To answer this question clearly, you have to say from the following aspects:
1, game standard size, 2, terrain, 3, road network and regional division, 4, game content density, 5, workload, 6, dynamic loading.
1, standard size of the game. There are no rules, Fiona Fang. The rules mentioned here are all standard sizes applicable to a game, that is, measurement. No matter what kind of game, there must be a set of very complete and tested rulers. This scale comes from the basic values of the game characters, how tall the characters are, how fast they walk, how far they can jump, and so on. According to this set of data, we can calculate all other relevant data, for example, how big the room should be, how wide the street should be, how fast the car should run, etc., which have to go through a lot of tests and adjustments. Some people may say, aren't all these data ready? Only measure the data of the real world, if it is really that simple, but the problem is that the real world is not as harsh as the game world. For example, in the real world, when a person climbs a railing, everyone has his own climbing method, and he can involuntarily adapt to the height of the railing according to the different heights of the railing. However, in the game world, if the above situation is completely restored, it is conceivable how many works will be extended, so there are definitely no rules and standards. When we know the basic rules of the game, we can start making maps.
2. Terrain. When there is nothing, the first thing to decide is what kind of terrain the whole world is on. This terrain contains all the possibilities, where is the river, where is the mountain, where is the ups and downs, where is the flat. This step can't determine the map size, but it can have a rough range. Generally speaking, the whole world map will be in a square with a side length of 3 or 4 kilometers. The specific size will be discussed in detail at four or five o'clock.
3. Road network and regional division. The whole city should be based on a complete road system. On the basis of existing undulating terrain, where to build main roads and paths, when the city is empty, all roads must be built first. With the road, there will be regional division, where is the commercial area, where is the industrial area, where can be the rich area, where should be the poor area, in this step can be determined.
4. Well, there are all kinds of terrain and roads, but how big is the world? This will focus on how much playability this game has and how to determine the content density of the game. Generally speaking, a sandbox game should have at least the following categories: main task (main storyline), sub-task (optional storyline), collection (countless spoils), challenge (based on a specific game concept, such as AR traning in Batman) and random events (some uncertain events around the protagonist, such as karma in Farcry). After determining how much content each item can do, you can roughly distribute the content on the map to test the content density of the game. Generally speaking, it takes 20 seconds to 1 minute for a player to travel from one game content location (such as a collection location) to another game content location (such as a challenge). Then with this interval and distribution, we basically know how appropriate the map should be.
It's time to look at the workload. The biggest challenge in playing sand table games is the workload control of the team. This seems to be mainly the workload of artists, but it really involves all departments of the group. Let's look at an example. First of all, the game design says that a building is needed to show some kind of play, so the level design is made into a building, and then both inside and outside are needed, and then the art is brought in, inch by inch, and the beauty is made. Thousands of resources are needed here, and these resources need the work of models and materials. Next, the lighting group will illuminate the whole building from the inside out. Wherever dynamic lights are needed and static lights are needed, they must be done well. Then, the special effects team brought it over again, where there was smoke and where there were water drops, and it was smoothed. Don't worry, it's not over yet. Next, the sound group took the building again. Where do you need sound effects, where do you need to increase the volume, and where do you need to be quiet? Here we go again. Finally, the testing department got the building and suddenly found that there seemed to be something wrong with the memory and the number of frames. Ok, the building went to the program group to test, found some problems, and then kicked back to the level design and art, lighting special effects and sound effects, whose works were not sorted out. Look, what a workload this is! After this example, everyone should have an intuitive impression, so how much the whole group can do and how much it can do well is a very important issue for the whole world. Everyone says GTAV is so good and the map is so big. Why don't you say that their team of thousands of people have worked hard to make this map for five years on the basis of mature procedures and tools, and a large piece is mountainous, not so high density!
6, come on, the last point is annoying, dynamic loading. Generally speaking, when the map has a shape, the level design needs to work with the program to see how to cut the map. In order to achieve stable frame number and memory usage, it is best to cut each block with the same size and memory budget. In this way, there will be no phenomenon that a picture is particularly beautiful and a picture is particularly ugly, or the number of frames is high and low. This step requires a lot of management and testing work, and it is necessary to keep running around the map to see if there is a peak position. Generally, there is a peak position, either the level is not well done or the art is too hard. Anyway, it is to constantly debug and modify to achieve the best performance.
The above are the main points of making sand table game maps, and of course, more complicated things will be involved, so I won't describe them here. Generally speaking, a team of several hundred people completed 1 to 6, basically 1, and two years passed. If the system and tools are more complicated, it will be more painful and longer.