The Meaning of Life, the Universe, and Everything.
Join Date:
7/5/2015
Posts:
44
Member Details
im looking for some advice, mainly for things like Scale and duration, when map making. By that i mean how do you know how big is to big? and how do you make a map that isnt completed in 5 minutes...
Im building a dungeon campaign (for people who dont play D&D, a Campaign is an adventure planned by a Dungeon Master and played by adventurers) The campaign consists of many trials, mini boss fights, puzzles, some parkour (if you can call it that...) but mainly it makes you and your team mates run as a team, many of the trials cannot be completed solo.
Here is the problem im facing... i recently finished a first draft... an Alpha version of the campaign, me and 2 of my buddy's finished it in 5 minutes...made a second version of it, made bridges longer, bosses harder, trials more treacherous but my friends said it was just... boring walking down long bridges and hallways and fighting the same boss for 10/15 minutes just for everyone to die and have to start the fight all over again.
so i want the map to be big and epic, but if its too big, itll be boring if its to small you run through it withing 10 minutes... i want the entire raid to run at least 30 minutes to complete (with a good team 45-60 minutes for a bad team) so any advice for how big i should make it?
Variety is the spice of life? Surely a different challenge around every corner can't be boring, though you do have to make sure that the amount of content isn't overwhelming. I'd try to find some kind of balance between familiarity and interesting challenges so that things don't get monotonous.
Also completely unrelated to that I would recommend watching some of the game design stuff on youtube, most of the high level stuff applies here. Mark Brown has a series called game maker's toolkit that seems to be well researched and covers some good concepts, it's interesting if nothing else. Sometimes I'll listen to a podcast called The Game Design Round Table, they generally have a guest on and talk about their career and current projects, sometimes they do episodes on more specific concepts and the occasional q&a episode. I've got a lot of ideas rolling around in my head spawned from listening to it, I'd recommend it.
Maybe that's helpful advice, hopefully you'll get something out of those who know more than I do.
It doesn't have to be a large map to be a long map. I build similar maps to yours but in stages. The first stage is a survival island with a village. The main campaign is to find the witches lair and return the treasure to the chief. I make this challenge by hiding resources around the island that when found, will equip you for conple a mini dungeon. The reward from the mini dungeon is put into a chest in the village, sorted by hoppers into a 'correct' or 'incorrect' triggering either a fail message or a success message, with a reward. The reward is more reaources that then help the adventurer reach the underground witches lair. In there, I have all my parkour/puzzles/traps and boss fight etc. The whole map is set on one small island (seed: mosquito) and takes about 4-6 hours to finish
The Meaning of Life, the Universe, and Everything.
Join Date:
7/5/2015
Posts:
44
Member Details
this... doesn't really help, i understand it doesn't have to be a big map, i want it to be as visually amazing as something holding a god-slaying beast (which is what youll be fighting as the end boss)
The Meaning of Life, the Universe, and Everything.
Join Date:
7/5/2015
Posts:
44
Member Details
not really looking for ideas for the dungeon trials, but the idea is appreciated. im more looking for general idea for some intermediate concepts of map building
im looking for some advice, mainly for things like Scale and duration, when map making. By that i mean how do you know how big is to big? and how do you make a map that isnt completed in 5 minutes...
Im building a dungeon campaign (for people who dont play D&D, a Campaign is an adventure planned by a Dungeon Master and played by adventurers) The campaign consists of many trials, mini boss fights, puzzles, some parkour (if you can call it that...) but mainly it makes you and your team mates run as a team, many of the trials cannot be completed solo.
Here is the problem im facing... i recently finished a first draft... an Alpha version of the campaign, me and 2 of my buddy's finished it in 5 minutes...made a second version of it, made bridges longer, bosses harder, trials more treacherous but my friends said it was just... boring walking down long bridges and hallways and fighting the same boss for 10/15 minutes just for everyone to die and have to start the fight all over again.
so i want the map to be big and epic, but if its too big, itll be boring if its to small you run through it withing 10 minutes... i want the entire raid to run at least 30 minutes to complete (with a good team 45-60 minutes for a bad team) so any advice for how big i should make it?
Variety is the spice of life? Surely a different challenge around every corner can't be boring, though you do have to make sure that the amount of content isn't overwhelming. I'd try to find some kind of balance between familiarity and interesting challenges so that things don't get monotonous.
Also completely unrelated to that I would recommend watching some of the game design stuff on youtube, most of the high level stuff applies here. Mark Brown has a series called game maker's toolkit that seems to be well researched and covers some good concepts, it's interesting if nothing else. Sometimes I'll listen to a podcast called The Game Design Round Table, they generally have a guest on and talk about their career and current projects, sometimes they do episodes on more specific concepts and the occasional q&a episode. I've got a lot of ideas rolling around in my head spawned from listening to it, I'd recommend it.
Maybe that's helpful advice, hopefully you'll get something out of those who know more than I do.
It doesn't have to be a large map to be a long map. I build similar maps to yours but in stages. The first stage is a survival island with a village. The main campaign is to find the witches lair and return the treasure to the chief. I make this challenge by hiding resources around the island that when found, will equip you for conple a mini dungeon. The reward from the mini dungeon is put into a chest in the village, sorted by hoppers into a 'correct' or 'incorrect' triggering either a fail message or a success message, with a reward. The reward is more reaources that then help the adventurer reach the underground witches lair. In there, I have all my parkour/puzzles/traps and boss fight etc. The whole map is set on one small island (seed: mosquito) and takes about 4-6 hours to finish
This is just a small idea but you could have parkour which must be completed while being shot at be skeletons.
Just curious, that's all.
thanks ill look em up
this... doesn't really help, i understand it doesn't have to be a big map, i want it to be as visually amazing as something holding a god-slaying beast (which is what youll be fighting as the end boss)
not really looking for ideas for the dungeon trials, but the idea is appreciated. im more looking for general idea for some intermediate concepts of map building