Comment on Switch 2 Teardown: Still Glued, Still Soldered, Still Drifting
Nosavingthrow@lemmy.world 1 day agoI disagree, and I think open world games are basically the cheapest way to pump a game out. Game development has stagnated, and basically, everything Nintendo releases is a testament to that. Indie games are basically the only realm in which real game design is happening.
caseofthematts@lemmy.world 1 day ago
While I’m not a huge fan of BotW and TotK, I think it’s a disservice to say they were a cheap way to pump out games. You can see the design intent in both exploration and gameplay mechanics. There’s a lot that works well in those games that allows for the player to continue playing for a while and still have fun.
And this is probably the only time I’d be seen defending those games.
Nosavingthrow@lemmy.world 14 hours ago
I don"t know if it’s in question that open world isn’t the cheapest way to make a game. It really is. You can make a series of discrete challenges without really needing to take time to consider context or even put any set pieces together. You create mechanics, and you let players create their own fun. I will concede that I am MOSTLY disparaging BOTW.
EldritchFeminity@lemmy.blahaj.zone 7 hours ago
I would disagree with this sentiment on a basic game design level. I don’t know about the Zelda games, I didn’t care enough about BotW to play more than a few hours, but designing a large map that incorporates multiple biomes in a believable way is much more difficult than creating a bunch of smaller levels that don’t have to have any relation to each other in the slightest. You can get away with a lot more in terms of map geometry and set pieces when you load into each level individually.
This is obviously different when you’re talking about Bethesda-style load into every building style environments vs Elden Ring “You see that castle in the distance? You’ll be going in there eventually” design, but the fact that Bethesda makes their interiors separate from the rest of the world is how they cheap out on their games. It’s less hardware intensive and you can cheat a lot more in your design. And on a gameplay level that goes for Ubisoft-style collectathon map objects (and Zelda shrines in this case), but that’s not unique to open-world games - it’s a lazy cop-out that game devs have used forever to pad out their games. Collecting all the secret skulls in Halo is the same thing, but because it’s implemented well and doesn’t drag on forever with no reward like most open-world collectibles, it feels totally different.