2D RPG - Interior Layout & Design
A quick guide to get you to think about how interior maps are designed and filled with objects.
Past Discussions:
Map Design
Parallax & Collision
(note the is subjective design but hopefully either way it will get you to think about how you are mapping interiors. I am also using images mostly from google and i will be including links to each but if there is something you wish to take credit for let me know.)
These guides cover things I am learning as I develop GLITCHED, and this topic is one that I brushed over only to come back to realize that it is rather important. A lot of RPG Maker folks and others making top down 2D games will suffer in the beginning from ‘square house syndrome’. It feels natural to make a big square at first, simply because that’s how the houses normally look from the outside and it gives you plenty of space to work.
Today what I will do is take a look at a bunch of different maps and see what’s good and bad about them. We will start with RPG Maker games and once we get the hang of what makes a map good versus bad then we will look at some classic and modern top down RPG games and look at how they did things, taking things like engine restriction into account. There are many, many ways to do interiors and different design philosophies to work with. My goal here is to get you think about why you are making the interior design and layout choices and hopefully you do some research of your own to improve your craft.
Here is my first example of square house syndrome. The map actually is not that bad in terms of details, but it is simply uninteresting. There is a lot of dead space around the map but also it also does not really call attention to anything. There seems to be no real map focus. Blocking the back of the store off from where we can walk is okay, but this gives no real sense of exploration, especially in a pub setting where something is bound to go wrong. The goals of the map and interesting points are pretty limited and it all feels to manufactured.
So here is another pub map still suffering from square house syndrome, but this time moving in the right direction. The map is split into five different rooms using walls. There is the storage area, the bar, the diner, the bath, and the front check in area. This is much better than the map before because there is a sense of progression and exploration going on. Moving through the different rooms feels better because they are somewhat separated from one another. Still, the square feeling leaves the rooms feeling a bit clunky and oddly joined together. The storage area in the top doesn’t feel great with a long narrow 1x1 path and the bath being right next to the diner area seems to not flow very well. The map does improve upon detail and feels a bit more full than the last.
(from Enelysion)
Now we are talking! This map is much better than the previous two. It’s not nearly as large, yet still retains the same amount of detail making the map seem much more full and realistic. Their is a clear focus on the front desk and the detail like the door behind the desk make the map feel much more natural and almost like a real inn layout. There is a sense of change as you move from one room to another and the details work well. I think the map could be a bit bigger, especially in the bedroom, but overall this is a really nice piece and showcases that small squares and odd shapes (like around the front desk) actually work better in creating an interior space.
This is some top notch interior map skills right here. As you can tell, their room layouts are not perfect squares and rectangles, but still give plenty of space to move around in with the inner walls doing a lot of work to divide up the space. They might feel just a bit cramped for some people, but I think the detailing is amazing and there is enough room to move around. The flow of the house is great and there is a nice sense of progression moving around. There seems to be plenty to do on the map in terms of in game events which makes moving through the map meaningful. Not having dead and empty space is great because it means getting to take in the details of the map while it not taking wasted time to get to these important event, like saving for example which takes place upstairs.
So what have we learned so far about mapping from these four examples?
Large squares and rectangles, the square house syndrome .
Irregular room shapes that fit and frame the map nicely
Enough space to move around, but cutting back on the dead space
Each room is detailed and has a purpose
A central focus point (or several) for each map. What purpose does a player have to enter?
So now that we have a sense at what makes a map good, we can take a look at some non RPG Maker games & classics and see how they tackle interior map layout.
(from Chrono Trigger)
Even with SNES limitations, the interior map design here seems to fit in the good category for the most part. It’s not a huge map, which is okay for interior map making. Having a house where each separate room or floor is a different map actually works well because things feel isolated and and the progression of the map feels better. The detail is really amazing here and the layout of those details seems believable and flows well. It strikes a nice balance between detailing and leaving room for the player to not feel crammed. The small detail of the corners on the wall does a lot of work to add to the natural feel and it is a pretty unique take on interiors.
(from Pokemon Fire Red/Leaf Green)
The square maps from the Pokemon series can be seen as a relic from the past, but as far as square house syndrome maps go they are not as bad as they could be. These are not the best maps in terms of detail, but because of hardware limitations in the original game they worked with what they could. The layout at least does feel somewhat realistic and quaint. There is no real focus on the map and not much to do in the player’s home besides speak with the mother.
(from Final Fantasy 6)
So the early Final Fantasy games tended to go with the ‘less is more approach’ when it came to interior design as the game’s were all very much story and combat driven (like most early RPGs) leaving exploring and world building as less important factors. Even so, this map still does a few things really well. The curved walls are more extreme than in the Chrono Trigger house and they do well to give it a unique feel. This map would be very uninteresting if it succumbed to the square house syndrome. The details are sparse and spread out giving the player enough breathing room but making the map just a bit barren an uninteresting. The layout is a bit wonky as well and the map seems a bit scattered. There is no central point and there is not any sense of progression. Being a single room does not help but if they were working in any kind of SNES limitation then the overall result was okay.
(from Stardew Valley. Screenshot found here)
Stardew Valley is the most modern showing of detail and layout in a 2D top down view and the result is really nice. The realism in the game does come from the fact that it is a farming simulator. The details are really nice in all of the maps and the house layouts feel natural and easy to maneuver through. The interior layouts rely heavily on the tiny hallways which connect each room and it is a fairly effective and simple approach to deal with the square house syndrome while making it easy for the artist to create houses and assets. Progression is much needed in any kind of farming sim game and their interior layouts do well to promote that.
Hopefully this guide has gotten you to think about map layouts. There are many different way to do interior mapping, but staying consistent through a game is important. Consider the level of detail you want as sometimes to much detail can be cluttering and messy.
The response to these guides has been fun and I will continue to make one once a week until I run out of things to say. I have fun making and talking about game design when it comes to 2D RPG and tend to learn a lot through it as well. If there is a topic you want me to discuss, feel free to message me and let me know.
See you next time~
Nikko @enhousestudios
