The indie game industry has gotten some major hits over the past 10 years such as Super Meat boy, Braid and Limbo, but there is one game that was often forgotten and was at the forefront of the indie game industry. The simple platform-adventure game, Cave Story, released in 2004 for PC, was a throwback to the classic NES style games such as Metroid and Megaman. Like its predecessors, the game was quite difficult and required a lot of skill that put off many players initially. Many years after its release the game started to pick up popularity again with its rerelease for the Wii and Nintendo Ds and was a staple in Nintendo’s list of IPs with another release of a 3D version in 2011 and eventually another release for the recent Switch on 20 June 2017. Although a simple game in terms of mechanics, the game shines in its well-developed characters and world design. The atmosphere that runs through the games narrative really relies on the game’s story and dialogue choices and outcomes. The characters throughout Cave Story were developed in a way that make you care for them and the dialogue choices that you give them feel like they have an effect on the games narrative. When it is either at the start of the mission or even in the middle of it, the game presents the player with a side quest. Some of the side quests are usually optional and some of them leave an impact on the games narrative when progressing. These quests and dialogue lines will often question the player’s morals. This type of game design often leaves the player wondering if they had made the right choice even though there were only two dialogue choices (often being yes or no). The more impactful side quests are usually done by exploring the areas around that level and can be easily missed. The uncertainty of completing a level and skipping some of the content is always a foreboding experience. The player is also often rewarded with a piece of story when taking a detrimental choice to your load out. If the player wants to get the good ending, the player would assume that the best ending was achieved by taking all the side quests and taking all the best upgrades to their arsenal. This isn’t the case in Cave Story as a the good ending is hidden away within very quick moments of decision making and some weird decision making. The mystery behind the games moral choices adds to the worrying nature of the games atmosphere.
I would personally relate this games decision making and world building similarly to Dark Souls but easier to follow. Many of the quests you are given have a very distinct outcome and you are able to continue through the main story without much hassle. The secret pieces of lore that is spread out throughout the game that it slowly reveals to the player, makes them want to go for another play through and read every bit of dialogue to them. |
World design theory (WDT)DevelopersThe goal of this blog is to relate current and past attempts at world design to further improve our understanding. Archives
October 2017
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