Some ideas for level selection...

[SilverWarior]

Actualy if I'll have enough time I will include planetmaps aswell. This should definitly count as different locations becouse each planet will have its own texture representing its surface. And becouse there wil be various types of planets it would be perfectly clear that those a truly different locations.
But for now I don't want to get ahead of myself.

[WILL]

Actualy if I'll have enough time I will include planetmaps aswell. This should definitly count as different locations becouse each planet will have its own texture representing its surface. And becouse there wil be various types of planets it would be perfectly clear that those a truly different locations.
But for now I don't want to get ahead of myself.

Yeah, planet maps show a location of where you are at the top of the HUD or screen or something... those types of things help show the players (and the judges) that you are at location X, Y or Z. However the idea is that each must be visually different, hence this part of the rules:

"LOCATIONS: Each individual location must have it's own visual theme or style. Music can be used to help improve the theme, but will not count if used alone to differentiate from a past location."

So if you are visiting a planet it's self then yes that would count, but if you are visiting X, Y or Z system then that system must have it's own look, it's self. It must look distinctly different from the other systems, not just have a different number of different coloured planets to really count.

ie. if it's all plain black with white stars and 3 planets in System X and you travel to System Y and it is all black with white stars and has 5 planets then the judges would not count each of them as having their own visual theme or style. You'd have to add more features like nebulae or space dust, etc so that there is something there that makes it look different, not just the planets.

Now if it's 1 system and you are traveling from planet to planet then they would have to be big enough and have things around them that make it behave like a location rather than an object in space. It would be even better if you could visit the planet it's self (repair ship, shops, etc) because then you are actually visiting that planet (location).

[Ingemar]

Interesting question, and I like your examples! Indeed, there are a few different ways to connect the world.

For me, some kind of interconnected world seems natural, a continuous world where you can go anyplace you like. The question is rather how to travel. I first thought about driving/flying from place to place, but there is a risk of the travelling either gets dull, or it is so short distances that it doesn't really count as travelling (can be helped by some accelerated mode or "space warps"), or the transportation is spiced up by combat, which would then have to be so integrated with the game that it controls what the game is really about. Hm...

Now, I consider some solution more based on "portals", moving instantly from location to location, possibly with some animation between to symbolize the actual travelling.

[Darthman]

In my case there will be different locations with able to warp from one location to another.

[WILL]

Another alternative, if you are looking for a more "seamless" look/feel approach, could be to enter some kind of warp sequence or such. This could provide an opportunity to make the act of traveling it's self a part of the gameplay AND you could add in a set of new gameplay that takes place in between locations should you want to go that way too.

Games like Ratchet & Clank Future do this and it's quite fun if done well.