I’ve been interested in interactive environments since the start of this project—why haven’t I run more with it?
This page lists the challenges I have faced and will face with designing interactive environments.
Part of the problem is I don’t think enough in terms of independent, interactive actors.
It’s easy for me to get caught up in the big picture and think in terms of concepts and locations, and never stop to think about independent objects independent of context.
In theory, if I adjust my perspective, I should be able to design multiple atomic elements and then figure out how to compose them together meaningfully into an environment.
Much of my focus has been on procedurally generated worlds. Some procedural methods are conducive to interactivity, but most of my goals and procedural approaches have not been.
Now I’ve moved away from procedural world generation, which clears up that blocker. (No procedural world generation).
Part of the challenge has been that I only want Meaningful interactions , which reduces my options.
Some games with highly interactive environments contain many trivial interactions. Maybe eventually I’ll soften my stance, but for now, doing so could actually hurt the game design direction I am going, which would be more difficult if players had to guess whether an interaction had a significant effect.
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A slow pace helps this because many environment interactions require the player’s attention and don’t work in the midst of combat.
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