Closed corridors vs Open world. What is better?

News & General Discussion
1

Hello, I would like to start this discussion. I am working on this FPS game and would really appreciate some hints on this, what do you think is better to do, closed corridors or open world? I am talking both about procedural generation and manual building of the world.

Which one is easier to make?
Which is easier on performance?

And in matter of Survival FPS game, do you believe that corridors might be a bad idea or it will boring compared to open world.

Those are the major questions but I am open to any other points you might have.

2

Easier on performance : Closed Corridors.
Easier to make : this one really depends on the amount of detail you put in, overall i would say closed corridors.

But really - isnt this obvious?

3

It is, even to me a total beginner. But I wanted to be absolutely sure. I am working on my Dream.
Don’t want to leave anything to coincidence. Thank you for your reply.

4

At this point I was thinking “Ooh! A real game-design question we can sink our teeth into!”

…followed rapidly by “Doh!”

:wink:

5

I edited my original post to avoid these kind of disappointments, I would also like to know if my design has a chance to be played. :slight_smile:

6

All designs have a chance to be played, if you post a prototype. You might even get constructive feedback - on this forum, it’s a 100% chance.

Which one is easier to make? Mu. Which one is easier for you to make? Do you have a lot of coding experience? Are you strong at 3D art?

Even with that, remember - this is the game design forum. While you have to build it, think of how your player will approach their time in your dream. What do you want them to experience, and - most importantly - why? What are they going to get out of it?

Finally, a resource as far as procedural generation is concerned:

7

Yeah, truth is that I am beginner in everything, 3D art, coding, audio and even design. But I work on myself really hard and doing some progress.

All I want now is someone to discuss my ideas and listen feedback on them. If it is viable or not.

8

if you are completely new, maybe you should take the FPS Template, then replace elements by your own, bit by bit, then examine how code is set up and start making changes step by step…

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9

Well, at the moment I am trying to make the multiplayer work. Next up is to start the work on character itself and Inventory system which proves to be the most difficult so far.

I have UFPS assets but I am not sure if I will use it. It’s not really made for UNET.

10

Well, the real thing to consider is the design of your game, and what you’re trying to achieve. Closed corridors and open-worlds are two different tools, and should be applied differently based on various considerations. It’s more of an apples and oranges scenario. One is not better than the other, as both are quite different.

In terms of your initial two questions, I think the answer is obvious. Closed corridors are easier to make, and they are better for performance. Closed corridors are just inherently more limited than open worlds. Their scale is smaller. This makes them easier/faster to construct, and makes for much shorter draw distances, which benefits performance considerably. Again, this doesn’t make them better, it simply highlights some of the advantages that they enjoy due to their nature.

11

As a vivid FPS player, I personally dislike closed corridors, otherwise known as fatal funnels. Strafing is ineffective, it becomes impossible to flank enemies, and of course it makes it harder to find cover as the options are really limited. I guess if you’re going for something like an original Doom style it would be alright.

12

If you’re still new to everything, why are you starting on your “dream” game?

Anyway, short answer: Corridors are easier. Easier to make, easier to design, easier to implement.

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13

I don’t want a small corridors where you can’t really strafe or dodge at all everywhere. And if you can’t flank enemy, it’s just flat out stupid design. I am not aiming for open wide location, but also not for narrow long corridors.

Yes, I am pretty new to everything. But I work a lot to learn as much as I can. I do it as hobby alongside with work so I don’t hesitate to revisit any areas. I did some super small projects and now I am doing my best on this one. If I’ll come up with idea on some simple but fun game that is not just copy of already existing one, I’ll gladly postpone this project to gain more experiences.

14

Yeah I wound up postponing my “Dream” project to gain experience on a smaller title as well. We gotta learn to walk before we can sprint you know?

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15

Yes, I would like to do that as well. But I don’t have any idea for smaller project.
Besides I have 2 dream projects in mind, one in smaller closed corridors and one in big open world, so this stupidly huge project is already the easier one :slight_smile:

“Aim for the moon and you might hit a star” :slight_smile:

16

agreed,
but in your case, just start with the base game mechanics, player, movement, weapon, then the environment will be just a decision to make later… you can mix open levels and closed spaces at the same time, witch brings some game density… then you decide if you go fully procedural.

17

Yeah, I plan doing something like that, first steps are player and all around him, inventory, server/client, survival elements, movement and weapons (which I am still deciding if keep strictly melee or ranged too). After those parts are ready and “playable” I’ll start working on players models, animations and sounds, than the same for items and last for environment.

If I’ll get some co workers on the way, I would be really happy. I have everything in my head, and I am eager to share it with the world.

18

you are going for the big game man…
just try to get a player in a basic scene and you will be happy as hell :wink:

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19

Yeah, I already have prototype working, for both random map generation and player joining and moving around on server.
I did it via some documentation and tutorials.

20

I get this all the time both from other developers and from our community. Open world! That is what you should do…it so cool!

However…while it may be cool, I see the challenges it creates for many of us, especially those of us who do not have a huge team, who are still learning as we go and who want to finish within a realistic time. Here are some of the info I have gathered, mostly from reading or talking to people. I am not the programmer for our game so I may be way off on some of these…but from the perspective of someone who is still learning Unity and the nuts and bolts of actually creating the world, it might be helpful to others in my shoes.

Positives to Open Worlds:
Great PR, players love them, or think they do. Tell them your world is the size of Texas and they get stars in their eyes. Your community will grow.
More realistic, no loading areas, no artificial barriers, just nice seamless game play.

Negatives to Open Worlds:
Lots of world to fill, tons and tons, with grass, trees, and other stuff. That takes time.
Unless you are very good and experienced at optimizing, the size of your world/terrain will affect your performance. Even if you tile and stream, you will still have issues that will require expertise and experience.
Remember, 4-8 textures per terrain tile. If you cut up your terrain, you can probably deal with this, but not easy to make terrain tiles with different textures match. Your fancy “10 different biomes” in your huge world won’t be as easy as you think. Same is true of weather, just a bit harder to do and make look good.
In a multiplayer game or MMO, players will spend lots of time running around looking for other players. If interaction is important to them, they may not stick around.
Boring worlds with lots of repeated items and stuff will not make all players happy. Some of those community members with stars in their eyes may give you a review criticizing your boring world.

Positives to Zones or Corridors:
You can spend more time on each zone, make it more detailed and special. It will be more interesting to players.
Optimizing is more straight forward and while still a challenge, is easier to handle. You focus on one area at a time.
No issues with textures since you can easily use different texture sets in different zones. Same is true of weather. Easy to set different weather for each zone.
Players can find each other easily because they won’t have to traverse a huge empty world. You can still have wilderness zones but players will know where to find each other.
Much easier to do for those of us without the expertise of a larger studio.

Negatives to Zones or Corridors
Loading times…although you can minimize these or make them interesting. Corridors used creatively could cut down or almost eliminate the player’s perception of loading.
World is not as massive…and this I think is subjective.
Not as cool. Some players will balk at this…No seamless huge world? Forget it, back to “insert popular MMO”.
Old fashioned, out dated, a sign of an indie game…
I am sure you can add others.

Forgot one…some issues with terrain can be solved by using meshes, such as the textures. BUT you should know how to use a 3d modeling program very well to use complex terrain meshes in a huge terrain.

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