How many maps do I need?
I love making maps.
I love making them pretty and interesting and fun. I love editing the in game RTP to make the maps look and feel even better. I even bought MZ just because it had mapping layers! Full price, as soon as it came out!
Mapping is important to me for more than looks he game's looks. I use maps as part of my story plotting process.
When I start plotting the game's main goal, the main quests related to that goal, and any side quests, I always think with maps first. Side Quests are always opportunities to use maps to enhance the story.
My biggest challenge with maps is I want to make too many. Maps are the little darlings I need to kill and cull constantly. The world map that I have tossed together may change a few times, because as you can see I have villages. I want to make maps for all of the villages and all the farm land around the villages, and all of the land between that...
I want to map a whole continent! No! The Whole hemisphere! NO! The whole world! NO! THE WHOLE SOLAR SYSTEM!
Mapping and plotting go hand in hand for me, so when I get to excited I return to the plot - the main goal and the quests that facilitate it - and that helps me pull my self back from over mapping.
What, in the end, do I really need?
In the end that's the most important question I can ask about all parts of this game, not just the maps.
I want to have exploration and little hidden gems to discover, but I need to keep my plot tight and flowing. I want moments in maps where nothing happens. The Japanese call it "ma". But I also want to keep things moving when they need too.
How many maps do I really need?
I have no idea how many I will eventually need. I know that anyone can make a game with just one map but this won't be that kind of game.
I am excited to find out how many maps I do actually end up with!
What about you? Do you enjoy mapping? Have you ever found your self making too many? Not enough? What is your favorite part of mapping? What's the worst part for you?
~Me
The Big Learning Game
Time to learn things!
| Status | Released |
| Author | TTSnim |
| Genre | Adventure, Role Playing |
| Tags | RPG Maker, Singleplayer |
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Comments
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42.
Jokes aside, I find it’s best to not worry about the number of maps, but number of key points in the game first. Establish your bare-minimum critical path (shortest, most direct path from beginning to end of the game), make a basic box map for each of those points, then make sure you can play from beginning to end with those basic maps.
Once that path is established, edit, improve, grow, and iterate on those maps as your game needs. If you need those maps to be larger, make them bigger! If you need to add more maps, add them! Let the needs of the game guide your development.
Another way of stating this advice can be found here: http://yanfly.moe/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/013.png
P.S. I highly recommend reading the complete comic that link comes from, it’s really solid advice for starting your game’s development in a way that will make the process more efficient: http://yanfly.moe/2017/01/07/comic-lets-make-a-game/
That's a very good idea. A proto game with nothing fancy will definitely help get things hammered out.
I recon if I wanted to get very simple I could stick the game on one big map, but that might be culling the chaos too much. ^_^
A comic about game making for game makers?
Seriously, thank you, I will read the comic and absorb it's knowledge.
Mapping is my favorite, but I recon I'll have to save it for dessert and do the meaty bits of plotting and eventing first!
Thank you very much for the comic and advice!
😎 You’re welcome!
The answer to that question usually depends on the scope of your project.. So I find it best to just start out with the minimum number for where you project is - in my project's case, a regional hub map, several buildings for the academy the characters are attending, the several neighboring towns around the academy, and those towns' most important landmarks.
Whether that's enjoyable or not depends on a few factors - what RM version you're using, how many events there are to track, what kind of puzzles you intend to be there, what bugs you're running into, and how many times you need to redo them just to name a few.
A minimum number is a very good Idea. As is estimating events and puzzles and the like! I'll have to do a bit more brain storming and give my self a rough estimate for those things.
I haven't yet given a lot of thought to puzzles, but I know I'll have quite a number of key events as well as battles. I can not even fathom the bugs I'm going to run into!
I'll probably have to cut back on events and battles as well. The more cutting I do on paper I think the less frustrated I'll be when it comes time to actually make the game.
I am Using MZ, so at the very least I have layers!
Thank you much for the ideas and advice!