So my desired layout looks something like this. I’m a big fan of Darkest Dungeon, I like the cool visuals up top, the interactive map in the lower right, and then other interactive pieces in the lower left. The map is the only thing I’m sold on. I want a tactics like map ala advance wars/final fantasy tactics.
The map should be generated via script. Even if I use a static map for a prototype, I want the flexibility for procedural generated maps later on. Spelunky did this very well. They went the parcel route, where they have large 12×12 patches of tiles, and they select from a collection of premade parcel that fits the patch’s constraints.
E.g. a type 3 patch needs to have an entrances/exits from the top and two sides. So they grab a parcel from that set of templates.
I don’t picture my map really needing rules for entry and exit. I imagine the character on a treadmill with a scrolling background. It’ll appear like they are moving forward, but really I move the background behind them. That is subject to change, as soon as I encounter any difficulty, but it seems like a very simple way to do it. It’s very similar to what darkest dungeon does. They fade out of/into rooms to get around the orientation problem of turning and heading the other direction. When you do move backwards in darkest dungeon it’s super clunky, which wouldn’t be a problem in my game since you confirm your destination before you start moving.
One difference is I didn’t really planning on having hallways, just rooms, which makes the fade in/fade out moving seem unnatural and transition from room to room kind of ugly. I’m still working out the kinks, but that’s the general idea. I think my design strategy might be to do it all as fast as possible, make a working prototype, then throw it out and build the whole thing from scratch. So I can learn the problems I’m going to encounter, and discover the design decisions I’d wish I’d made during the first implementation.