How To Make a Large 2D Map Work

Among the official Dizzy games, those that seem to be the least well-regarded by fans are the largest ones. There's the question of length (particularly when limitations of the platform prevent saving your position), but there's also the sheer boredom of traipsing from one end of the map to the other. Dizzy games are, fundamentally, about taking objects from place to place. Unless you already know the solution, much of that is speculative, establishing if this place is where you need to use this object. On a large map, this involves a lot of walking. Many Dizzy games also have an area that's complicated or dangerous to traverse right in the middle of the map, making travel even harder.

Spellbound Dizzy is the largest official Dizzy game with a single map - at 105 rooms. Getting from one end to the other is a slog. So how can this be mitigated?

One method is to make liberal use of the y direction. Dizzy games tend to be laid out along one ground level, with buildings and caves extending above and below that line. Making more use of the up and down means you can pack more rooms in and still maintain a small maximum extent. Even 3D games almost always have a map based around a ground level with features - our monkey brains do not handle a true 3D map well. There's even a mathematical proof that while a random walk in a series of 2D rooms is guaranteed to eventually reach the goal, a random walk in a 3D series of rooms is not.

World wrap is another method. The maximum extent of the world is effectively halved. Unless all the items and use points are packed at the ends of the map, however, this method's impact on travel time is quite limited.

Crystal Kingdom Dizzy chopped itself up into a series of independent levels. The episodic structure cuts down on this travel time, but feels a little bit like a series of only loosely-connected games.

The use of portals or teleporters to connect different parts of the map seems like a strong idea, and it's certainly the case that it reduces transit time mathematically, but it introduces a new problem. Working out how to get where you want to be is now a non-trivial question - there's additional cognitive load around the question of route-finding. This makes it harder for players to take full advantage of the benefits of these jumps, and might even lead to wasted time while they try to work out the ideal route.

I didn't explicitly try to address this map size issue in Lost Temple Dizzy, but I stumbled across another reasonable method by chance. I wanted to have a central area to the temple, with different shrines accessible from that area. Each shrine was (mostly) self-contained, not requiring any items from outside itself. The shrines could also be tackled in any order, with up to two open at once. What I didn't realise until after I'd made the game was how this made a large map more manageable. The self-contained areas have a similar impact to the episodic approach of Crystal Kingdom, and the central hub, laid out along the y axis, made sure they weren't too far apart.

So if I want another large map for Splintered Realms Dizzy, what shall I do?

The central hub idea is sound. I can combine it with portals to make that hub even more connected. So here's what I'm planning: a central hub in the 'prime' map, where the hub area is filled with portals to other sub-maps. Each portal comes out in the middle of each sub-map, making it a hub in its own right. As the only way in or out of each sub-map is through the portal, there's no ambiguity as to the best route - it's always clear to the player. If these sub-maps are also mostly self-contained, then even the need to pop in and out of them is reduced. Unlike Lost Temple, I don't plan on making it so only a limited number of these sub-maps are available at once - everything will be open from near the beginning.

Here's hoping it works.

How big were the games?

1. Lost Temple Dizzy (fan): 131
2. Spellbound Dizzy (#5): 105
3. Crystal Kingdom Dizzy (#7): 92
4. Wonderful Dizzy (#8): 84
5. Magicland Dizzy (#4): 58
6. Dizzy: The Ultimate Cartoon Adventure (#1): 54
7. Fantasy World Dizzy (#3): 51
8. Treasure Island Dizzy (#2): 40
9. Iron Tower Dizzy (fan): 33
10. Dizzy, Prince of the Yolkfolk (#6): 32

(I've only included the fangames I've written, for comparison)

How big do I plan on Splintered Realms Dizzy being? That's a secret, for now.