Have a look at the screen shots for OTT, the link is in my signature. The artist and I decided to leave the light outline around each tile in order to keep the orthogonal nature of the game obvious to the user. But just recently, I've wondered if it was more of a distraction or detractor from the graphics, than it was a help for the player. I'd be interested in your opinions, keep 'em or lose 'em.

I guess the most elegant way would be removing the grid from the titles and including an option, wich allows to enable em (via software).

So... no vote from me. I can't even tell what I would prefer (and yes... I already played it) :)

Edit: Oh and the result of the vote can be still used for setting defaults ;)

I think this depends on other factors in your game. If you limit people to tile based movement then I think the boundaries are helpful to know exactly where a player is going to move, especially when you get into more open areas. If everything is based on the tiles though like getting seen by the monsters then they should be left in so people can clearly see where they are going to get caught and where they aren't.

The very design of the levels and the tiles used makes obvious that the game is played in a grid. The lines don't need to be actual lines, either - any other clue (darker grass, some pebbles, whatever) will do.

Obvious for us here who have probably played lot of grid based games ... ;)

I voted to leave them in: they are faint enough that they don't distract and they do give the play area structure.

David