Great world design and level design is really specific to what type of game you’re playing and what type of genre it’s in. We can ask questions such as; Can the game lead you through the level without indicators, does the scene tell a story, does the character and the enemies fit into the game etc. These questions can be asked for any genre, but games that attempt the open world design usually have trouble filling the whole world with content. A game that comes to mind when it comes to great world design/great open world design is BotW (Breath of the Wild). What the game does successfully is that the game allows the player to make their own route (based on points of interest or just share curiosity) and is always filled with some sort of challenge. This type of design was improved by having really interesting ways to traverse from point to point with multiple routes to do so.
Aesthetically, BotW has one of the most breath taking environments that has ever risen in gaming history that is supported with a great deal of level design. The first few moments of the game gives player a quick tutorial which gives the player, base knowledge of gameplay and set of rules that allows you to finish the game with. This is then followed up by a picturesque view of what you may think is the whole world but player soon learn that the game is way bigger than that. This camera angle is smartly composed and so beautiful that you often want to just jump right into the fray and see what’s going on. The player will soon learn that the game provides you with queues to show that the player needs to be and will need to proceed with caution. Even though this view is quiet pleasing to look at, you can instantly tell that the character cannot just jump as it would probably kill you and even if you did you wouldn’t be penalised that much as it would just take you to the beginning which was only a few moments back or to the quick-save point. With this knowledge in mind, the player then shifts down the ramp where they will find items that will help them interact with the environment, teaching the vast amounts of interactivity with the environment that the game has to offer. The motive for moving from point to point is rooted deeply in every aspect about the games design. From the Sheikah towers that can be seen from every highpoint or mountain, to the quests that tells the player to explore an unknown area, the game wants the player to explore the seamless and the organic nature of BotW’s open world. The Sheikah towers plays on of the most important parts in exploring the games topographical map as the game over world is broken up into sections (this seems to be in sections of difficulty). From mostly anywhere in the map, if the player is able to see the tower that has not yet been activate, the journey there will have well placed enemy camps that test the player’s skill (especially if the player likes to travel quickly by horse) or going around the problem by traversing cliffs and finding glowing orange shrines that complement the games naturally blue hue on the way. |
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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