Exploring the neighborhood beyond the deck

I'm at a crossroads in the design of this game, so I want to start a conversation.

A few people have suggested my game needs some exploration mode where they player is no longer confined to the deck. They want to explore the world.

I like this idea, but it's a very big design change, and it's interesting that I'm getting what appears to be conflicting feedback on it.

People say it would be really funny if the deck collapses under you and you get kicked off the deck. You then have to fend for yourself as hordes of angry neighbors try to take you down. It's gameplay similar to Vampire Survivors.

But that appears to come with some unintended consequences.

If you can get kicked off the deck, you can presumably also go and explore the rest of the world surrounding your deck. Fine. Maybe you are allowed this, but it is more dangerous so you can't explore that much.

Okay, but how do you get back onto the deck? You're not allowed off of it. The deck has no stairs.

Ah. Easy solution. You could just build some stairs. Once you can build some stairs, you are allowed back onto the deck.

But that introduces another problem. Now that you have stairs, what's stopping you from walking off the deck whenever you want?

If you can walk off the deck during the deck defense phase, then why can't you also walk off of it during the deck building phase?

And if you can explore the world during the deck building phase, and there is no time limit on that phase what's stopping you from building some stairs and then using the deck building phase to gather all of the intel on the whole map right afterwards?

It only seems reasonable to place some constraints on the player's ability to explore the world outside of the deck.

During the deck building phase, there could be a time constraint. Once you run out of time, the next wave of Karens starts coming at the deck. You then have to get back to the deck to defend it or lose your ability to defend against future raids.

During the deck defense phase, we presume that the enemies are so strong and numerous that you won't stand a chance if you're out on a limb far away from your deck. You also want to be close to your deck so you can defend it. Maybe your house has health, and if the Karens go after your house, you lose. So you need to protect it. That's your incentive to be in the vicinity.

People are also saying they like the idea of not being able to leave the deck. They're saying it makes the game more about your decision to expand to strategic locations and less strictly about tower defense. It makes for a game that's more of a balance of tower defense and expansion strategy, not just tower defense.

I'm not sure. At the very least, I think you can have one but not the other.

You're either confined to the deck or you're not confined to the deck. There is no in-between option where you're confined to the deck sometimes but not other times.

If you're confined to the deck, there is no ability to build stairs or escape the deck. Your ability to explore the world depends on your ability to expand the deck. In this case, there is no need to put a time limit on the deck building phase because the deck building phase is not a free form neighborhood exploration phase as well. You can only explore as far as you can build.

If you're not confined to the deck, you should be able to build stairs or any other means of escaping the deck. You can always explore wherever you want, but there will always be some kind of tradeoff you have to make. Maybe you can go out really far from the deck, but you need to budget some time so you can handle the next wave of attackers. You can freely explore, but you might not have all the right tools at your disposal.

Not being confined to the deck feels more natural, but it might come at the cost of the game's unique identity. The game becomes more like Factorio or other similar free form construction games like Minecraft. The deck building and deck defense phases become somewhat less distinct from each other, separated only by the start and end of waves.

I'm leaning towards giving the player the freedom to explore the neighborhood. I'm going to try that out for a time and see how people respond to it. It's tough to make these decisions because it's never clear what the right choice is, but prototyping usually puts the problem in a different light so I'll keep moving.