VN Ren'Py Mall Movement

[Hidden Life Studios]

Hi everyone. In my game there is a mall with a lot of shops and stuff.
Which way of moving around do you prefer?

1. Normal freeroam. You are in a point of the mall and click on doors, stairs, hallway etc to move there.
2. Map movement. You have a map where you see everything and choose where to go.

Is hard if not possibile make both. But, choosing one or another method don't change what I have to do, cause both mall interior and map need to be done for other things.
I'm just asking which one is the best for you.

 

[trex999999]

Normal freeroam is fine for smaller areas or if your game consists of free roam only in limited areas (I can think of some freeroam sections in BaDIK as an example).

If there is going to be extensive freeroam you have to consider, as with all GUIs, how many clicks are going to need to be done to perform even basic moving around. If your "normal freeroam" ends up being a situation where I will need to click 100 times to get anywhere, just give me a map.

A lot of games solve this by having a menu of preview images in the bottom left, so that you can both navigate by clicking on the screen, or simply click on the preview images to instantly navigate to the different rooms.

 

[Deleted member 440241]

Map movement is faster, simpler, and can't be fucked up by the dev changing perspectives with each new room. I hate it so much when a game has normal freeroam but the player's perspective changes from room to room. Like going left to get to another room and then having to go left again to get back because the character turned around. If you choose the in between route, of having room buttons at the top or bottom of the screen, be sure that the buttons are stationary. I've seen a few games where the buttons change based on which room you're in and that's always a pain in the ass too.