"YES" or "NO" to hotspots labeling.

[Iliya]

Please help me. I can't decide which one is better for an adventure game. In my games Cosmos Quest I and Cosmos Quest II there are no hotspot labeling. I decided not to show it. But I received lot of critics about that. Now I'm making Cosmos Quest III. Do you think that hotspots labeling will increase the quality of the game. I will appreciate your opinions.

[AGA]

If you have rooms with only a few obvious objects I think it's fine to leave it without labels. But if your room is packed with small details that you might miss otherwise, it's good to have labels so you can spot stuff with a sweep of the mouse.

[Buckethead]

I think it will certainly improve the playabillity. Without it, you have to click on things that might be something in order to find out if it's a hotspot. With it, you can just scroll over it and see that it could be something usefull.

[Matti]

I've never played a game of the Cosmos Quest series, but as AGA said, if there are only a few objects it's okay to leave it. But personally I always prefer hotspot labels. It's just so comfortable and clear then.

[TwinMoon]

I always think of hotspot labels as the equivalent of looking, and clicking a look cursor on an object as examing that object.

In a low-res game I'd say it's a must, but if you don't have a lot of small objects lying around in the background, it's not something I would miss.

[Iliya]

Thank you guys for the quick reply. I have decided: I will put a labels.

[OneDollar]

On the other hand most games with hotspots have a status bar at the bottom of the screen to tell you what they are, which means the player (or me at any rate) spends the entire game staring at a line of text instead of the graphics. If you do go with hotspots my suggestion would be binding their description to the mouse somehow.

[Makeout Patrol]

You don't necessarily need to use labels, but you always always ALWAYS ALWAYS ALWAYS must give the player some sort of indication that the thing that they are mousing over can be used - the LucasArts GUI has the little status line, The Longest Journey's cursor changed colour, and other games have the labels that you refer to.

Remember: think of every feature of your game practically. You want the game to be as easy to use as possible.

[m0ds]

Hotspot labels all the way! Or a cursor that changes slightly or lights up a bit over an object of interest.



Personally I don't enjoy "hidden" hotspots, unless there is a really special reason.

[BOYD1981]

i always liked the thing that the first two Simon games had where you'd press F10 or F11 and stars would appear over hotspots and items for if you were stuck.

[Ryan Timothy B]

Gotta love the thumbs up Christ from Dogma.

I totally agree with some type of indication for hotspots.  Either displayed text, or glowing cursors--whichever one really depends on the type of game you're making.

[Iliya]

Too many "YES". I already made a GUI which will display the HOTSPOT'S name in Cosmos Quest 3. Thank you guys for the opinions.

[mkennedy]

Is it possible to make hotspot labeling optional? Then hard core gamers could just turn it off, but others, (like myself,) could leave it on.

[Makeout Patrol]

I don't see why you couldn't just put the script that makes it appear on screen in an if structure that is only triggered if a variable, set by the user, is true.

[olafmoriarty]

I don't see why you couldn't just put the script that makes it appear on screen in an if structure that is only triggered if a variable, set by the user, is true.

Agreed, it's definitely possible. Another way of doing it would be to put the hotspot label in a seperate GUI and give the user an option to turn this GUI off.