Topic: old style stair climbing, and face-on doors

[KaZudra]

IGA's Metroidvania castles ARE 2D mazes.

he uses the maze part very loosely...

SOTN really was like a maze, first time playing it I got stuck a few times, the rest of the games have minor "Road Blocks" that are easily passed after you beat the boss of that area...

[X]

I never really had any problems with getting through SotN. HoD on the other hand... there were some spots that confused the hell outta me.

[Arcraith]

ok, specifically how would a hedge maze work? would it have to be redesigned as something like the garden of madness from dawn of sorrow?

[TheouAegis]

Repeating maze method.
Left Left Right Left Right Right Right Left
but...
Left Left Left = dead-end
Left Left Right Right = back to first Left

[Arcraith]

Repeating maze method.
Left Left Right Left Right Right Right Left
but...
Left Left Left = dead-end
Left Left Right Right = back to first Left

eh...sorry i don't follow.

[TheouAegis]

It's similar to how mazes were made in Legend of Zelda, aka The Repeating Maze. The maze was defined by the order of screen transitions. Although in a platformer, you wouldn't have UP or DOWN to work with (stairs wouldn't be used in a hedge maze). So walking left two screens would take you to a screen where you would then have to walk back to the right to progress, otherwise you'd be taken back to the first screen or some dead end.

[Arcraith]

oh. right, that sounds a bit like that section in the floating gardens in AoS. hm, still, for a hedge maze i'd personally rather face-on entrances and stuff because the repeating maze method sounds a bit unrealistic, though its true its just a game so i guess realism isn't that important...

[kevinski]

question: how would you implement a sidescrolling maze in a game like castlevania? wouldn't the best way be to use face on doors and have a top down map for that particular section?

The Shinobi games on Game Gear use this style of door, actually, and I'd actually liken the levels to mazes (especially the factory). They don't use a map at all, however. I, personally, would recommend having two or three layers of map, depending on the complexity of the mazes, with the displayed layer being determined by which room you're in. (You should, of course, be able to toggle through the available layers within the map screen.)

[Arcraith]

ooh, layers of map sounds cool 
though itd be better if they had connecting corridors between the layers, though that could get confusing.