There is still the normal town during the endgame which allows you to tie up the last remaining puzzle chains of all the characters.
It feels desolate with most of the puzzles solved. They deliberately closed off whole sections because there is just nothing to do there, and talking to NPCs there would only repeat old stuff.
I don’t know how to change this without making it that open in the first place.
I thought the wireframe world was fine as is. After all, you were in the “unfinished” parts of the game design, or something. I thought the factory was a bit sterile. I know it was done on purpose, but still…
-dZ.
But I’m not talking about the factory or the wireframe world but the normal town, which is the “openworld” in this game. It’s similar to Rubacava: it’s huge and there is a lot to discover, but after solving most of the puzzles there it becomes a bit less alive (haha).
you can do it with NPC schedules. They could have their life and do a routine. Go from home to work, etc. you’d see them walking in the street in the process. A lot of stuff that is only there to make believe it’s a real world, not part of a puzzle. Of course TWP would have cost twice :).
Termina in Majora’s Mask (and the Bombers’ Notebook).
Well you actually do have that in the game once. The random people who are entering the circus in Ransome´s flashback.
Yes, that’s a neat idea!
Btw. have you played Lure of the Temptress? It’s short but nice!
There was also the forest, but it was really faked, e.g. the postal worker was still in his office when looking there.
I specificially did not mention that because that actually was part of a puzzle.
Nonetheless it did make the world more alive.
That’s also one thing I love about Maniac Mansion.
I agree, but in my opinion, that just comes with the territory: you have completed most of the puzzles, it’s time to move on to another area. Other than turning the game into an “open world” (or walking simulation), I don’t know how that could change.
Some adventure games achieved this result gradually closing the world in a way that was coherent with the story.
For example, Sinking Island is set on hmm… a sinking island and mainly in a wonderful Art Deco hotel. The more the island sinks, the more the lower levels of the hotel building become inaccessible.
BTW, Sinking Island is not one of the best adventure games of Benoit Sokal, but the environment is simply gorgeous.
Yes, I did. I didn’t much like it, but it does a bit of that.
The problem is that in an adventure game, where each location must be drawn, it is too expensive to add character homes and working places, and streets for them to walk on. This thing is best done in an isometric world, where you have a world editor and it is easy to add “more of the same”.
Not necessarily, you can draw doors which are meant for NPCs (e.g. homes or work places) but the PC cannot enter. And a tavern is a must!
IMHO the town feels empty because you are able to solve several puzzles before you get to this section. But in TWP I don’t think this is bad, because it prepares the atmosphere in the factory and the wireframe world; the player is beginning to feel alone.
But if you would like to eliminate this empty world you have several options:
You can introduce more of this “doors”.Beneath a Steel Sky, Else Heart.Break() and AFAIR Dropsy did this too.
The problems with this solution:
The developers had to implement the daily rountines. That’s not easy if you would like to do it right.
The player has to search the character that he would like to talk to. And maybe he needs an object that is in a store that is closed (at this daytime). Both are things that could frustrate the player.
The are several surreal inconsistencies in the game. To begin with, it’s quite strange that someone has built a giant Art Deco luxury hotel on a small island in the middle of the ocean. The helicopter is just a way to move to and from the island.
The story has been designed to create a sense of tension and danger (there is a giant storm, the island is sinking and the characters have to escape) but the game itself is a classical adventure game in which the player can’t die.
But then you don’t have an open world.
This works well for introducing you to the world. But in the end you have the open world emptiness problem again.
This is like the opposite of those puzzle barriers and may work quite well. As designer you can then concentrate on those remaining open parts to keep them alive even near the end of the game.
They could make a sequel which is a flight simulator and you are the helicopter pilot 
That would be scary!
Yes. But you could design it clever. In Monkey Island I had never the feeling of a “closed world”.
If you have an open world, you will have sometime the “emptiness problem”. But with some more “doors” you can keep this phase as short as possible.
But you need a world that you can partially close. It works for the Sinking Island. In TWP you have still the map.
