How Nintendo Solved Zelda's Open World Problem 

So what about the sequel, Tears of the Kingdom? Here's how Nintendo designed the incredible new mechanic, Ultrahand - ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-pvOqTunOQB8.html

One of my favorite memories was when I purposefully avoided going to any of the divine beasts, and instead decided to just wander around starting from Kakariko village. Eventually I stumbled upon a bridge, and Sidon popped out and said hi. I thought they were just another NPC for a side quest, and I went to follow them. After arriving at the Zora Kingdom, I realized that I had stumbled upon the main quest completely by accident.

The big thing that stood out to me in BoTW was that exploring required you to actually...explore. It kinda blew my mind when they introduced the first tower and basically told you "Yes, you actually need to look around, find the thing yourself and mark it yourself" instead of just filling your map automatically with a bunch of points of interest.

Also, having the endgoal of the entire game obviously in the center and almost always in sight, I think, helped mitigate concerns of "not knowing what to do." The point is to explore and power up so you can eventually go to the middle. Once I understood this, the game became more enjoyable. It's why I immediately jumped into the fun with totk.

You can definitely see how they've even, somehow, improved upon these concepts in TOTK: Stables now have pillars of smoke rising into the sky from the horse's mouths, The towers quite literally have spotlights lighting them up A green aura radiates upwards from the shrines and even when diving from a sky island I've never spotted much more than 3 shrines at once, plus some other points of interest.

I love how you can completely miss less important landmarks until you're hundreds of hours into the game. For example, I was astonished at how late I discovered the snowbowling minigame, the fairy fountain right next to Tarry Town, the horseback archery course, and lots of random little named locations (e.g. Shadow Hamlet Ruins) only found by scouring for Koroks. I also have to give props to whoever composed the little musical sting when you find a new location. It's so satisfying.

The triangle rule is seriously blowing my mind right now. It might not seem like it at first but it really is a genius solution to such an obscure and difficult problem.

Epic! I wondered how this worked. I never take the roads. Sometimes I wondered if I should've. I'm playing Tears of the Kingdom right now and I feel like the level design has been improved even more because after finishing one point of interest, there's usually a next one nearby. It's hard to stop playing TOTK.

I think one of the things that also feels really rewarding about this kind of exploration is the fact that you really 'take in' the map into your memory. At times you spin the camera and spot somewhere you were 10 hours ago from a different angle and it's kinda nostalgic and awesome!

mark you are an absolute treasure and such an amazing resource for all things game design. thank you for putting this together

It’ll be fun to see how/if the triangle paradigm is used in Tears of the Kingdom. Hard to hide a hundred floating islands behind a mountain

One of the coolest things about TOTK is how NPC dialogue naturally directs you to other locations,quests, items, lore etc. In other open world games, NPC’s usually just exist for a singular purpose but in this game, they might suggest checking out a village you may or may not have been to already and will give you details, even after finishing their quest line

I love how TOTK manages to completely upend and expand upon this design by adding so much freedom in the sky, land, and depths. TBH the depths feel like they are their own game.

World design is so important to any type of game, and it can be hard to analyze when it's meant to be naturalistic like in Zelda, but no matter the setting, everything is there for a reason.

One major issue I had was only having Hestu only available at a single location. My buddy was 10 hours into the game and had no idea what Korok seeds were for. He's not one to look things up online or watch videos, so he just thought they were a random collectible in the game. I had to explain to him they were a currency and would greatly help him get more gear. He's a nomad in adventuring/open world games, so he immediately starts exploring off the beaten path. So he never even came close to Hestu's initial spawning location. Special NPC's like that should be in many places or spawn according to finding your first few of the resource they are associated with.

I think something that really helps this style of exploration is the scope, pins, and stamps. You can mark interesting locations, and the scope and pins make it very easy to relate a spot in the game world to a spot on the map. If you climb a mountain or a tower and see half a dozen interesting things, you can mark them all down for later. It really helps with keeping your bearings in such an open world where you can go anywhere at any time.

I still went to the towers first in botw and totk. I just like unlocking the map first and use it to help explore the world and find interesting places to explore

I'd love it if you talked about BotW's weather. Because I love the climbing mechanic so much, my approach was generally to climb over anything in the way between me and my goal. I eventually realized that, as annoying as rainstorms first seemed, they forced me to change up my approach, and explore in a different way (if only temporarily)!

Nintendo wanted players to move in the right direction, but wanted the world to be open, so their solution was to make every direction the right direction. Thank you for compiling this and restoring it, it's rare enough that Nintendo shares scenes from behind the curtain, so it's very, very valuable to make sure that information is shared far and wide.

I remember first starting this game thinking there were no friendly NPCs other than the old man. It took me far too long to come across anybody but when I did I was shocked to see someone walking down the road and right after that I found all sorts of people and it really opened up.

Watching this after playing more hours of Tears of the Kingdom than I would care to admit, I laughed out loud at the “set a goal, get distracted, set a different goal, get distracted again, eventually reach an important location or plot point” segment, because this so perfectly describes what happens as I play. It also explains how the game sucks you in so hard-once you do one little thing, there’s just one more thing you notice from your new vantage point, and it’s just one thing, you can get one more thing in before doing laundry, and before you know it, six hours have passed and every laundromat in the city is closed.

What I appreciated about Breath so much was discovery for its own sake. Your push to explore wasnt based off of video game-y stuff like numbers going up or some secret op weapon, it was pure, almost childlike.

What i felt and love about both games, is how confident i feel about exploring, i'm not afraid of missing something because i walk out of the main the road, and i'm sure that eventualy i'll end up on the "right" track" without having to backpedal to were the roads split up.

I feel like elden ring also does this really well. You go towards something interesting in the distance, only to find a couple more interesting locations along the way to explore

Once you fully reveal the entire map of Hyrule, it feels far smaller than it did at first, but the triangle rule you mentioned, of ensuring that there's always things creating those 'barriers', is a great way to increase the size of the world from a gameplay perspective. I was blown away playing through it the first time, and even now I still discover new things I'd never found before.

One of the most engrossing experiences I had with BOTW was exploring the Hebra region for the first time completely blind since I entered up from Rito Village (the sheikah tower was all the way on the southeastern side). It was cold, quiet, harsh, murky, and extremely vertical/mountainous. It all lead to an unforgettable atmospheric evening I had playing Zelda and getting lost. Eventually I saw the tower's glow thru the fog but it was so far I just kept exploring the immediate area for shrines and goodies.

Adding fog also creates the same effect of not being overwhelmed by the world. It block all new points until you come closer. But also fog always makes the world feel 5x times bigger.

The world design of Breath of the Wild is truly something special. One aspect that is really brilliantly designed if the climbing system. With how climbing works, players are truly free to carve their own path through the world, being able to ascend any cliff face if they have enough Stamina. But Stamina starts out quite limited, so players are encouraged to pay close attention to the geography of the environment around them, to visually identify useful paths. Stamina recovery items enable players to climb much farther distances, and they encourage players to forage and engage with the cooking system. And once a player reaches a high point, they can then use that to their advantage via the Paraglider or perhaps shield surfing. The verticality of the world of BotW is truly meaningful.

This is trueee, the game almost felt like a tv show. I was wondering and exploring for myself looking for shrined and then sidon jumps out of nowhere. It really feels like you are making the timeline of your own story

One weird trick that closed-game fans don't want you to know

It's great to see how well Nintendo has the iteration cycle down of developing designs and following with playtests, and then tracking the playtests with such things as heat maps and whatnot, they must have some great infrastructure for the game development process

Thanks for sharing everything that had been scrubbed off the internet. It was a real delight to see. BotW is my personal favorite Zelda game, and it's rare to find more information about it that's more than speculation or based off an unscripted interview.

I wonder so much how this insane map they've made holds up to a SECOND game being hosted in it. It's gonna be such an interesting experiment

One thing I also enjoyed was after parts of the map were revealed, the names of the locations/regions were so cool or interesting. There was also SOO MANY of them. Example Lanayru sounds like a pretty bad ass region. The Forgotten Temple sounded so cool and was MASIVE in scale. And who could forget their first time ever seeing the Twin Peaks from everywhere on the map. Even something as simple as Lover’s Pond 😂. I was like “I gotta find this Lover’s Pond!” And it’s actually heart shaped 😍😍😍

Take my like. Simply for the work in making previously 'unavailable' information, available for us to learn from. You are an absolute legend.

The world design of Breath of the Wild is truly something special

The CEDEC stuff is the most interesting info about BotW's development, glad to see you making that more accessible! They also had some cool slides about making bug fixing a more constant process throughout development - curious how they went about that for TotK with it's myriad of additional systems.

the background work you did for this video is staggering. well done!

Incredible video. Thanks for putting this together!

I think the Koroks are an important part of the design, while the map is mostly empty, it is littered with these small challeges/puzzles that encourage you to visit anything that looks slightly weird

It's cool to see that there is a trial and error to creating something like this. Great games can seem almost effortlessly good, as if the teams just instinctively knew everything they needed to do. It's encouraging to remember that even when there's a talented team with a great vision, they encounter challenges with how to realize that vision.

Thank you so much for keeping detailed game desing information easily available, awesome video

THIS is one of the few videos, works ive seen put together that is so important and essential to have having to do with gaming. Youve done a historical acheivement here

I remember the first time i played this game. It took me DAYS to really start the main story. I was amazed with everything… the quests, the little puzzles, the dragons, the ruins, everything…

This is hilarious to hear considering unlocking all the towers was the very first thing I did. Not because I felt forced to but because it's my personal play style that in every open world game I play that has the tower/reveal map mechanic I always do my best to unlock the map asap before starting any major exploration.

I got this video from the algorithm but as soon as I saw the effort you put it in the video I had to subscribe, you’re amazing

Inspiring analytical way of game making and I’m also sure there were much more thoughtful, artistic, and creative processes to apply and Makes me appreciate their hard work even more. Thank you for your insight!

What blew me away when playing the game is how well they designed around the sight lines. There are so many locations that conspicuously obscure or reveal other things like shrines or quests. The location in Kakariko briefly shown here at <a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="416">6:56</a> was such a great example of this. The player was verbally guided and given the location in the map for Kakariko from the King, and a few NPC's will even give some directions to it as well right off the Great Plateau (one even saying something like "it's about a day's travel" or something, which is actually how long it does take to get there on foot from that location, which I thought was great). But from Kakariko, the main line quest sends you off potentially in all directions. But this little opening and viewing spot in Kakariko opens up to a huge wide open flat area, with multiple shrines in view, a couple new towers, and a lot to explore.

This is also good advice for running open world D&D campaigns. Having to many options available will confuse the players. Have only 3 "visible" from any one point will really simplify things, and you can have them branch off to dozens of possible quests.

Beautiful and insightful video as I was wondering exactly this when playing the game!

Excellent analysis. Loved that little detail of having the development team wander through virtual Kyoto as Link.

One of my favorite details is that after you've completed the great plateau shrines and you meet the king in the tower on top of the Temple of Time. The tower has three surviving windows. Through one you can see the Deuling Peaks the route you would follow to continue the story of the game. Through the second you can see Hyrule Castle if you want to try and storm the castle at the beginning of the game. Finally, through the last window is the Great Plateau if you'd like to stay and explore it more. That tower literally frames your three major options at that point of the game which I find very cool.

The concept of triangles fits the zelda series so much because of the tri force being 3 triangles

first time ever coming across this channel. this video was beautifully put together, you earned my subscription!

Dang, that’s dope. I’m so glad you resurrected this lecture! Thank you!

I really appreciate creators like you and DYKG presenting Japanese developer comments that never saw an official translation in this format.

As a designer I’m so glad you uploaded this, especially as my main quest in botw was scaling the highest thing, and eventually when I found eventide island - the furtherest thing. Somehow still fell into the loosely the same narrative as others who had different goals

Such an awesome video. Keen to try track down more on this lecture btw!

one of the cool things Elden Ring and Breath of the Wild have in common in addition to everything you mentioned in the video, is the fact that the primary goal of the game is at the center of it all, and visible from nearly anywhere in the world. you may indeed get sidetracked a dozen times as you explore, but you never forget why you're there. i've never played Elden Ring - don't know if i ever could, honestly - but i've watched several playthroughs (some multiple times over) and even as a mere observer, i never had the feeling of "god damn it just get to the tree already!!" because i, like the player i was watching, felt completely immersed and invested in every sidetracked adventure, never anxious to get to the "end". every time the player arrives at the crest of some new, vast vista, i feel a renewed sense of anticipation for all the wonderful mysteries and encounters that were sure to lie ahead. heck, the tree's not GOING anywhere, Marika's been chillin' in there for a good while now, what's another few hours? or days? or weeks? she'll be FINE. that's how it felt to me, anyway, ahaha. i only just started playing BotW, but i look forward to actually having the chance to experience all these things for myself. pokemon legends arceus is WAY smaller than both games, and broken up into distinct regions, but even that game i found incredibly rewarding to wander around in. i'm the type of person who loves collectibles, and i felt that PLA and BotW both do theirs correctly by more or less putting those collectibles in places that already draw the player's attention. i know that when i see a tall peak, there's bound to be something there. a conspicuous rock balancing on a cliff edge, no way that's a coincidence. i absolutely despite collectibles that are just hidden away in completely random, hard to find spots - having to scour every inch of a map, no matter how small, to find bullshit collectible locations has NO appeal to me, and is a copout way to include collectibles in a game. yeah they're hard to find... because there's no reason for a person to EVER check that tiny random corner over the million other corners in the game. let me be rewarded for a natural curiosity, where something catches my attention, and sure enough, the dev's easter egg or collectible is there waiting for me. sorry, that got off topic fast but i couldn't help myself ahaha. i look forward to hunting for korok seeds in BotW!

<a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="251">4:11</a> got the armored carp, but at what cost

I remember early on, maybe around the one-year mark of BotW being out, I'd seen some frequent criticisms on the internet that its overworld was "empty" and "devoid of things to do," but I'd always figured those were the gripes of people that were burning out in the endgame looking for Koroks. After a few repeat playthroughs of my own, and having watched videos like this one, I'm certain that this is just one of the most carefully crafted and filled overworlds of this size in any video game. Even if there's not always something _necessary_ to do at every square mile, there's a lot of unspoken work that went into keeping this game navigable and interesting for dozens of hours. I can only hope Tears is even better.

Thank you, that was a great summary! I was there at CEDEC when they presented this lecture. One keyword that might have missed the media is, they said the world map is a Japanese garden. This sense of discovery, always having something hidden from view, having to move through the area to see more of it, those are concepts of Japanese gardens design. The team, luckily for them being based in Kyoto, did some research on that topic and incorporated it in the map design.

Thanks for putting in the work, mate.

It worked for me. BotW captured my imagination and curiosity like no video game had in a long time. It was a special experience and the scary thing is that even though it was a 10/10 game, it could get even better. So I'm looking forward to seeing what Tears brings on Friday!

Man the amount of times I was headed towards a Shiekah tower just to wander off to the nearest shrine after hearing the pulsing sound. Getting excited after finding a new village during my exploration and then taking in the landscape not rushing my adventures. My whole first playthrough I actually never noticed the pathways the map showed I found everything deviating from that path! Such a great game.

I love to just relax and watch your videos. Thanks for all your hard work.

Thank you for your effort for bringing back the lecture❤

Babe, drop everything, gmtk dropped a new video.

The only thing they failed to do this was with Hestu. Only if you did go from the dueling peaks to kakariko you will incounter him. I didn't, missed him and was stuck for my hole fist play through with just the basic slots.

You're completely insane dude, such a smart thinker, such content quality, impressive I'm learning game development since yesterday, and your channel covers it all, from game design to actual game development

I had more fun walking around and wandering mindlessly than actually going for objectives. It felt so great when you stumbled on a new area, shrine, etc…

Using mountains to block player's vision to limit the information they can receive at one time is so damn genius. Such a natural and beautiful solution to a complex problem.

this reminds me of a rule of thumb I learned from map making in the RPG Maker indie community: sets of objects arranged in threes like a triangle are better design wise as the mind tends to notice objects arranged like this less often

thank you so much for the insight! As someone who is developing a game right now, it's super helpful to understand why certain choices are made.

Mark this is truly awesome work! thank you for all you give to us!!! :)

Thank you so much for creating this video, I hope it stays up for everyone to see!

The point about encountering distractions is absolutely spot on. I spent the first several days specifically NOT activating the towers and leaving the map blind, simply exploring and cataloguing as much as I could in my own mind. It was not unusual to find myself several distractions deep, course deviating and deviating again until I forgot my original goal only to rediscover it later. BotW has some minor shortcomings, but that feeling of discovery never let me down for the whole ride.

You have a very simmilar vocal rythm to Tom Scott haha! Great video! Thank you for making it : D

i absolutely love the ascending feature and how you can use it in many places throughout the world. For example: skipping the stairs in Rito village, ascend up a mountain. Also some places u can find a rock that peaks out of a cliff that u can ascend into! its like the developers placed that rock there for u to ascend, I love it!

Bit of a mistake- ‘A Link Between Worlds’ was also open-world.

It really is a great way to design an open world. I just wish the "breadcrumbs" were more interesting or rewarding. I remember once I realized the points of interest were essentially the same handful of things over and over, I was much less incentivized to explore. I still maintain that the whole backstory the king infodumps at the end of the Great Plateau would have been better served as pieces of a story you put together by exploring, kind of like what they did with link's memories.

Ghost of Tsushima did the points of interest breadcrumb trail really well imo. The beauty of its world design was a big part, I was compelled to ride through a forrest or to the top of a hill or down into a valley just to look at and be in the environment. I'd frequently take detours from my next waypoint just to gallop through a field of pampas grass. Then I'd trip over a fox and get completely sidetracked for forty-five minutes.

Brother I clicked on this video thinking it'd be as half-informative-half-eye-rolling as Boss Keys but I appreciate all the work you did to bring the game developer expertise from Nintendo to the rest of us. Good fuckin' work man!

We've all felt the wonder, awe, and (positive) overload of all the stuff you can see and do, but I don't think anyone has eloquently and expertly broken down and captured the whys and hows of those feelings, until now. Spot on as always, Mark. Looking forward to your insight for Tears of the Kingdom.

This week I'm replaying BotW in preparation for the new game, and it's wonderful rediscovering that sense of exploration. Fascinating video, wonderful work as always.

Thanks for working so hard at investigating and bringing this story to us =)

Really entertaining and informative, great video

The curiosity part is so true 😂 I remember telling friends I would call them after doing something in the game to just delay it further and further because I got distracted by new things all the time 😂

Fun fact: In BOTW unfinished shrines have birds circling above the area.

Amazing video, thanks for making it

Thank you so much for sharing this, it's truly a pleasure to rediscover things from a new perspective aka watch your videos. 💜

As someone who is currently writing a master's degree thesis on the japanese game industry, people like you give me the motivation I need

another day, another innovation in the video essay genre from Mark 👏 been a fan since the first upload, so cool to see how far the channel has come

This is extremely interesting, thnks for informing us through your meticulously crafted vid. It's always been a question in the back of my head regarding how so many players had such largely varied experiences when play BOTW. Love it when people delve into what makes an amazing thing so amazing.

<a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="330">5:30</a> yup. This simple thing is the absolute core of what I love about BOTW, and now about TOTK

Something I've noticed is that you brought up a lot of good points like going to your objective but then getting distracted by other things. I think Skyrim did a really good job at this when it launched you weren't overwhelmed by stuff to do you would get quest along the way and it would make the player do something else other than the main quest/objective.

great stuff Mark. More like this please.

Damn thanks for your hard work making this video

The Japanese make the best games

Breath of the Wild is still my favorite open world map, just stuff to do everywhere and the exploration was so organic, way better than just going up the tower and then having 10 "points of interest" pop up on a mini map. Elden Ring is the only game that has come close to BotW for me in organic map design