Map The old Bethesda problem

[PokéDevDustyn]

Ok, real question here, have I gone too far and made a world too large to fill out in a meaningful way?

For a few years now, I have been on and off again, working on an open-world reinterpretation of the Kanto region. I wanted it to emphasize exploration, but now that I am in the last, like, third of creation, it has gotten too big, and I thought I'd ask the community.

I have ideas for side quests like the legendary birds needing to find an item/feather, then locate their speffice roost. Pokemon Ranger quest from research to fighting enraged wild Pokémon hoards. Question for Pokémon researchers with fossils and Professor Oak. What do ya'll think though? Is it too big to not feel like the player is being asked to scour more than they need?

WIP World — Postimages

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[nomists]

That is quite big. I'm on year four and working on just three cities, so this gives me nightmares, haha. Honestly, I think the question is less of whether the size itself is too big and more of (1) whether there's enough interesting stuff that isn't repetitive with what you've done (e.g., Are there too many fetch quests? Is there variety in the scenery/tiles? Are there reasons for players to go into all the different areas instead of just passing by?) and (2) whether you have the energy/time realistically to finish it (although it seems like you've been doing this over a decade now). If you can fill it and make it engaging, or at least make the emptier areas easier to zip through, I don't think solely bigness will be a problem- you'll have players that won't finish it of course, but some might really dig into it.

However, if you're running yourself ragged, you might find ways to cut things or do things more simply than you first anticipated. Something hard that I am bad at doing is remembering that not every idea has to be done. Or, you can do abbreviated versions of larger ideas you had (e.g., Seafoam Islands could be a lot shorter of a dungeon than initially anticipated. Or, some routes could just be fairly empty with a few pokeball items- literally just fly-by country).

Anyhow, it's a bit hard to say too much more because the photo is a bit compressed (probably because the world is so big, heh). That said, if you have something working, you could also get a few playtesters to see how they feel about the size right now, and if they have thoughts on it. A demo might also be helpful, if you use it to solicit feedback (although, you could have released one already but I'm unaware). Anyhow, those are my initial thoughts, feel free to discard as needed.