move there. On the other hand, i tried to add a graphical spot for nodes, but it seems quite ugly: every spot has a mark where a player can click, this way you know where you can move, but this both makes the map not so good-looking either makes a mess about secrets spot: the player cannot know, if not by pure luck, if there is a non-marked spot in the map where he could move. ^^ So, basically, i am asking your opinion about this. :) Have you got any ideas about how to set it up? How would you achieve a static map without being too complex or too difficult to discover? Any suggestion is very appreciated!

Thanks! ^_^

gamingislove

What's your target platform? There are different options based on the used platform :) E.g. on PC/Mac, you can use mouse over effects to let the player know there's an interaction or move target available. On mobile, that's not really possible, but you could slightly highlight possible click targets instead of having ugly spots on them. Another option would be displaying names for the locations you can move to, while hidden locations wouldn't have them and the player needs to find them by clicking.

Can you post example images?

Kaemalux

Sure. Here it is my current setup. :) Gray spots are clickable ones, and some of them, like the one the player is on (exclamation mark is interaction), could trigger an event / a shop / a dialogue. ^^ This way you know what is clickable, and the camera follows you instantly when you move (so you can have a large map without a bad zooming), but as you can see: 1) you can understand immediately where to go, but i think its quite ugly. ^^ 2) secret spots are difficult to unveil ^^ Any suggestion. ^^

gamingislove

Hm, yeah ... I think it would work, if the spot graphic wouldn't be that ugly :D Try something else, e.g. smaller (without the ring around it) and with a different color. Secret spots could probably be added by having interesting/different graphics near them, e.g. a different kind of tree (that's not somewhere else on the screen) or an animal/NPC beside the road.

Kaemalux

Yeah, thanks for your feedback. :D Maybe i should make also the town smaller, so spot used only for moving are less, and the most of them are spot where you can trigger something. ^^ And i will try to use a better graphical mark, i will show you a new one to see if the ugliness has lowered a bit. :D