GameMaker Which window "style" would be best for this sort of game?

This is less of a programming question and more of a design question, although it's still something pretty deeply entrenched in the code: the game window. I've been designing the camera system for my game, but to do that, I need to figure out exactly how I want to work the windows in my game, something that's been eluding me for some time. The game in question is a top-down puzzle game set in a dungeon-type setting, whose graphics are all designed around a tile size of 32x32 px, and designed for PC, in which I'd like the player to be able [forced] to discover each room as they move through it, as opposed to being able to see the entire thing all at once. With that in mind, I'd like to ask you all, a group of individuals with much more game design experience than me, one question...

Would full screen or windowed mode be better for this style of game?

I figure that I can scale up the game's display to any window size, and I've heard time and time again how full screen is typically more immersive, but because the game's graphics are inherently small [32x32 px, as stated above], and because I want the game to FEEL small, scaling up the graphics too much would really ruin the feel of the game, I think. Come to think of it, even scaling them up to 64x64 would make what's supposed to have a certain "small" feel to it look out of proportion... In addition, I have considered- and built- a camera system with an "expandable play space"- basically you can see more of the game room the larger you make the window- but I found that that tends to ruin the whole dungeon-crawling, "discovery" feel of each room- especially considering that anyone with a massive computer monitor would be able to see an entire room at once...

I figured I would run this by you all, as I'd imagine you have much more experience with this sort of design choice than me [this is my first commercial game, after all [but not my first game ever] ]. I can provide more information about the game as needed [without giving anything specific about the plot, of course]. Any insight you all can give me is appreciated!
 

TheouAegis

Member
How is the dungeon Discovery being handled? If things are being revealed from underneath essentially blackness, then you can have a huge amount of the world revealed the bigger the screen is, and only the parts that the player has already visited would be uncovered which would still make everything feel small. Especially in the beginning of the game when only one room has been uncovered already.
 
How is the dungeon Discovery being handled? If things are being revealed from underneath essentially blackness, then you can have a huge amount of the world revealed the bigger the screen is, and only the parts that the player has already visited would be uncovered which would still make everything feel small. Especially in the beginning of the game when only one room has been uncovered already.
Good question! Well, the worldspace is split up into levels- as in, separate rooms in the IDE linked by doors coded to change the room- that are accessed in sequence, like a typical, linear game [although I may do something with re-visiting rooms in the future as development continues]. When I spoke about discovery, what I meant was that, even though the game is split up into its separate puzzle rooms, you shouldn't be able to see all of a given room at once- that way, you actually have to explore the room to find all the information needed to complete the puzzle. The reasoning for this is that the plot entails the protagonist actually exploring this place for the first time, so I want the player to have that feeling of exploring each stage, instead of just seeing the entire puzzle for what it is right off the bat, y'know?

As for what currently serves that purpose of hiding the room from view, the current setup I've built has that limitation as the window size itself- you can't see past the borders of the windows, obviously, so you have to walk around a bit to get a feel for the stage, which in turn exposes you to the atmosphere of the setting.

[I really appreciate your input, by the by- thank you so much for coming to share your ideas! ^-^]
 
How is the dungeon Discovery being handled? If things are being revealed from underneath essentially blackness, then you can have a huge amount of the world revealed the bigger the screen is, and only the parts that the player has already visited would be uncovered which would still make everything feel small. Especially in the beginning of the game when only one room has been uncovered already.
The best example I can give of sort of what I'm trying to achieve here would be Portal 2- another exploration-based puzzle game. Obviously, if you could see the entire test chamber at once, there wouldn't be the feel of an actual setting, nya? There'd just be the puzzle- it would basically be Minesweeper at that point. Part of the fun is having to explore each test chamber, to FIND the elements of the puzzle- and it's this exploration that exposes you to the setting, which makes everything feel much more immersive. Now, to make someone explore, there has to be some things that they can't see, right? You have to hide things from them. In a 3D environment like Portal 2, Valve had it easy: they can use walls, doorways and the like to split up rooms, to make areas that you can't see without getting to them yourself, or at least shifting around to get a better view. But in a top-down 3D game, where the camera inherently provides a god-like view over the entire room? I don't have that option. So I have to find another way to hide things from the player. You dig?
 

NickKall

Member
Just thinking out loud here...

Maybe you could set up the room so that rather than just having the camera stuck to the player, Have the camera move to preset points in the room depending on where the player moves to.

Nick
 

NickKall

Member
I will try. The "feeling small" part still isnt clear. I have the feeling that you have small objects but still spread over large parts of the screen. Or do you mean that you want it to feel claustrophobic.

But my original idea. Say a room has four walls. And you want the player to look at things on each of the walls. If the player is in the middle of the room, have the camera positioned so that he cannot see any of the walls. If he moves to the right. Move the camera so that only the right hand wall is visible and the other walls are out of shot. The camera wont scroll keeping the player in the center, it will scroll to focus on wall or object you want the player to see.

The player still moves as usual but the camera moves according to the zones pre determined by you.

I can maybe do some pics but I'm on a mobile at work right now.

Nick
 
I will try. The "feeling small" part still isnt clear. I have the feeling that you have small objects but still spread over large parts of the screen. Or do you mean that you want it to feel claustrophobic.

But my original idea. Say a room has four walls. And you want the player to look at things on each of the walls. If the player is in the middle of the room, have the camera positioned so that he cannot see any of the walls. If he moves to the right. Move the camera so that only the right hand wall is visible and the other walls are out of shot. The camera wont scroll keeping the player in the center, it will scroll to focus on wall or object you want the player to see.

The player still moves as usual but the camera moves according to the zones pre determined by you.

I can maybe do some pics but I'm on a mobile at work right now.

Nick
Oh! I suppose that was a bit vague... Well, when I say "feeling small", what I'm trying to convey is- the graphics in this game are pretty bloody small, nya? As I said in the OP, this game's graphics are centered around a 32x32 tileset. As far as room layout goes, the closest comparison I can draw is Toby Fox's Undertale, or, to a lesser extent, The Legend of Zelda on the NES- a top-down environment split up into sequential rooms, with the puzzle elements spread out throughout the rooms. Anyways, what I'm afraid of is that if I scale up such a small game, will it look a bit... goofy? Like, will character sprites and such look so large as to not feel quite right?
 
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