Design Character size fluctuation a good idea?

[Sean Catherine]

I was wondering about how potentially frustrating/ distracting it might be for a main character to change sizes from about 3/4" to 3/8" on the screen depending on the environment... The viewing area of the monitor that I'm working with is 20 1/2" x 11 3/4". Would this drive you nuts?

 

[Siolfor the Jackal]

Do you mean the environment changes scale and the player scaled with it or does the character just get bigger or smaller for some other reason?
If it's the first then I don't see an issue as long as you handle it well. Plenty of games already do some things like this, something like the Monkey Island games comes to mind.

 

[rytan451]

As long as it's consistent (zooming, or camera movement), or if it's predictable ("shrinking" thing that the character can do), I wouldn't mind.

Even some environments having a farther out zoom would be fine.

Just don't make it random.

 

[Sean Catherine]

Do you mean the environment changes scale and the player scaled with it or does the character just get bigger or smaller for some other reason?
If it's the first then I don't see an issue as long as you handle it well. Plenty of games already do some things like this, something like the Monkey Island games comes to mind.

It's the first.

 

[Sean Catherine]

As long as it's consistent (zooming, or camera movement), or if it's predictable ("shrinking" thing that the character can do), I wouldn't mind.

Even some environments having a farther out zoom would be fine.

Just don't make it random.

It wouldn't be random. Interior environments would be closer up and outside areas would be zoomed out.

 

[Siolfor the Jackal]

Yeah that sounds fine, dude. Got any samples or anything? What kind of game is it by the way?

 

[Sean Catherine]

Yeah that sounds fine, dude. Got any samples or anything? What kind of game is it by the way?

I don't really want to share any images until I'm ready to release —just selfconcious I guess... It's an action/adventure rpg. Given that there will be lots of close combat, I may reconsider doing the scale down...