Map Design Trends.

I've noticed with a lot of older open-world games, that the idea of a 3 Islands map is super popular. Is there any reason for this?

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  1. 1 year ago
    Anonymous

    imitates the 3-act structure, each section can have its own identity, etc

    • 1 year ago
      Anonymous

      This makes a lot of sense. Games nowadays seem to abandon the island structure. Does this have something to do with games moving more towards their own narrative medium and away from emulating movies? ... but

      3 is an important number in christianity
      same with 7 in eastern religions

      This is really intriguing. Is there a lot of Japanese games that have 7 island maps?

    • 1 year ago
      Anonymous

      The 3-Act structure was my first thought as well.

  2. 1 year ago
    Anonymous

    driver was better

    • 1 year ago
      Anonymous

      those long stretches of highway were awful on this map

      • 1 year ago
        Anonymous

        >escaping the police by driving on the wrong side of the road
        >you see the police car crashing into the incoming trafic
        no, it was kino

    • 1 year ago
      Anonymous

      silent hill if he drive

  3. 1 year ago
    Anonymous

    Not sure if that's true but generally I can tell you that San Andreas has the best map and GTA V probably the worst map design I've ever seen in a game

    • 1 year ago
      Anonymous

      What do you dislike about the GTAV map? I feel like its a pretty creative way to deal with the fact that Southern California isnt an island lol. Does decent work combining all the coastal areas into one logical coastline.

      • 1 year ago
        Anonymous

        old good new bad, anon, you litreally can't prove me wrong

        • 1 year ago
          Anonymous

          Alright man. I'm sorry you dont like video games that much.

      • 1 year ago
        Anonymous

        It's huge but it just doesn't have that "I want to explore that" feel the older ones had.

      • 1 year ago
        Anonymous

        3 isn't really open world. It's multi-region. Those strip-like designs also usually suck, but Vice City compensated with maximum soul

        See picrel. Though of course it's ultimately subjective

        • 1 year ago
          Anonymous

          wtf is wrong with that SA map? That's not Los Santos

          • 1 year ago
            Anonymous

            It's from SA 2

          • 1 year ago
            Anonymous

            It's from SA 2

            It's the beta/concept map

          • 1 year ago
            Anonymous

            It's from SA 2

            [...]
            It's the beta/concept map

            it’s gta v’s los santos pasted over san andreas’ los santos for some reason

      • 1 year ago
        Anonymous

        Everything is jammed at the bottom of the map. There is no reason to ever go to the north outside the city unless a mission forces you to. The desert is smaller than a pissant. The mountain has nothing on it. The entire map outside the city just feels like filler.

      • 1 year ago
        Anonymous

        Nta but it's just a huge empty map. The state of California is comprised of 1 major city and 2 small towns. San Andreas had that plus San Francisco and a portion of Las Vegas.

        Like 80% of the map is just empty wilderness with nothing to do, and they didn't add animals and extra foliage until PC/8th gen. The whole map is also designed to be pure padding. Like adding that big useless lake in Blaine County so you can access the smaller airport there faster where you just happen to have Travis' missions. Also you literally don't do shit in Paleto Bay even tho it's very comfy there. There's businesses and houses to buy in Online but not the single player. The worst part really is the massive highway padding when going north. Majority of your time will be spent in the city so there's no point in exploring out there.

        • 1 year ago
          Anonymous

          Single player DLC was meant to fill in much of Blaine County. GTA Online proceeded to print money and Rockstar scrapped it all.

  4. 1 year ago
    Anonymous

    3 is an important number in christianity
    same with 7 in eastern religions

  5. 1 year ago
    Anonymous

    Mafia I map

    • 1 year ago
      Anonymous

      >that quiet drive across the map in the racing mission
      Comfy

  6. 1 year ago
    Anonymous

    Two words: New York City

    • 1 year ago
      Anonymous

      Center of the universe
      Times are shitty
      But I'm pretty sure they can't get worse
      It's a comfort to know
      When you're singing the hit the road blues
      That anywhere else you could possibly go
      After New York would be, a pleasure cruise

      • 1 year ago
        Anonymous

        Now yer talkin'

  7. 1 year ago
    Anonymous

    islands are great because they naturally introduce limits on where the player can go without feeling artificial, and it's much easier to make than doing something like a full planet where the world wraps around.

    • 1 year ago
      Anonymous

      That's why Morrowind > shitty Skyrim/Oblivion magic walls

      • 1 year ago
        Anonymous

        it's also why the PS2 GTAs were fricking incredible, because that effect where you were at the far wall at sea, but the effect on the waves is such that you can't tell that you're at the wall unless you really look. Meanwhile, WatchDogs handles the problem like you're in fricking Truman Show.

    • 1 year ago
      Anonymous

      It's a controversial opinion but I actually kind of liked the way BotW just tells you in a game message to turn around when you hit the map edges. Just tell the player to frick off and quit trying to get out of bounds, there's nothing out there and they know it. Or at least I'd rather than than EVERY game world being surrounded by walls (invisible or otherwise) or just being a giant island.

  8. 1 year ago
    Anonymous

    probably because gta3 made the genre popular and everyone else copied it

  9. 1 year ago
    Anonymous

    It's amazing how tiny Shoreside Vale is. First time playing this it felt like a massive maze and I was always getting lost.

    • 1 year ago
      Anonymous

      that's what happens when you add a little verticality to the open world meme

      • 1 year ago
        Anonymous

        shoreside vale is really poorly designed

  10. 1 year ago
    Anonymous

    Beginning -> middle -> end

  11. 1 year ago
    Anonymous

    I love III's map because it's the pinnacle of the "quality over quantity" principle.
    Compared to Vice city, all regions felt very distinct and were rife with soul.

  12. 1 year ago
    Anonymous

    You can tell by GTAIII the early devs had no fricking clue how cities are actually laid out in most cases

    • 1 year ago
      Anonymous

      They are British, pls understand

      It still gets me how in GTA4 the street lights are on the wrong side of the road. Rather, they're on the UK side, not the American side.

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