u/breckendusk

I feel like we get bogged down by saying "an ability gated interconnected world" and the like. Also, none of these really capture the design system of "open world with limited pathing choices, but you can't go this way yet; you can either find something that allows you to go this way, or you can take the long path once and then unlock this path from the other side". And this is such a critical aspect of these games that I think it really deserves its own term. "Interconnected World" is okay but really feels like it's more talking about how the worlds loop back around on themselves, rather than the system of gating, and it's a bit of a mouthful.

I thought "linked world" sounded nice and is a cool reference to LoZ, but it still doesn't quite fit the bill. Detour World sounds funny like an awful theme park.

Thoughts? Any ideas?

For most it may be just not helping society with them. For me - I think invisibility is my favorite - there would definitely be some (significant) theft involved, sorry not sorry

My main project is a metroidvania, so here are some that I use in my bible:

1. Always reward exploration. Could be something as small as a treasure chest, or could contain something like a piece of heart or even a whole secret area. Nothing feels worse than going somewhere that was hard to find, get to, or otherwise seems intentionally hidden but contains nothing.
2. Obvious secrets first. The player has to be taught things about the level design: that some areas look blocked off but arent, that some walls can be destroyed.
3. In a similar vein, there are several ways of handling obtaining upgrades. Easiest is to teleport them to a special region that teaches them how to use the ability. Another great option is to make it impossible to escape the room that contains the ability without using it.
4. No matter how you obtain an ability, in metroidvanias, abilities act as keys. Ideally more than just as keys, but that is their minimum function. Any time you want to prevent forward progress - or backward progress - you place a blockage that requires the right key. This is essential for metroidvanias as sometimes you want to "guide" players by preventing them from going backward. It is also crucial for backtracking as often you will show a player something they can't access yet, or allow them to access both sides of a door but yet not have a way through it, but it becomes a huge part of backtracking later.
5. Shortcuts: taking from soulslikes and MVs, shortcuts are huge. The player should not have to accomplish a particularly challenging segment every time they need to cross it. One directional success is enough; after that, they should either unlock an ability or be able to flip some sort of switch that allows them to bypass the challenge in the future.

What are some of your favorite level design tips?

Yay! Sheik is gonna be relevant again! Can't wait to see the redesign in the OoT remake

I think that guilt is the only way she ever would stop chasing the story. Not that I want her gone, but currently I think she will basically have to get killed when her arc is over. Furthermore while I don't mind her grief arc over Dewey, their toxic relationship arc (for which I mostly think Gale is at fault until the time he finally left her) was a lot more interesting and it feels like her part in the story is beginning to run its course without it. It often feels like a cheap way of explaining the Stab movies continuing but that's a franchise at this point, there's always reboots, other country remakes, HBO series remakes, comics, video games, plenty of explanations for more Stab.

I'm partial to Richie's - from Sam stabbing him in the mouth to the last almost sadistic thing she says to him, it really stands out for me. Roman's "unkillable" moment is up there too, and I think there's an argument to be made for any of them.

Points to Amber and >!Jessica!< for brutality/gore. Impressively done although not really my thing.

I'm not an Illari main, but I've always felt that her melee and sword are too cool to have such a simple melee. Wounds feel a bit too Junker Queen, and I though burning could be interesting but possibly OP.

I had a kinda cool idea today though, what if she like... left burning "cuts" in midair where she slashes? Just a beam of light that burns in place for a short time, I'm thinking like 6 hits of very low damage over a second