Why all my games use tunnels!

Hello everyone,

I made kind of a strange choice some might say in TierraMon, and in all my other games if you play them, and that is that I like tunnels/hallways!

If the player can move around, they will be almost entirely in hallways in my games so far! So I thought I'd explain why!

I am a sighted developer, but I also have gone through a lot of mazes. Either in video games, or corn mazes, or little mazes at amusement parks. There is something very interesting about them, sight is not immediately that helpful if you're in a maze. Everyone who has played a maze in a video game can agree, if all you have is your vision, it's not helpful. 

The absolute best thing to do in a maze is to put a hand on a wall and follow it. Eyes open, or eyes closed, the speed is basically the same. You'll get out faster than any other approach. 

If you're in a labyrinth, meaning there isn't one entrance and one exit, then it's all about putting down markers. Whenever you're at an intersection you need to put down markers letting you know which ways you have and haven't gone. This doesn't necessarily need vision either. As long as you have a fast way to tell where you have/haven't been, then you're good.

Then I thought about other ways you can get through a maze. Another helpful way is to have someone with a birds eye view giving you step by step directions.  A lot of mazes will have people who can have an over the top view of the entire maze. So having a spotter of sort, also makes perfect sense to me.

In a labyrinth, having the goal making noise would be far more helpful than any simple visual queue possibly could. It instantly lets you know when you make a choice that takes you farther or closer from the goal, it gives you a rough estimate of how many walls between you and it, and will make it very clear once you are there. This also accomplishes a secondary goal, it allows you to stay oriented. Which is incredibly helpful in a labyrinth. 

So when I decided to try to make audio games as a sighted dev, I spent a lot of time considering how I would convey information. Once I thought of maze/labyrinth like structures, the idea clicked to me. The only helpful thing sight really does in a labyrinth is tell you where turns are. So if I conveyed that through audio, I could play around with everything else! Which if you play any of my other games, you'll find it took me awhile to decide which way I liked!

But with TierraMon I now feel very comfortable with how I help people navigate the tunnels of Tierra, and I can't wait to get more to share with all of you!

If anyone is interested, feel free to drop a follow on my twitter as I give more updates there!

https://twitter.com/TierraMonDev

Thank you so much for following my journey here! Have a great day!