What are your personal rules with designing backdrops?

[Kesky]

Just as the name suggests. Whether it's a city level, hell, or whatever you happen to be designing. What do you do about backdrops. I don't mean skyboxes in particular but if you do something cool with that let me know. I think I remember John Romero saying something like "Don't design an area that a player can't get to." But I know not everyone follows so I'm curious how people go about it.

[Stabbey]

I don't think that's what he meant, and if he did, he broke his own rule multiple times. I think what that rule means is don't put pickups in an area the player can't get to.

 

I don't have any rules for backdrops, I just have an instinct which says "hey, a window here might make this part more interesting visually to look at, instead of a blank wall". Windows and skylights give an illusion of open space. I've even added small arenas just for decoration. For instance, in "More Tricks and Traps Than You Require," I added inaccessible computer rooms - one normal, one flickering and half-flooded, and a balcony looking out onto grounds in the north part of the map. In another map, Control Tower, I added a high window to a room, well above what the player could see, even though that view shouldn't be possible because of the rest of the level geometry.

[Wo0p]

I specifically design backdrops nobody can get to xD... but let me specify. I use backdrops to suggest scale, location and potentially as a storytelling tool. Like... just over this one chest-high wall you can get a glimpse of a demon portal. But you're in the middle of a city. How did it get there? Is it a localised demon incursion or a symptom of a giant conspiracy?

That's how I like to use backdrops :) That and big vistas because I like horizons. But yeah, I agree with Stabbey above that putting items in places that you can't reach is misleading to a player. They might waste their time trying to find the secret that gets them there, and then get frustrated when they figure out its just a visual piece. So don't do that, is my advice. 

Edited April 9, 2024 by Wo0p