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What does a good game consist of? (part 23)

The Art of World Design

This is not a sales pitch for a book, neither can I give you the rules of making great levels and worlds but I'll try to get as close to the optimal as it gets.

The title of the post points to making a good game world is an art-it's hard to make but very rewarding to mental, personal and financial growth.

It is also not meant solely for level designers, but for all profession of the game development.

How would a great game world look like then?

Here are some things to consider:
  • you should make a different kind of secrets: they need to be hard to figure out but some of them have to be easier otherwise people give up-especially because
  • you need to collaborate with game designers on the GDD: level design belongs there
  • size is very imporant-not too big to wander indefinitely and not too small to discover everything
A great game world be:
  • not the standard green jungle, white shores and half-transparent water with secrets to find: I'm sure we don't need to use this model of Oblivion and Far Cry for a good world design
  • allows stealth, ambushes, sound strategies and tactics
  • able to be put in the GDD
World designers should greatly collaborate with the AI programmers as world obstacles affect AI pathfinding. Also with GDD-making game designers to make tough to find secrets.

In conclusion, world design is an art: it's an extention of level design and it's possible to make astounding game worlds.
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