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[] THE COMPLEX ART OF BUILDING WORLDSHow do you build a world where the possibilities are as
endless as space itself, like with Mass Effect: Andromeda?
With constraints, and someone to say: “You’re going too far.”and watch their surprise when they notice
them gone. Place one of your swords between
two points to conduct electricity and solve a
puzzle. Get hit by lightning in a storm because
you’ve got metal gear. Realising that the rain
muffles your footsteps. Or the first time you
surf a shield down a wet hill and it doesn’t
break! There’s nothing more immersive than
when a game lets you go: ‘I wonder if I can do
this?’ and then you try it, and you can.
These little bits of detail all add up to a world
you can invest and believe in.
The biggest challenge for developers is when
they are building a world that has no point of
reference for the player. We all know Zelda is a
cute universe, with cute creatures and old mate
Gannon causing a mess. But Horizon Zero
Dawn has dinosaur-like robots roaming about,
with humans using technology mixed with
bow and arrows. Is it past? Future? Another
Planet? Developer Guerrilla Games have come
a long way since their Killzone series, and have
built a world full of mystery and characters
with motivations and emotions we can
understand. They make it about the characters
first, and let the world exist around that.
And mostly, they sell it with creature design,
populated zones and convincing cutscenes.
So how do you build a universe like that
in Mass Effect: Andromeda? I asked Producer
on the game, Fabrice Condominas, about the
biggest challenges involved building a game
of many worlds.
HE SAID THEY START WITH THE STORY
“The story will tell you the tone of the planet.
The emotional tone of what you want [will
bring you there]. It will also depend on what
happened in the planet... There’s a mission
with floating rocks and there’s a reason
for that and that is imposed by the story.
The second aspect of that is pure design.
We want memorable moments, which often
go with visual cues. And lastly, you want [it]
to be Mass Effect, and make sure every
screenshot you take in that game — that’s
Mass Effect.”
Mass Effect is more open-world than ever
before, but it’s not truly a sandbox game.
Fabrice also talked about the pros and consThe Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild is very much about
discovery, and revelling in the joy of what you discover out
there in the wild.of sandbox games, and how to keep the
player engaged.
“It’s difficult for us because we’re trying to
find a balance where we’re not a sandbox
game, and we don’t want to be a sandbox
game. And to be honest, we tried, we made
a prototype of procedurally generated
content. That’s not who we are... So you’ve
got to find a balance where the player is free
to go away from the main path and do what
they want to do, but, at the same time,
is being fed by content.”This is the best Zelda yet. The world is
so wondrous and alive and full of little
things to do... Everything you see is
something you can be a part of.Horizon Zero Dawn takes place in a
world that begs you to discover what
happened. Also — dinobots!