Do we like non-interactive hotspots?

[auhsor]

Yeah, I don't mind non-interactive hotspots as long as the message is more than just 'It's a door'. But I do understand that this does make it hard for determining which items are usable or not. So I think that, as long as whether you use non-interactive hotspots or not consistently throughout the whole game then its fine.

I think Sierra games had a lot more non-interactive hotspots than Lucasarts did.

[remixor]

I think hotspots for non-essential items are great.  I love being able to get descriptions for everything even if they don't matter.  Steve McCrea's recent III Spy is an excellent example.  To me, it makes the overal game world more interactive and adds definition to the player character, since his reactions to various items bring out his personality.

See Runaway for an example of how NOT to do this.

[AGA]

I've always tried to have a response for every non-inventory-item interaction on everything in a room. Before CJ upped the limit I would quite often run out of hotspots to use... As long as the messages are quite interesting or amusing, and not just 'it's a NAME' then it adds to a game, imo.

[Gemmalah]

I like to have the charactor say things in responce to clicks on everything!
I don't like it when you walk into a room and there is alot of background and only one item worth looking at. waste of background.

tell me is this wrong then, i have a sigh saying 'Park, no dogs' when you look at it it reads it out and adds a comment. This is not a clue though, i just know people who can't read too well and would appeaciate the option of having it read out. (when I add sound though)

[remixor]

Gemmelah: No reason you shouldn't do that, especially since it adds an additional comment, unless you're concerned about size (voice clips obviously make for larger game files).

[Inkoddi]

When I was playing Book of Spells i was extremely irritaded over those "I must've gone blind! I can't look at the sky" messages.

EDIT: the 10000th post in Adventure-related talk and chat!!!

[DragonRose]

I absolutly HATE it when there's no response at all when I click on something.  This drove me NUTS in P:DA.   It was my first non-Sierra graphic adventure (you always remember your first! *sniff!*) I ended up spending more time clicking on things when there's no message, because I'll think I've just missed it. I spent abot five minutes in the bathroom trying to look at the faucet or something.

If it's just a wide expanse and you can't think of anything to write about it, put in a general room description.  This is what they usually did in Sierra games, and it's the main reason why if you click anywhere you'll get some sort of message.  Avoid this if you're doing the @MOUSEOVERHOTSPOT@ thingy though.

If the hotspot is for something that isn't a clue- like your No Dogs sign, Gemmalah- go for it. A great thing about non-essential hotspot messages is that they really fill out the game.   For example, say you're looking at your main character's bedroom.  There's a bookshelf, a wall calendar, and a CD player.  None of these things influence the storyline.  If you look at them and learn that the bookshelf is full of Anne Rice novels, the wall calendar has photos from the 12 Greatest Horror Movies Of All Time and the CD player is loaded with a bootleg Marilyn Manson recording, you get one character.  If the bookshelf is groaning with Harlequin Romances, the calendar has photos of teenage movie stars and the CD player is playing Britany Speers, you have a totally different character.  But you wouldn't be able to see the differences from the background.

[MillsJROSS]

Personally, I'm not big on even having any names appear when the mouse is over a hotspot. I think anything drawn should have some sort of response, and it should be left to the player to choose which hotspots are important to the game. It's the game designer who should also be able to give subtle, and sometime blatant, clues to the player as to puzzle advancement in a game.

Syberia is a perfect example of a game that does exactly what this topic is suggesting. It shows the player everything of importance, and it infuriated me that I'd see all this eye candy and there was nothing the main character would say about it, most of the time.

Even in a serious game, the player can give me some serious insight to a sunset or even a marble floor. I'm an interaction whore, and without them I feel that the player unintentionally steps out from the game, and in a game, one should be immersed.

-MillsJROSS

[remixor]

Mills: I completely agree about Syberia.  It was incredible how much detail was rendered into the backgrounds, but you could hardly interact with anything, and when you pick things up the character doesn't even say a word!  That was a HUGE waste in my opinion.

[Quintaros]

Well I gotta admit, some of my design philosophies are being influenced by this thread.    Initially my plan was to keep look interactions to a minimum.    The look interactions I had planned were merely showing a close-up of the object in question rather than giving a text box description.  I believed that if a description was neccessary than the problem lay in the graphics being inadequate.  As many have pointed out the descriptions of objects and hotspots can help establish the character.  Creating a well fleshed out character is certainly desirable but I'm torn on the method.  Are the text boxes his thoughts or is he talking to himself?  Or should the text boxes take an omniscient point of view and be a narrator stepping in?  None of these methods really appeal to me but I do want to create the immersive experience that players seek.  I think the problem may simply be that I haven't yet learned the language of games.  I try to apply film conventions to my game design and perhaps as a result I'm making a rather crappy game.  

Much to consider.

[SSH]

For Awakening of the Sphinx, I'm using the broken-sword style interface of:

Cursor over hotspot/object/exit gives a pointer change to indicate action
Left-click is activate/pick-up/etc.
Right-click is look

Also, inventory items can be used on things, and the left/right clicks for inventory applies too

By making the player do something active to get the description of a hotspot, then the description-as-thought model works better than having an @OVERHOTSPOT@ or tooltip, IMO.

It really confused me that left/right are the other way around in BASS!

As for the dialogs: well, I thought about implementing the iconic dialog system of BS, but it looks like FAR too much work: won't be able to use dialog scripts, will have to do it all manually, and have to draw of icons to represent each topic! However, might try and see if I can get the inventory items to be extra topics of discussion during a conversation, like in BS.

EDIT:
AGS now has the ability to have a thinking animation to use during such "thoughts" and a gui option so that the thought can appear in a though bubble rather than just a white box, if you prefer that.

ANOTHER EDIT:
Having done a pile of research into the Amarna period, I will also use look interactions to incorporate this info into the agme for those who are interested. It's Edutainment!