What would you prefer: Run to mouse click, or teleport to mouse click?

[Knox]

Hi,

When playing an adventure game, sometimes players (myself included) get impatient and would like to bypass a character walking from A to B.

I was wondering what would most people prefer between 2 options to bypass the walking animation:

A) While walking to point B, the player can right-click the mouse and the character will instantly appear at point B
B) While walking to point B, the player can right-click the mouse and the character will run to point B.

I was thinking I could even give the option to the player to choose which they prefer in the game settings.

The only thing Im "worried" about is if the player chooses option B to bypass walking animations, the run icon/mouse mode becomes kind of redundant:


What do you think?

[Radiant]

Well, if the issue is that players are impatient, then I should point out that the running option doesn't actually solve that problem. So I would prefer the teleport. AGS has SkipUntilCharacterStops() that works perfectly well for this. In fact most of my recent games use this, and I've had no criticism over that.

[DoorKnobHandle]

This is very subjective, of course, but I have found that I personally tend to get more and more impatient the more the game allows me to skip walking/running. With a game that has a decent character movement speed and where I know I just need to wait a couple of seconds to move from A to B, it's okay. But when I know I can double-click to teleport/run (or similar), that will actually result in me losing my patience more, rushing everywhere.

I know for a fact that not everybody reacts this way so take this for what it's worth.

[Stupot]

I'm not against teleporting out of a room, but I wouldn't like being able to jump from one part of a room to another.  I'd rather run or walk.

[Darth Mandarb]

Interesting question.

Personally I'd make this dynamic and something the player can select for themselves.  Like part of the "options" menu/configuration.  That way you can have both options catered the to the player's needs/wants.

My personal opinion; I'd find teleporting annoying.  I don't know there's something... zen... about waiting for the character to arrive where you clicked.  A patience in game-play.

[Knox]

These are all great comments, thanks!

I like the idea of giving the player the choice within the game settings, that way I guess everyone can be happy. I personally wouldn't want to teleport within a room either, however running wouldn't bother as much.

Perhaps I could disable the run for certain areas I really want the player to take their time, and less important areas (like long non-interactive hallways, streets, etc) the run could be "unlocked".

[Slasher]

Hi

I have implemented this 'run' option in my latest game. Options that allow the player to walk, trot or run. There is a case or two where I disable these options but do have 'Display' reasons: 'Out of breath' etc.  Of course you need to make sure animations work at any speed etc etc else you will need to disable these options.

[Anian]

Running doesn't break the immersion as much (or at all) like teleporting does. It also doesn't make it seem like I want to finish the game, but rather I'm just hurrying.

Same as with reading the dialog - if you skip it because you've read it, before the game automatically changed it, that's ok, but if a player is just skipping through the dialog, that maybe points to a disinterest or not properly worked out text amount (as in waiting too long before you let a player interact again, even if it's just asking a new question).

[cat]

Perhaps I could disable the run for certain areas I really want the player to take their time, and less important areas (like long non-interactive hallways, streets, etc) the run could be "unlocked".

If you do have long non-interactive hallways - why don't you remove them from the game? Or only let the player walk there the first time they enter the room and afterwards skip it?

I agree that teleporting makes impatient. I'd prefer a doubleclick on exit-teleport to a general teleport.

Funny sidenote: I played a Sherlock Holmes Adventure where he, when walking longer distances, would start to run. But only in outside backgrounds, as he is a gentleman and does not run inside

[MurrayL]

The first game I played with a teleport option (which I actually noticed and used) was Gemini Rue, and it worked pretty well. Just press Esc to skip walking (obviously disabled in some places).

I think it would work well when combined with a Longest Journey style 'double-click to run' interface (which frees up space in the GUI).

[CaptainD]

I've recently played Torin's Passage, which had a teleport option.  I did use it, sometimes it felt like a good feature, but to be honest I think the best option is for double-clicking on the screen exit to directly take you to the new location rather than having to walk there.  Unless your character moves really slowly to begin with, it shouldn't take long to reach something actually in the location; usually when you want to move quickly it's to another location, not within the same location.

[Retro Wolf]

How about one click to walk, double click to run? If you're getting impatient by how slow a character moves, have a fast walk as default. Or you could scale the speed, different speed to different sized rooms.

[m0ds]

I like double ckick to run or such. TBH I think it (running) should be 'as standard' in point and click games where possible. People can run, they don't always walk everywhere...and sometimes walk animations and speeds make it slow to move across rooms I think any backtracking puzzles would be more fun if you could run, at least. If the designer can find a balance then great, as many games the walking areas/locations are simply too small to justify running.

[Retro Wolf]

I think any backtracking puzzles would be more fun if you could run, at least.

If it's a big game, I like the idea of being able to teleport when backtracking to another area (as long as it's previously been visited), but teleporting within the room? Not so much.