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TIGSource ForumsDeveloperDesignCreative ways to keep player in world?
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Skylar1146
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« on: January 04, 2017, 09:56:24 AM »

Hey guys! I'm currently working on an open world game, but the world can't be open forever. Eventually the player has to have a boundary that they cannot pass as the world ends.

The typical thing to do is have a "Warning going out of mission area" warning and the player dies if they spend 5 seconds outside the playable area.

What are your ideas for containing the player, in a way that feels natural and doesn't break immersion to much?
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_glitch
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« Reply #1 on: January 04, 2017, 10:37:43 AM »

My favorite way to achieve this is creating unclimbable walls or a cliff. The best way would probably if you use this two things at different edges of the world. A third way could be a forest of trees growing so near together that there is almost no space between them.

To kill the player if he leaves the area is in my opinion too hard.
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PaulWv2.017
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« Reply #2 on: January 04, 2017, 04:46:23 PM »

Cliffs and/or ocean are the 'best', but they're both lame. There's no immersive way to do it.
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Skylar1146
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« Reply #3 on: January 04, 2017, 05:12:17 PM »

Yeah, it's rather hard. A way I liked and never really took too much heed of was the Animal Crossing series. The beach blends well into the town, and you have cliffs on the other sides. I guess the cartoony, childish nature of the series allows that without breaking immersion too much though.
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b∀ kkusa
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« Reply #4 on: January 04, 2017, 06:12:28 PM »

Depends also on your character mobility in your game.(can he fly? can he use planes? vehicles? can he climb walls?..)
 Mobility in Animal Crossing series is limited and this alone makes a boundary.

What's the setting of your open-world game?

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Skylar1146
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« Reply #5 on: January 04, 2017, 06:13:37 PM »

It's a fantasy game, you can only traverse the world on foot.
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b∀ kkusa
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« Reply #6 on: January 04, 2017, 06:33:10 PM »

an immersive way would be to create an impassable zone by putting stronger ennemies or mines, and no matter what you do you'd die at some point. Gives the illusion that the world is open but you can't just go through it.
Or if you stick with a "Warning going out of mission area" warning , you can always justify it within your game with for example the wrath of a god because you're steppin in sacred zone.

But imo, this is all about game design, it should be done accordingly to how your game is .
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AaronB
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« Reply #7 on: January 05, 2017, 01:23:56 PM »

As in real life, your world may look flat, but really it could be round.  Wrapping the boundary edges, left to right, top to bottom might be an option?
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halk3n
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« Reply #8 on: January 10, 2017, 11:05:45 PM »

Give the player less control.
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Vanethos
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« Reply #9 on: January 12, 2017, 09:39:16 AM »

As in real life, your world may look flat, but really it could be round.  Wrapping the boundary edges, left to right, top to bottom might be an option?

Reading this thread, I think that this would be a great solution too.

If it's plausible with your game map, it would improve the sense of immersion, though it would feel like you are in a "very small world".

Additionally, with the other suggestions, you could form like a big structure, a wall if you may, and suggest that it's a way to separate the kingdoms (if such thing exists there).
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AaronB
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« Reply #10 on: January 12, 2017, 01:29:52 PM »

As in real life, your world may look flat, but really it could be round.  Wrapping the boundary edges, left to right, top to bottom might be an option?

If it's plausible with your game map, it would improve the sense of immersion, though it would feel like you are in a "very small world".

I would say it could even have a negative effect if the map is too small (depending on the game play of course). On the other hand it would make a larger world more believable.  For example you would now have several possibilities for travelling between A and B - the long safe route or the short but extremely dangerous one.

A wrapped world does also present some extra technical challenges with regards to coding.
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DireLogomachist
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« Reply #11 on: January 12, 2017, 07:20:53 PM »

One thing you can do is make boundaries feel like discoveries. They didn't walk all that way just to find a an impenetrable barrier with seemingly more content just beyond it.

Reward the player with something. For example, I like the idea of a cliff - not a blank cliff face, but a vista point overlooking an beautiful ocean view or some equivalent. Make the player feel like they found something, not that they wasted a bunch of time just to find a dumb invisible wall.

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« Reply #12 on: January 14, 2017, 12:32:49 AM »

In Farcry 2 there's a mid-game climax where you're placed on this custom section of map during a sandstorm in the desert. There's a specific house over some dunes you're supposed to enter, but the map is unbounded by hard geographical constraints (i.e. no cliffs, no guard rail no invisible wall even). Rather than having a physical barrier, if you walk the wrong way the storm gets more and more intense. Eventually your character puts his arms in front of his eyes to shield himself, making it impossible to tell where you're going. It forces you to turn around because you can't see. It was a pretty cool trick, I thought.
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TEETH
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« Reply #13 on: January 15, 2017, 10:07:11 PM »

does the character talk? you could have the character say something like "wait what am i doing out here?" and turn around and start walking back. each time the player crosses the boundary for like 30 seconds or so, the character says this phrase and walks back to the game map.
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DireLogomachist
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« Reply #14 on: January 16, 2017, 12:05:23 AM »

does the character talk? you could have the character say something like "wait what am i doing out here?" and turn around and start walking back. each time the player crosses the boundary for like 30 seconds or so, the character says this phrase and walks back to the game map.

They did that in Windwaker with the King of Red Lions turning you around, but generally I'm not sure if this is a good approach. Taking away player agency and movement is one of those iffy design things. The player might spite you for 'hiding' areas like that. They might actually prefer a solid wall because at least those respect player control.

I just remembered another technique for this. Automated turrets! I remember this in Halo (multiplayer, I think) as well some sections in Borderlands 2. Go past a boundary and wait 10 seconds and automated turrets fire on you, forcing a retreat. Clever but probably should be used sparingly.
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« Reply #15 on: January 16, 2017, 12:47:56 AM »

In Farcry 2 there's a mid-game climax where you're placed on this custom section of map during a sandstorm in the desert. There's a specific house over some dunes you're supposed to enter, but the map is unbounded by hard geographical constraints (i.e. no cliffs, no guard rail no invisible wall even). Rather than having a physical barrier, if you walk the wrong way the storm gets more and more intense. Eventually your character puts his arms in front of his eyes to shield himself, making it impossible to tell where you're going. It forces you to turn around because you can't see. It was a pretty cool trick, I thought.

that sounds like it's pretty much directly ripped from a very similar sequence in ocarina of time haha
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« Reply #16 on: January 16, 2017, 12:57:26 AM »

i don't see what's necessarily "unimmersive" about mountains, cliffs or other geographical boundaries. it's not hard to design your world in such a way that it would make sense for these boundaries to exist. continents, islands and mountain ranges are a thing irl ya know.

in gothic 1 the game world was a prison colony surrounded by a magical barrier. not the most subtle way to do it but it worked within the game's setting
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« Reply #17 on: January 16, 2017, 10:43:33 AM »

i don't see what's necessarily "unimmersive" about mountains, cliffs or other geographical boundaries. it's not hard to design your world in such a way that it would make sense for these boundaries to exist. continents, islands and mountain ranges are a thing irl ya know.
+1

The best boundaries are the ones that don't call attention to themselves.
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Vini Aleixo
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« Reply #18 on: January 17, 2017, 07:59:53 AM »

It really depends on you game's personality, but sometimes humour might be the right tool.

The most remarkable use for me was in Mother 3:

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Alevice
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« Reply #19 on: January 17, 2017, 10:20:14 AM »

silent hill had these sweet looking cliffs



make sure the cliffs or whatever have compelling vistas
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