How to Prevent a player from feeling lost?

I’m Currently making a futuristic dungeon crawler with a friend.

The Map Can be seen here. Players go to the shop to buy and upgrade equipment and go to the queue to enter a dungeon.

I don’t want the player feeling lost and leaving the game after seeing a server with 25-30 other people in it crowding around the shops and such. How can I prevent this action? (The spawns surround the statue in the middle)

I can’t make other players invisible as they have to see each other to get around.

Should I make some sort of tutorial?

1 Like

How about you make a mini map that players can look to for guidance when there are big crowds (or they are just lost). I wouldn’t recommend making everyone else invisible, because Many players play these types of games with friends and would get confused because of that.

If you don’t know how to make a mini map, use this as a resource: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E8kVwq2XbhQ
The video is really good and goes really in depth about it, but the kid is really young so beware of misspells.

Please Mark as Solution if this solves your problem!

Maybe you could add a Gui where it shows all the locations, and when you click on one, a billboard Gui appears where the location is. Another way is that you could do the same thing but instead of a billboard Gui showing up, you teleport to the location. Another way is to add signs showing where stuff are so it is harder to get lost.

I also like the mini-map idea that @AidanPlaysYT_Real suggested, so you can mark his post as solution if it solved the problem.

I wouldn’t really worry too much as this is kind of a small map and I don’t think much players will find themselves lost.

There are multiple ways:

  • make a minimap, as other people suggested
  • add colourful neon blocks that point arrows towards the queue, shop, etc
  • add billboardGui that are huge so players can see them
  • add a teleport (not that great)
2 Likes

I agree. Many modern roblox games make use of arrows and/or large, bright signs to direct players to important locations.
A tutorial may also help orient your players if you’re really concerned.

Typically when designing video games there are a few techniques used by designers to subliminally lead players to where they need to be. Below are a few of the common tricks you can use to guide players in the right direction.

1. Lighting Cues

Using a small light or something that contrasts greatly from the rest of the scene will always draw a human first. This is why school buses and construction hard hats are yellow while military camouflage is a mixture of green and brown.

If you want the player to go somewhere, use some light.

In your case, I would use a spotlight to illuminate the queue and I would ensure that a player who spawns in is looking in the direction of that queue.

2. Trails, Paths, Ect…

Using a little bit of variation in your texture to hint at a commonly followed trail/path or even just flat out defining a clear pathway will help guide players in the right direction.

Just like electricity, a player is always going to choose the path of least resistance. This means that the player will do whatever requires the least amount of brainpower. By adding a visual cue like a path, you are tapping into their “cognitive presets” or muscle memory which allows them to decide which way they will go subconsciously instead of using the more mentally-intensive process of consciously making a decision.

3. Markers

Using a simple floating marker (which is clearly visible) that says something simple like

“Join Here!”, “Shop”, or “Game Queue”

will reduce the amount of time a player has to spend interpreting the new environment looking for other visual cues to tell them what to do. This is much more “brute force” and not always the best method, but for many Roblox games, this is more than suitable. Especially in the case of a lobby.

4. Noise Reduction

This last one is more of a good practice than a technique.
When there is too much going on, players will begin to get confused. If you have too many players in one place then clients will begin to lag, navigation becomes significantly harder, Closter phobia is rampant, and overall confusion ensues.

Unneeded noise in games overloads our internal processors (our brain) and causes frustration, an increase in the learning curve, and overall an unenjoyable experience.

To resolve this, reduce unneeded structures, obstacles, and maybe even offer a “hide players” button.


Hopefully, this helps you a little. In case you want to reference this again and you can’t find this post, I will be uploading this answer to the r/RobloxDevelopers wiki on Reddit.
You can view that post here

4 Likes