Why My Game's Hub World is 49 000 Times Larger than Necessary | Devlog

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Why is my game's hub world so large? In this devlog I explain why, with reference to the game's intended user experience.
#Devlog #GameDesign #GameDevelopment

[@Finigini]

I love this kind of deliberate game design.

[@BrotherLongLegs8]

This may be a small thing but I love the sprite showing the inputs of the player with the smooth movement, feels kinda nice

[@michaelbuckers]

Treading dangerously close to the Starfield experience. People don't enjoy navigating ridiculously large empty worlds.

[@GradientZN]

Thanks for the feedback! I'll try not to make it like Starfield then.

[@wolvertox311]

I gotta be real the hub kinda just looks like it’d be needlessly boring busy work and I think there are better ways to imbue the player with feelings of loneliness and isolation game looks cool so far otherwise

[@GradientZN]

Thanks for the honest feedback! I really appreciate it!
I've tried to mitigate that by making the hub content completely optional, but I'll try to continue making it feel less like busy work as I develop it further.

[@htspencer9084]

I think maybe a reset button that zoops you to the centre of the hub world would combat a lot of the risk aversion to flying off out into nowhere. Personally.

[@belcarra]

⁠@@GradientZNYeah some sort of way to immediately go back to the center would be best like htspencer said

[@matthewgiallourakis7645]

I think another neat idea would be zooming the camera out the more you traveled away from the center. I feel like that would highten the sense of isolation and also give you a subtle way of getting your bearings

[@GradientZN]

​@@htspencer9084 I think that's a great idea! Thanks!

[@bestaround3323]

I thought the title said explode, not explore and was quite confused

[@meowymeowz3948]

try making the hub world loop and making the player get faster the further away they are from the center. You could also add some landmarks kind of like ruins to not make it feel as boring, but still feel as empty

[@GradientZN]

Thank you for the ideas! I think adding landmarks could especially work well!

[@JPshoe.]

I've think it's a great idea, just make sure the player knows there isn't going to be a reward for following all the lines out into infinity, could be annoying if a player spends a few minutes going there and got nothing. Also following that little dot through the void knowing if I lose it I could be totally lost in a huge void would be terrifying.

[@aldar8240]

one of my primary worries would be the implications a hub this big had on loading times

[@GradientZN]

It's actually not as bad as it might seem, since the space is mostly empty. In my testing it loads almost instantly, but I'll definitely keep optimization in mind as I add more features.

[@ix67ml]

-Y

[@a_british_lass_stream_archives]

I have to agree with the two criticisms I've seen so far
lonely and empty are native to empty and huge worlds, but there are ways to achieve the same feeling in something that is just too large for its own good,
you said there's some reward the player can get via exploring and my first though was "how would I even be able to find these rewards without narrowly missing them" I've played games with the same problem where the level is just too big to explore thoroughly without missing something
and what off the quality of the rewards, it'd have to be something pretty important for me to spend potentially hours on exploring a mostly dark and brain numbingly empty world just to get some menial hat or something (just an example) or if it were to have smaller hub worlds built in the huge open world how would I be guaranteed to find them or move to them with shutting my brain off without having to take minutes to go to them
the concept sounds rather cool and unique on paper, but in practice it just seems like a head each from a player's point of view
I'm sure I could think of a few more issues with the idea, but I don't want to be overly negative and force the criticism only what I can think of from the top of my head
I'm sure with more development you'll iron out any issue and implement more idea to make it feel better though
hope the game turns out good and fun, good luck!

[@GradientZN]

Thank you for taking the time to write such a detailed and helpful comment!
1. I don't plan on adding anything that can be narrowly missed. All major rewards will have some kind of guide to help you find your way.
2. Every reward will be obtainable fairly quickly, I'd say under 5 minutes maximum. I know the thumbnail says 6+ hours, but I meant that more as a measure of how big the world is, rather than how long the player'll actually spend on it. Sorry if that was a bit misleading!
3. My intention is to make the size of the world itself an obstacle to be overcome through navigational skills, rather than something to randomly fly about in.
I think I could've done a better job explaining the feature to clear up a bit of confusion, but I'll keep that in mind for any future videos I make.
Thank you for the insights and good wishes!

[@a_british_lass_stream_archives]

@@GradientZN I see that clears it up substantially, already seems like a better idea than how I originally thought it was
best wishes on the dev journey !