Directing Exploration - How Games Guide Players WITHOUT Tutorials ~ Design Doc

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NEW SERIES! Design Doc is a short-form lecture series that analyzes and explores various game design related topics with an emphasis on graphic design and visual communication.
We talk about some of the differences between linear & open-ended game design and how game go about intuitively establishing those differences.
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Special Thanks to The Super Best Friends & Gnrfan53404 for providing a majority of the game footage here.

Опубликовано:

28 сен 2024

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Комментарии : 56

@James-mi5qt 6 лет назад

Please, keep doing these. For aspiring game developers like me, your content is a god-send; keep with the content, and before you know it, you'll be on dunkey's level of views, i swear.

@DesignDoc 6 лет назад

Planning on it.

@dominik94rausch 5 лет назад

Zelda BOTW is like: Oh, you completed the tutorial? Nice. Here's your next mission: Kill the final boss.

@snoote533 2 года назад

lol

@misterlink2 8 лет назад

Well made. I'm drawing comparisons to mark browns game makers toolkit.

@QuetzalOvejasElectricas 6 лет назад

Hi, I just discovered your channel and it's amazing. What is the song at the ending of this video? It's really familiar and I just can't pinpoint where it comes from. I think it sounds a bit Zelda-ish but I'm unsure.

@DesignDoc 6 лет назад

Quetzal Sorry for the late response but that is from Skyrim. Can’t search for the exact name but it is one of the themes that plays at night I believe.

@5nefarious 5 лет назад

Track 17 - Secunda

@karazu121 4 года назад

Pero madre mia willy, que haces aqui compañero?

@ppowersteef 3 года назад

I'd say the way how Metroid teaches the beginning may not be directly understandable without a manual. You're not sure what the orb does when you picked up, it might as well be just a big coin rather than a power up, and it also doesn't explain you how to go into morph ball. You're otherwise stuck in the room though, so you may eventually figure it out, but still wouldn't be sure if the ball form came from the power-up.

@shelbytimbrook2095 2 года назад

The problem with Skyrim's level design is that there's nothing encouraging me to look up where landmarks are being shown, but instead I'm encouraged to look at my feet where all the sellable junk is 24/7 lol.

@VirtuelleWeltenMitKhan 5 лет назад

Thx for the video. Well done.

@khed7104 5 лет назад

Shadow of the colossus? I would say that’s more like dark souls than anything considering you can’t fight any colossus out of order, arguably it’s more linear than Mario... I mean sure you CAN explore but there is almost no reason to do so

@migueeeelet 4 года назад

A thing I've learnt while mapmaking for CS:GO is: Don't make a player have to turn around to see all their options. As soon as a player enters a room, they must be able to see all their avaiable paths. Of course, CS:GO is a fast paced competitive game, so you can bend this a bit. But just make sure that players know all their roads.

@AdriBlt 6 лет назад

Hey, Your work is very interesting, but as all your videos, I find them a bit short and often the video ends when I was under the impression that we were still in the introduction part. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy a lot your videos and am subscribed to your channel, but regarding channels like Mark Brown GMTK or Snowman Gaming, I am left hungry! I feel like you totally have the potential to build bigger videos + the editing is gorgeous and very neet. Good Job!

@dr.lemonpants432 8 лет назад

I never thought about how samus was positioned at the start of the game, I always thought the spawn point couldn't be directly in the center do to some aspects.

@FuraFaolox 2 года назад

It's probably a mix of both. I theorize that maybe they saw that they couldn't put Samus in the center, so they used their limitations as a part of the level design. Like how in NieR, they couldn't do a day-night cycle so they made it so that the Earth simply didn't rotate like it normally does in the lore.

@Ice6400 8 лет назад

Oh wow, this is a very well done information video to explain the exploration styles of it! Great Job! :) b

@Henrix1998 5 лет назад

4:40 I think there is a technical reason for that. It looks like the character uses 4 sprites and it is simply easier to line up the player slightly offset and the fade is easier too

@lukostello 6 лет назад

All hail Shigiru Miyamoto father of game design

@YesLegend936 3 года назад

Minecraft is like my favourite game but dang is it awful at helping new players. The only thing that would actually guide was recipes which until recently was only on the console and pocket edition version of the game, and there was literally nothing telling you about the nether until the nether update where at least you see an incomplete nether portal in the overworld.

@casekocsk 4 года назад

I'm surprised you didn't include the legendary Megaman X first stage...

@alexphillips419 6 лет назад

The thing is though Super Mario a lot of states are optional and you can sequence break by finding Warp pipes, meanwhile in Zelda you will always go to The dungeons to get the ladder and Bow and arrow.

@sigurd8382 6 лет назад

But in Zelda you can do this in any order you want or not do any of those at all. In Mario since you are only going right the warp pipes you can enter and for the most part secrets are rather easy to find while Zelda takes exploring to find your secrets

@Edgewalker001 6 лет назад

After viewing a few videos on game design by multiple content creators, the obvious takeaway is always: SMB=Game Designer Porn. I wonder if they really knew that their introduction to video games launch title featured in many bundles would be one of the things keeping new developers up at night trying to touch the hem of its robes... =p

@RandomGameClips27 8 месяцев назад

This guy used the Mystic Wise Tree meme music before it was even a meme 😅 Edit: at the end of the video the music is playing

@JaneXemylixa 6 лет назад

(ponders the last question) Wow, even a virtually gameplay-less indie game can have some ways to guide the player! In MaD's Meadow, there's no life bar or death, no peril, no real challenges: just teamwork and collectibles that require teamwork to collect them. Players can wander all over the place, but there's an option to teleport to the big tree in the center of the world. However when you first enter the world, you don't spawn right at the tree: you spawn a little distance away, facing the tree. And you're naturally drawn to this big important landmark, where you can meet others to form a "pack" and journey together. Also, between you and the tree you will always find some tiny sparkling flowers that you'll try to collect - and there you are, you know the gameplay :) (The game fails to properly teach how to use emotes, commands or voice signals tho - which is kinda more important.)

@azuarc 6 лет назад

Was expecting to see this video be about things like the bananas in DKC, and how so many games open with hand-holding tutorials.

@Soundaholic92 6 лет назад

Love the Oblivion music (Y)

@laberintos 4 года назад

It's weird how you quote yorself in your videos.

@Ten_Thousand_Locusts 3 года назад

I wouldn't call SoTC open world at all. I think it falls more under the semi linear category, since there's only one set path to take. Sure you can explore a lot of the area, but in the end there's only one boss you're able to fight at a time and they're always in a set order. Even Dark Souls isn't that linear most of the time.

@FuraFaolox 2 года назад

That's what I was saying. All Team Ico games are just like that. They're semi-linear. They have a set path to progress the story, but they also allow for exploration.

@saedt 6 лет назад

whats the outro music? this is a great vid btw

@HaSTaxHaX 5 лет назад

ward

@Mgooy 3 года назад

How the fuck did you punch the wool off a sheep?

@franzpattison 5 лет назад

These constant flowery text animations are insufferable, I hope they tone down later in the series, I'm watching sequentially

@DesignDoc 5 лет назад

They do. These first three videos were for a college project, and the target audience for these videos changed over time. Good Design, Bad Design 1 is probably a good entry point.

@goingdiagonal6693 5 лет назад

You really just called Starfox 64 linear, but Dark Souls semi linear. They both progress similarly. You get to choose where to go, but when in the areas, it's linear. I know Dark Souls has a hub world, but it still is just a glorified level select with merchants.

@nexusj13 8 лет назад

Woolsworth! :D 1:29

@Lumberjack_king 2 года назад

6:23 and back to zelda

@edoardospagnolo6252 3 года назад

Hmm, so you're telling me I should've taken the hint early on when playing Ys 9, which disguises itself as a game where you're given a large degree of freedom and yet starts you in prison with only a single path offered to get out of it?

@zeszin 2 года назад

Love your videos

@ElJackFrostMamadisimo 3 года назад

Level 5: Lemme make a world open-looking by making players go to one ledge to the other

@masterboa6321 3 года назад

1:09 stardust guardian plays what how

@UltimatePerfection 5 лет назад

Where does Mario64 fall on the spectrum?

@Dinoman972 5 лет назад

I'm guessing it'd be semi-linear, since you are given a goal (collect X stars and defeat Bowser), but you have to explore some rather non-linear maps in order to complete it.

@thomaskrogh85 5 лет назад

sand box does not = open world because hit man is a sand box, rollacooster tycoon has a sand box mod besiege is also a sand box and so is dead raising is a sand box sand box is just the player can tackel and complet objectives any way possible.

@MysteryCJgamer 6 лет назад

This is basic stuff. Try to explore how more modern games may have improved on this concept. Also go beyond just the introduction to a game, explore how a game keeps guiding you till the end and prevent you from getting lost. Many games use plot to help a player know where to go next for example, or maybe they leave hints around for the player to figure it out on their own. This is because even if you know that a metroidvania is about exploring to find a way to progress the game, you could still get lost and be going in circles until you eventually find something, we need something to help a player realize where they need to go next without actually telling them.

@keybladespirit2814 6 лет назад

One question. Are you talking strictly about directing the player through physical space? I ask because you mentioned Skyrim as open-ended, but despite the openness of the game's physical space I always felt like it was a highly linear experience overall.

@brandonwithnell612 6 лет назад

if you mean the quest markers i actually dont mind them, since the world itself is so openended it would be very easy to get lost or frustraed without an arrow to tell you where to go for an objective, for example morrowind gets praise for not using quest markers, imo i disagree with that becuase the directions you get are very hard to follow or just too vague in some cases, for example for one quest i was told to turn right once i reached some hills, however i imidiately ran into a problem where my idea of a hill wasnt the same and so i got lost multiple times having to backtrack, also they use the term "foyada" a lot and it took me forever to realise what they meant by it (a valley caused by flowing lava) making me confused on where to go multiple times.and thats when they give you actual directions instead of just head south east for a bit and hope you dont past it and continue wandering for hours on the other side of the map. not to mention that if you forgot the directions the journal was very unorganised without the tribunal expansion making it tough to find where your directions are in it so long story short i like being told where to go in open world games because then i know where i have to go to procede meanwhile i can go anywhere else to explore

@erickreyes7902 6 лет назад

so in summary... Linear games - Story telling Open ended games - Exploration Semi linear games - story telling and exploration.... Do I stand corrected?....

@xaosbob 6 лет назад

Perhaps in modern games, but take a look at Super Mario Bros. It's his example for linear design, but there really isn't much of a story there at all, and it encourages exploration (by having plenty of secrets to find). And Skyrim uses exploration to help tell its stories. I think perhaps linear, semi-linear, or open don't really inherently favor one sort of play structure over any another. Then again, it still isn't a bad way to consider it. ;)

@MatheusChoma 6 лет назад

Actually not, a lot of arcade style games have little to no story telling and have linear progression. But sure, is more easy to do a game focused on its storyline in a linear fashion

@Lumberjack_king 2 года назад

Colors are often used to signal handholds