What Do You Prefer in a Game: Progression and Events or Freedom to Explore?

[Deleted member 1524875]

I'm currently working on a game, and I’d love to hear your preferences to help guide my development.

Do you prefer:

Games with structured progression and events – where there’s a storyline, tasks, and specific goals to complete?
Games with open exploration – where you’re free to roam the map, discover things at your own pace, and unlock scenes whenever you want?
Let me know which one you enjoy more and why! Your feedback will really help me make the game more enjoyable.

Thanks in advance!

 

[ancoconut1]

i choose explore

 

[Deleted member 1524875]

i choose explore

I'm finishing the demo, I made the map, the NPCs, but then I'm in doubt if people want to enjoy the plot, see the scenes, or if they want something more advanced and complex like harem hotel or hero's harem guild

 

[Doorknob22]

...
Games with open exploration – where you’re free to roam the map, discover things at your own pace, and unlock scenes whenever you want?
...

If this is your first game Freedom to Explore is likely to kill your game. I strongly recommend that for your first game stick to something short and simple you can start and finish instead of a monster that will grow out of control due to forks in the story and multiple plotlines, leaving you helpless and drained.

Start small, finish one small game and then you'll know how to proceed.

 

[Surisun]

Games with open exploration – where you’re free to roam the map, discover things at your own pace, and unlock scenes whenever you want?

Depends on the scope, if we need a walkthrough, the "soft-lock" on a LI, etc. I'd prefer having a story moving forward with some choices, and at some point some exploration in a small area. The alternation of the two is more preferable than having one or the other.

 

[Goeffel]

"Freedom to Explore" sounds nice, until me as player get totally lost in huge world. See to it that there's some player guidance.

If you have hints/ questlog/ some-such have them proofread. (in Ariadne the hint for the special truffels sends you to the wrong dungeon, on the wrong continent. )

and also: when some part of the free-to-explore world is once-off, make sure players can know that. Bitter when you go "aw, too tough, I'll come back later to this trick-enemy" and then much later turns out you can't. And will not know if that was where the missing crucial item would have been. (Desecration of Wings, a puzzle-enemy in a pyramid.)

 

[tooldev]

Exploration is a fickle mechanic. Exploration as mechanic requires the same kind of 'reward' concept, as any other.

If there are just a limited number of locations, there is simply no need to explore and any game is better of with some simple and direct way to reach those.

If it is the opposite and there are many locations to be found and visited, the player needs an incentive to explore. Thus it has to be rewarding in some form. Why travel at all when nothing happens between A and B? So this would either require a massive amount of random encounters or something similar to make this viable for the player to enjoy. All too often games implement this very badly, like offering you to explore but locking rooms at certain times without enabling the player to get in via different means. Time locked locations and events is the next bad implementation of exploration unless the game itself offers some tool to keep track of times and locations for example. Exploration simply requires a massive amount of content and has shown to be able to cripple even AAA studios easily.

 

[Erosoft]

Open-world exploration always trumps linearity for me. But these games are easier to screw up. You need to have a good head on your shoulders in terms of game design. Some games decide to go open-world for no apparent reason and lack the content or systems to actually make them interesting.

If you are going to build a very free-form game, or a sandbox, you should be using modular design to ensure that you can reuse content and systems in multiple places and at multiple times. An example of a design paradigm that is used for modularity is layerable body parts. You'd have image files named like so:

• eyes_brown, eyes_blue, eyes_green
• hair_black, hair_brown, hair_blond
• breasts_large, breasts_medium, breasts_small

When a character is generated it chooses a random body part from each category and applies it to the body. Thus saving yourself a ton of work and packing your world with reusable content.

Generally, if these types of systems sound daunting to you, you're better off making a more linear game.

 

[desmosome]

When you say freedom to explore, what you really mean is a map that has a bunch of empty places that does nothing, probably. Unless you are gonna cook for a LONG time before releasing anything, stick to VNs.

Only a handful of devs have the vision, skill, and workflow to put out sandbox type games that go anywhere.

 

[WORLDrise]

Explorer and Action

 

[Kamishirov]

I think I prefer "Games with structured progression and events" as this advances the story in an easier and more coherent way than simply milling about in a game with open exploration.

An open World exploration rape game would be nice.

 

[SeanEXTornadeUser]

I think when I was young I enjoyed exploration. But I've come to really appreciate progress and events in alot of linear stories, and nowadays almost always prefer that.
The open-world meme is over for me. I don't really like those types of games anymore.

 

[Hadron-5]

I prefer games that are finished.

If we look at which games are likely to ever be finished, those fall into the "structured progression and events" category.
In fact, if we are particularly interested in those games, we will see lots of markers:
* limited animations and side content
* Tighter focus on main story
* limited number of side characters
* A story well defined, with a start and end point, that is written and finished before the game is even started

Out of these, I'd say the last one is most important to stick to, but the rest helps getting to that point. You have no doubt played several AVNs around here that eventually ballooned into a mess of side stories and quests and got abandoned. Sticking to your main story will help avoid that.
There is nothing prohibiting you from creating additional games, and there is no upper limit on how many games you are allowed to create in your lifetime. This is an important note to consider for any developer that ends up adding endless bloat to their game, that as a result never reaches the finish line.

Keep it focused and simple. It's easy to add stuff; real talent is conveying more with less.

 

[Slamjax]

Absolutely structured progression and events in my mind.
Freedom to explore would be an option if you had a lot of people and resources behind you but typically, most of us don't have that.
Also, "explore" is often represented here through sandbox mechanics and I would say about 50% of players really don't like that kind of game, but mainly because it is usually not well done.

 

[zqw975]

Freedom to Explore

 

[DumpTruckLover]

both. I think it should be used in a balanced way.

 

[zqw975]

both. I think it should be used in a balanced way.

You'd never find the perfect balance point between freedom and linear
but if you must choice one, I think freedom is better

 

[DumpTruckLover]

You'd never find the perfect balance point between freedom and linear
but if you must choice one, I think freedom is better

Why not? The main story can be linear, while the side stories can include freedom. But if you insist that I must choose one, I’d choose freedom.

 

[billyb0b]

both. I think it should be used in a balanced way.

I would like to echo this sentiment. Both are good and can be enjoyed at the same time. What I dont like is when either thing is under developed or broken. If you have a big map to explore, please PLEASE label the locations! try to have something to do at the different locations, even if its just NPCs to talk to. If there is a set progression of events to your characters and plot please make it clear what needs to be done next (some devs just tell you on the status screen "go see Stacy and ask about Jane" this is very lazy but I'll take it over being completely lost)

 

[Kallel69]

Make the game you wanna make, period. Its the only way gamers will ever get to experience things we haven't yet before. Its how we got Minecraft.