Well, I guess I might as well say a few things myself. If anybody were to look at my The Sims 3 topic and play through my Sninge Pit, they would find that the tomb is linear in design for the most part. However, there is one part where you have to deal with a bunch of wall holes. At the end of that puzzle, you have a choice of two holes. One hole unlocks the door into the rest of the small tomb, while the other one gives you a very nice gem, but forces you to go back to the second room and use a newly revealed wall hole to start the wall hole puzzle all over again. Of course, the wall hole in the second room that only appears when you fail the wall hole puzzle does have a nice sum of cash in it. As for linearity in The Sims 3's tombs, sims skilled in martial arts can just zeneport to anywhere they want to go (I wish there was a way to make rooms that can't be teleported into.)
Yeah, Half Life is a very linear game, and I wish they had some sort of level select feature in it. The concept of a large world that invokes exploration is a good one. I do believe that, if done correctly, the style of gameplay that Portal uses could make for a wonderful game that involves a large world that is nonlinear and has many places to explore and solve puzzles in. There could be sections where making portals in front of and behind you could be necessary, for there could be small rooms that require you to traverse them a number of times before they activate something critical. However, there should be a limit to how far apart portals can be, unless they are placed on special surfaces. You don't want physical space and 3D reality to be obsolete, do you? The universe is a GARGANTUAN place and I like it that way, for it should not be degraded and made into a joke. You might think that it is bad that we humans are so tiny compared to the VAST size of the universe, but I assure you that it would not be wonderful for us to be the size of even the earth itself. If we were the size of the earth, even the biggest of stars would only be the size of a large city compared to us. With that in mind, teleportation should be used in a manner that compliments exploration, but does not completely degrade and destroy it.
In a world of exploration and nonlinearity, the portal gun from portal could be used in conjuction with special pads to take water from a lake and use it to harden lava elsewhere in the world. There could be lifts that require skillful use of the portal gun and are built so that only the lift platforms can have portals. There should be a reasonable limit as to how far the portal gun can shoot out portals before the projectiles dissipate in the air.
Edited by Nolornbon, 28 February 2012 - 12:41 PM.
