What's your views on world maps?

Hey everyone I'm trying to decide if my game should have a world map as a means to travel to different towns and such similar to that of Final Fantasy 7. But I want to hear your views on world maps. Are you pro or con? I for one enjoy the concept of traveling along the world map and finding secret areas or enemies and such.

it depends on what kind of game you're making. For some games (for example games that focus on exploration) a worldmap is usually a must-have.


For other games (for example games with a strictly linear story-line) a worldmap (with the options to move outside the linear planned sequence) is usually a desaster waiting to happen.

Ok I see. Well my game is more of a linear storyline so I think I'll steer away from the world map for this project at least. Thanks for the feedback!

I think it just depends on what your story needs and what works well for it. A linear storyline doesn't necessarily mean you have to do without a world map. Or you could adapt it to meet your needs. My game is a short one that takes place on a small group of islands. What I've done is made the map of the islands with word labels for the different locations. When you transfer to the world map, you become an arrow that can be moved around to the different locations. The whole thing is maybe 20 x 20. It's not the norm for a world map, but it's what is needed and makes sense for my game.

Very good question. At the moment I see some clear advantages and disadvantages of having one.

Advantages:

- In general, it will be more user friendly as it requires less backtracking through entire areas.

- It requires less of a world to map and thus is easier to implent.

- It's easier to make things linear as you can easily force a player towards a direction and don't have to spend time blocking all other passages on your other maps. 

Disadvantages:

- It defeats the point of having a huge world to explore as "most" of it is rushed through within a few moments.

- A lot of games used it already.

Ideally I think it would be best to have a game that makes you track through "normal maps" first and after you can travel past it on a world map, if that makes sense. 

Yeah very good points. My game requires a lot of backtracking especially for side quests as such, so I think I'll stay away from the world map at least for this game.