Making Games Vs. Making Experiences
The birth of open-world exploration in games
The other week I was at a university ‘Game Dev Club’ workshop where I found myself in a discussion about how to direct players to progress through your game. At some point during the conversation, a comment was made that:
“You can never really know what a player will do. If you design a level directing a player one way, they’ll go another. You will never get it right!”
Whilst there was a hint of humor and exaggeration in this person’s voice, it was an interesting point.
I responded by saying that’s why I have an irrefutable and undisputed respect for games like Super Mario Odyssey, which embrace this idea and construct a game where there are far more objectives scattered around the open map than there are a number of objectives that need to be completed to progress to the next stage (or world). This allows said player to go in any direction they like, complete any amount of these objectives as they desire, and create an experience completely unique from any other player playing the same game!
