My current game (super early version) has a room based system like the game “Binding of Isaac”. There are randomly generated rooms. When you enter a room, enemies spawn. When all the enemies are dead, the doors open and you can go onto the next room.
Would you rather have a game with this room based system or would you prefer an open dungeon without locked doors?
Nothing there for both… I primarily like to explore. To me, knowing what is going to be around every corner is boring. If I know every time I go into a room, mobs are going to spawn before I go to the next room I would probably play once and not play again. On the other hand, if I have to explore a dungeon and have to sit on the edge of my seat not knowing if the next corner is going to be an empty room or have 20 npcs in it hungry for my blood or if I have to watch how the npcs path so I can attempt to sneak to a better vantage point (without getting jumped by other npcs)… THAT is a game that is going to keep me coming back for more… And in that game, some rooms may be locked (boss room, mini-boss rooms, treasure rooms, jail cells to free prisoners, etc with keys dropping off of random npcs or found within the other areas of the dungeon. So I like both, but more explore and less locked room.
Unless you mix it up a bit so when they unlock the room they won’t know if it has treasures, enemies, traps etc so the player is always wary about when/how they open it. Mix in some open rooms for variety & they won’t know what to expect.
How about this. Keep the room based system but instead of the rooms, have a larger area with traps, walls, corners, etc and make it as if it was an open dungeon. Obviously keep it small but not too small. Enough for a bit of exploration. But to advance, you must still kill all the enemies and maybe find a switch/key. How does that sound?
There’s the system used by Berserk (and our adaptation, Retro Robots!), where only the door you came in locks behind you. The other exits are open, but of course to get to them (or to get to juicy treasure), you probably have to fight your way past increasingly difficult enemies. And you get some bonus for clearing the room.
I like this system because if you enter a room and it really seems like a lost cause, you can try to just high-tail it out of there — but you give up the bonus when you do.
Having an open dungeon allows the player a lot more meaningful choices. They can jump straight into the fray, they can find a natural choke point and fight from there, they can fight a running battle with ranged attacks, or they can flee completely.
For me the feeling of an open dungeon means progression and story telling. In a room by room dungeon system I get this ‘horde mode’ feeling in which you have to kill x amount of enemies to unlock a door so you can repeat the same thing in the next room. It completely breaks the immersion for me.
In a game such as Skyrim I want that feeling of a large open dungeon, but in a game like The Binding of Isaac that locked room system works quite well.
I primarily like to explore. To me, knowing what is going to be around every corner is boring. If I know every time I go into a room, mobs are going to spawn before I go to the next room I would probably play once and not play again. On the other hand, if I have to explore a dungeon and have to sit on the edge of my seat not knowing if the next corner is going to be an empty room or have 20 npcs in it hungry for my blood or if I have to watch how the npcs path so I can attempt to sneak to a better vantage point (without getting jumped by other npcs)… THAT is a game that is going to keep me coming back for more… And in that game, some rooms may be locked (boss room, mini-boss rooms, treasure rooms, jail cells to free prisoners, etc with keys dropping off of random npcs or found within the other areas of the dungeon. So I like both, but more explore and less locked room. 