What makes a game EXPLORABLE?
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- Опубліковано 28 бер 2024
- Today I'm talking about what goes into designing exploration in games. What makes a level engaging to wander through? When does a level become too open? How does a game designer go about deepining the gameplay experience? I do my best to answer these questions while taking a tour of some interesting worlds.
For this video, I used noclip.website to record a lot of footage. So do check it out: noclip.website/
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→ 5 Bucks for the Bus - Lost in a normal city for ordinary people.
Steam: store.steampowered.com/app/27...
→ Here Comes Niko! - The 3D platformer for tired people
Steam: store.steampowered.com/app/92...
Switch: www.nintendo.com/us/store/pro...
→ Knight Trail - A silly little micro RPG.
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As a Minecraft builder, I really love implementing exploration game design into the way I build. I also just enjoy building out of the way pois with more hidden or beaten down paths!
Being lost is more fun if/when you dont realize you are lost. Finding out you got lost becomes a mental reminder that you need to get back on track soon.
It's interesting seeing the team's level design philosophy after playing Here Comes Niko. A casual, freeroam game has its unique challenges, and it made me wonder if the team designed the islands with specific challenges in mind or created challenges that would best suit that island's structure and theme
Part of my philosophy when designing levels for Niko was to see them as multiple areas arranged in a satisfying way.
The areas themselves I viewed a little playgrounds. Thinking more about what shapes would inspire the player to play and "frolic" over thinking about specific challenges.
The gameplay challenges were laid on top of the levels after the initial design. Often asking "How can we use this space in a fun and interesting way?".
The "Don't touch snow" quest is a good example of something that emerged naturally when looking at the level design.
This is actually a topic I want to cover in a future video, so oops spoilers ʕ·ᴥ·"ʔ
"Can you explore when you have no idea where you are or where anything is".. The closest I have seen to that is Firewatch. Sure you have a physical map you can pull out and there are landmarks for certain events (e.g Fireworks set off at the start of the game). But there are plently of times when I had no clue where I am, even with the map. This lead me to explore the beauty of the enviorment (which I think was done on purpose).
Interesting! I do like Firewatch a lot. Did you feel like you were getting an understanding of your surroundings as you progressed?
Freakin adorable video style. I love the little musical references as well. And great insight ^^ I never would've thought about the idea of "inevitable routes" where the choice becomes somewhat arbitrary.
As someone who wants to design a game solo, but struggles with map making, this video was a lot of help! I feel for some reason that level design is a lot more of an abstract topic compared to a lot of other things in game development. I come from the programming aspect of game design, so I'm always more comfortable with something more logic based; but it's really hard to contextualize level design in such a way! I feel your approach to this breaks things down in a super clear, and easy to understand way that sorta just "clicks", I really appreciate your insight on this.
Thank you for making this video! For the love of the art!
Glad it was useful! I struggled a lot with level design in the beginning too. It's a lot more challenging than you'd expect. Maybe I'll make more videos on the topic in the future.
Aww, these styles of videos are so adorable. I love when developers directly appeal to the consumers in such a casual way.
I love how chill but informative these videos are
Love these videos! Your takes are incredibly based.
In order to sttay, there must be a beaten path. Beautiful sentiment, thank you for the perspective😊
I’m loving these videos so much. They feel so comfy to watch and/or just listen to, plus they’re genuinely informative too
A great example of exploration is breath of the wild. That game has literally all the types of exploration you talked about, from the dungeons with their obvious puzzle structure to the paths leading from town to town to landmark driven exploration that tries to push you off the path to entirely hidden secrets, findable only by simply wandering.
By the way, your videos are amazing, the care and effort is clearly through the roof, but I wish you would talk faster. Maybe I'm just really impatient but it feels like I could watch these videos on 1.25x speed and only gain from it or maybe it's the long pauses between each sentence. But It really might just be me.
Yeah! The spatial design in Breath of the Wild is fantastic. I'm really curious what direction they'll take with the next one.
Yes! I've heard from more people that the videos are a bit slow. And now I hear it too haha
My English was very rusty, but through making these videos, I'm getting faster bit by bit. I'm also experimenting with editing them to be a lot quicker. So expect the next one to have better pacing! Both longer and more dense!
As someone who has watched hundreds of videos on game design and is familiar with almost every game design UA-camr, I have to say your content is fantastic. I adore the hand-drawn animations and the overall style of your videos. I would easily rank you at the top spot for how effortlessly engaging and polished your content is. Please continue creating, purely for the love of art! 🙉
That's some high praise, thank you!
I love teaching and am enjoying making these videos. I hope I'll continue to be able to whilst balancing it with game development. ( ╹▽╹ )
This is an absolutely fantastic video.
I've been happy to see your colleague at PirateSoftware blow up as much as he has, but I'm surprised you haven't done the same yet. Here Comes Niko was one of the best games I've ever had the pleasure of completing twice over, and I'm hoping to play 5 Bucks for the Bus once that comes out. This is an excellent video with really cool editing (I assume Scruffy helped you out with that), a generally great atmosphere, and I love the points you made. It's interesting to hear this coming from someone who had already released a game to the public.
One criticism I have is that the pacing felt a bit too slow at times. It certainly helped create a relaxed atmosphere, but there were a lot of awkward pauses at times which would have benefitted from a lack there of. Otherwise, this is a fantastic video. Really hope your channel blows up soon!
Glad to hear you enjoy our stuff!
We'll just have to keep chugging along.
I'll do my best to adjust the pacing in the next one. You're right that it's a little weird atm 😅
5 bucks for the bus is such a cool name for a game!
Thanks!
Hope it's searchable enough haha
It stems from the initial story arc, where the main character doesn't have enough cash to pay for the bus ride home.
i love this editing and art style !! super cute
First again >:)
Great vid btw
Well done again 🫡✨
I would NOT be using totk of all games as an example of exploration, lol.
BotW is more successful on that front, but TotK was already in my Switch hehe
@@frogvibesgames Fair enough lmao
taxes: *teleports behind you* nothing personal kid
wow. i learned so much from this. thank you so much.
Did I hear FFIV cave music in the background?
Yes! I've been playing through it recently and had the music stuck in my head.
1 point to you ✧◝(⁰▿⁰)◜✧
I cast algorithm boost!
Thank you for your service ʕ·ᴥ·ʔ/｡*ﾟ+
Love your videos (o゜▽゜)o☆