So I mostly talked about open worlds for RPG's or other similar games, but can you think of any games that are not these but still have an open world?

@grumbro

2 ай бұрын

Nah

@theempire8461

2 ай бұрын

How much for you to do the thug shaker

@grumbro

2 ай бұрын

​@@theempire8461 "how to fail at thug shaking"

@ligstig

2 ай бұрын

red dead redemption is one and there's an argument to be made that GTA is an open world sandbox

@Artindi

2 ай бұрын

@@ligstig aren't those both rpg's though?

Ah yes, the Ubisoft approach.

@foxxdgd443

2 ай бұрын

LMFAAAOOO

@frogtheneonsaber

2 ай бұрын

Nintendo does that right.

@Flufferpup

2 ай бұрын

@@frogtheneonsaber You don't mean in botw/totk right? They're equally as guilty with copy and paste monster camps littering the place. It's only tolerable thanks to how much players can express themselves in terms of combat and world interaction.

@nobodyinparticular9640

2 ай бұрын

​@@frogtheneonsaberif your only experience with open world games is only botw/tiktok, then sure, with nothing else to compare, they did everything perfectly, eh.

@RandomizedYoutuber012

2 ай бұрын

This is just how the people’s minds was thinking during the making of skull and bones

"Some of them are turned 90 degrees" Yes definitely on purpose to give the game variety

@Artindi

2 ай бұрын

I mean you can hardly tell them apart.

@Tasarran

2 ай бұрын

And some of them... are turned 90 degrees THE OTHER WAY!

@ultimaxkom8728

2 ай бұрын

@@Tasarran -No- Other way?! This is beyond science!

Don’t forget- as a indie dev, it is VERY, VERY achievable for you to create a vast open world like BOTW. Immediately set your sights on that- anything else is just pixelart garbage.

@cresoma

2 ай бұрын

True! Your first game should always be a colossal 60+ hour masterpiece, and the magnum opus of your career. Go big or go home!

@XDefaultBoe

2 ай бұрын

99% indie devs quit right before they hit it big

@ultimaxkom8728

2 ай бұрын

Don't be a wuss and always start big. Remember, scope creep is a social construct.

@cresoma

2 ай бұрын

@@ultimaxkom8728 Oh for sure, your game will come out perfect if you just keep adding new concepts to it. Extra systems for depth, new characters for new stories, maybe new sidequests and new bonus content (that you develop before finishing the core content, of course), just go nuts and tack on every idea you get. I mean, it’s more content, a big game means it’s a cool game! And since this is all for your first game, it has to have EVERYTHING. Every good game dev proves all their talent the first time around!

@ultimaxkom8728

2 ай бұрын

@@cresoma I'll add that _MoSCoW_ is a trap. _"Must" "Should" "Could"_ and _"Won't"_ are mostly redundant and there should only be the _"Must"_ features.

Probably the easiest genre to fail in my opinion.

@Artindi

2 ай бұрын

A great option for following this series. :)

@cresoma

2 ай бұрын

Only way to make it even easier to fail would be to attempt an open world MMO (of course, with a dev team of ten or less members and a budget of nil)

@osbourn5772

2 ай бұрын

Open World MMORPG, the easiest genre for a new game developer

@raathh

2 ай бұрын

@@cresomaBudget of nil? More like budget of hopes and dreams :D

@findingmosey6447

2 ай бұрын

This definitely hits home for me... Not failing yet though!

Can’t wait for the npcs to give one sentence quests! This won’t make the world feel shallow and insincere at all!

@Artindi

2 ай бұрын

lol, didn't even think about that, I just had to fit the quest into one frame, but a great idea none the less! :D

1. create 2 giant-ass continents wired together by a tiny strip of land. you may not even care about naming them creatively, let it be "North ..." and "South ...". 2. Make a spawn point for your main game class in the center of the map, and make it entirely empty. Like, who even cares about starter content? Fill it with sand and it'll be fine. 3. Make a continent to the north of it, and make some parts of your lore claim it's actually 2 continents, so it contradicts itself. Don't forget to add too many peninsulas for fun. 4. Don't reward the player for getting to the northernmost and southernmost parts of the map. Come up with a stupid reason so players don't go there, like, "it's too cold to live" or something. You can also save processing power like that - just cover that land in white so you don't have to texture it.

@Artindi

2 ай бұрын

very good additions. :)

@calebd3947

2 ай бұрын

Is God an indie game developer

@toasterhavingabath6980

2 ай бұрын

Wait a second

@ruffeboi7304

2 ай бұрын

​@@calebd3947 Hollup... Let him cook

@theapexsurvivor9538

2 ай бұрын

Make one of your continents completely disconnected from the rest except for a special event in the lore, and make it require special equipment to get to, then fill it with giant spiders and mammals with pouches, watch your players gaslight themselves...

Also! Don't forget to just have some random invisible walls to instead of a interesting realistic border to the world! Just like some random force field will do just fine!

@Artindi

2 ай бұрын

Yeah! Why have a stick? invisible walls work just fine. :)

@Chubby_Bub

2 ай бұрын

I always found it interesting how in BotW some boundaries of the world have semi-feasible restrictions, like giant canyons, strong wind, or blinding sandstorms. But then sometimes it's just "You can't go any farther."

@toasterhavingabath6980

2 ай бұрын

In fo4 its just a wooden fence

@toasterhavingabath6980

2 ай бұрын

Not even a tall one

@banko-xv4rt

2 ай бұрын

"I should turn back"

How to fail at picking a game engine is an underrated concept, how many times an idea fails because of the engine

@Artindi

2 ай бұрын

That's episode 2. :)

@bluelight8244

2 ай бұрын

I tried to make my own engine.... and then decides to just use Godot because it is more easy, convenient & fun, and my game is still yet to be finished.

@mikeb5063

2 ай бұрын

Bethesda "thats where im a viking"

@manender1020

22 күн бұрын

My 15 year old rot brain is making an "engine" over MonoGame for a TBS game which uses a special content definition language I made for not much reason, more than 1 year of (mostly passive) development and basic UI functions are still in progress, feels great 👍

If you set your game in space, make sure every planet has one biome.

@pointyorb

Ай бұрын

Monoclimatic planets are all super realistic and very interesting!

@roachdoggjr1940

9 күн бұрын

Oh, monoclimates are TIGHT

How to succeed: 1) Make it a small world so players never ask for fast travel. Also decreases overall work so you can finish it. 2) Pack that small world to the brim with activities as if it were a theme park. 3) Randomly place the activities to actually encourage exploration. EG: This cave has an iron rock in it but it's in a different place every single time. How to still fail after that: 1) Just add fast travel. 2) Trivialise all activities the player can do by just making it so the player can buy anything with gold, who needs to do fishing when you can just buy fish. 3) Have a boss that drops a ludicrous quantity of gold so the game becomes stale and repetitive.

@waltercardcollector

2 ай бұрын

This sadly brings Runescape to mind - there is a lot of skilling content in Runescape, but it's usually just more efficient to kill bosses for their drops, sell the drops and buy whatever you would have wanted to get from skilling anyway, and most bosses drop skilling stuff too.

@maltardraco9555

2 ай бұрын

@@waltercardcollector I had Runescape in mind when writing those fails since Runescape did those. Which brings me to: 4) Make the level 40 gear upgrade require 99 blacksmithing or a small sum of gold to render the whole skill worthless.

@waltercardcollector

2 ай бұрын

@@maltardraco9555 Hahaha yessss that never made any sense to me either!

@TheMisterGuy

2 ай бұрын

"1) Make it a small world so players never ask for fast travel. Also decreases overall work so you can finish it." I think this is a good idea but let's be honest: The Legend of Zelda, in 1986, had two different fast travel systems. So did Link To The Past 1992. On the other hand, Metroid (1987) and Super Metroid (1994) did not. So you can go either way and be right.

@vaimast2825

2 ай бұрын

Oh ya, i play a need for speed most wanted game and the map was small enought to explore, if you want you can buy another city dlc

My best advice: You really can't make a Skyrim as an Indie. But with today's tools it's totally possible to make an Ultima, Wizardry, Might & Magic, Bard's Tale, Dragon Quest, Legend of Zelda, Legacy of the Wizard, and so on, all by yourself.

@Artindi

2 ай бұрын

There are some pretty awesome open world games made by solo devs. But they are never epic in scale, which makes then better in some ways.

@ultimaxkom8728

2 ай бұрын

You almost certainly can make epic scale open world on par or better than any *_current_* AAA titles, even as a solo dev. You just need to sacrifice decades for it.

@linkly9272

2 ай бұрын

@@ultimaxkom8728Well, we're talking about what's realistic here. During those decades, you'd have to somehow be able to set aside many thousands of hours of time whilst still making enough to get by. Not something 99.9% of people are capable (or fortunate) enough to accomplish.

@monsterhunter4398

2 ай бұрын

A good example that came to mind while watching this was the classic Fallout titles. Their 'open worlds' can feel somewhat bare compared to modern day games, but considering how many unique locations it had, and the amount of unique content in each location, AND the fact that it was all only released in 1997 is really impressive. And the best part? No annoying collectibles!

@ultimaxkom8728

2 ай бұрын

@@linkly9272 It's possible, it's achievable, but doesn't mean it's feasible nor affordable. It's just the purest trade of time and effort for talent resources and manpower.

Make sure to fill the world with NPCs that do nothing all day except sit around and give the player side quests. This hunter needs 50 bear asses! Could he simply go and get them himself, 'cause he's a hunter and all? No. This farmer wants you to watch his sheep! Could he just do it himself, since that's literally what his occupation entails? No. This lady wants you to get her a basket of apples from the market! Could she literally just get off her lazy arse and WALK to the market herself because it's literally RIGHT THERE?! No. There's simply nothing better for immersion than making the player question how the hell this society manages to function without a legendary hero around to wash everyone's dishes and walk their dogs.

@ballom29

2 ай бұрын

honnestly , that's almost every game ever, trying to make such a game would fit in the "how to succeed at failure" due to the ambitious scope of autonomous NPC And if it break immertion you're doing everybody's chore, removing it skip the point, it make you aware of how the inhabitant of this world ""live"". Imagine the hunter never ask you 50 bear asses, the lady never tell you she need apple, etc..... what do you know about this world then ? why are you even there (except probably killing strong monsters ) ? What do you even do beside being a passive listener if NPC live their lifes without you ? (obviously doesn't apply if like in a mmo you just skip skip skip skip dialogues) What's bad obviously is lazy quests "go kill me 10 wolves" or indeed the NPC just stand there doing absolutly nothing.

@martabachynsky8545

2 ай бұрын

The hunter should be visibly injured and complain about having to have the bear pelts ready for the local lord within a couple of days. For the farmer, some of his sheep could be stolen by bandits, and they're his best wool producers, so he needs some help getting them back. As for the apples, I have no idea unless she's an elderly villager who asks if you're happening to be going to that town and coming back, could you please get a basket of "sweet ruby" apples from Donald the costermonger.

@8Hshan

2 ай бұрын

Or the hunter could ask you to get him a new bow from the only seller nearby, who's refusing to sell him anything because the whole village is angry at the hunter for some reason (maybe he cooperated with the game villains to save his loved one from being forcibly employed as their servant? and maybe she was in debt to the villains?). And since it might be pretty obvious that it's for the hunter, you either have to convince the seller, force them, or conceal that you've been contacting the hunter before, and make it believable that it's actually you in need of that bow. See, it's still a relatively usual fetch quest, with a little quirk that you have to figure out how to get the item, but it makes sense in the setting and provides truckloads of background. The same could work for other examples, but I'm not gonna write 3 quests just for a comment :P

@ToxicBastard

2 ай бұрын

@@ballom29 I'd rather do nothing than fetch quests

@GGBlaster

2 ай бұрын

Honestly, 90% of the “I’m too lazy, you do it for me” quests would be improved by just having the NPC go with you. They don’t have to be competent, but at least they’re trying.

I hope someone makes a game jam where you have to follow as much of your videos as possible someday

@Artindi

2 ай бұрын

I've been thinking about making a game based on the series, might be good. :)

@HoldenVontz

2 ай бұрын

@@Artindi please do, ive never done a game jam but id definitely participate in that one, alot less pressure to be the best, quite the opposite actually..

@ultimaxkom8728

2 ай бұрын

@@Artindi Even better, make your own Failed Successfully Game Jam in the far future.

if it was possible to actually fail on Open Worlds, Ubisoft would've gone bankrupt by now

@lamxdblessed3383

2 ай бұрын

And bethesda

@ToxicBastard

2 ай бұрын

@@lamxdblessed3383 Bethesda don't make games they make mod templates

@delrunplays2903

2 ай бұрын

@@lamxdblessed3383I'd say case -in-point Starfield, but we're talking about open worlds here.

@SmallSpoonBrigade

2 ай бұрын

I think it's kind of a missed opportunity. Most openworld game have a lot of open space due to how expensive it is to make all those buildings fleshed out. I wish they'd figure out how to allow players to populate some of the map.

@Revelde001

2 ай бұрын

@@delrunplays2903Brutal

Don't forget to add base building mechanics, bonus points for tying them to 1 location or a few more. Saves processing power not having to render the rest of the world you crafted!

@banko-xv4rt

2 ай бұрын

Don't forget to make bases meaningless by not giving the player a proper storage or crafting system

@gramfero

2 ай бұрын

​@@banko-xv4rtdon't forget to also add constant NPC raids that only serve as infinite weapon and ammo generators

@ultimaxkom8728

2 ай бұрын

@@banko-xv4rt Limit inventory tabs and sell the rest on your shop.

@ballom29

2 ай бұрын

@@banko-xv4rt or by giving the player a summonable base who also give storage and crafting stations, wich can double as an hangar for all your vehicules and offer by far the best long distance travel, making traditionnal base almsot completly useless. No, I'm not thinkign at all about a specific space game.

@banko-xv4rt

2 ай бұрын

@@ballom29which space game?

Don't forget about invisible walls everywhere, we need plenty of those too!!!!

@Artindi

2 ай бұрын

The best kind of walls. :)

@artman40

2 ай бұрын

Make sure to add secrets that are harder to get to than those walls.

@theapexsurvivor9538

2 ай бұрын

​@@artman40only if they require some bs that makes the player feel frustrated that they succeeded rather than like they earnt it.

@ultimaxkom8728

2 ай бұрын

@@theapexsurvivor9538 I'll do you one better: secret rewards that you can see and you _think_ you can get but can't possibly reach without using external hacks.

@ultimaxkom8728

2 ай бұрын

@@theapexsurvivor9538 Make secret rewards that you can see and you think you can get but can't possibly reach without using external tools.

Some other tips on how to fail: 1. Oh...while you're at it, add an inventory but make sure it doesn't add immersion and is more of a gameplay inconvenience than actual challenge. 2. Don't forget crafting system! Make the crafting system as cumbersome as possible! 3. Early access! Is it going to be out of early access eventually? Who knows. 4. Remember: You can't make an indoors open world game.

First minute could be easily countered by mentioning Daggerfall lol. It did the realistic scale impeccably for the time. You can definitely make a big empty world only realistically traversable by fast travel, just have to make the gameplay loop revolve around it.

@ArariaKAgelessTraveller

2 ай бұрын

Wow I managed to forget that game exists

Don't forget to make the world insanely fucking big and then filling it with nothing, but needing to place billions of trees and rocks and ruined houses in obscure corners of the map, where noone will even be.

@ccl1195

2 ай бұрын

This is why I love Unity terrain building "tutorials." Here, you've made an absurd mountain range that prevents anyone from ever walking on it, covered in 50,000 identical trees so you can never build anything on it! Is this game dev? Is this how "game dev" works? 😎

@conkerlive101

2 ай бұрын

The entire underground of tears of the kingdom. The size of the entire original map with enough original content to justify 1/40th the space it takes up.

Brb, starting work on my 100% science-based dragon open world MMO!

@Artindi

2 ай бұрын

I'll Wishlist it. ;)

@32BitJunkie

2 ай бұрын

Man i wonder how that chick feels about being the butt of internet jokes for 12 years straight

My favorite open world mechanic is level based combat system! Basically every enemy is the same from start to finish but they get more levels per region. Also you can't damage an enemy 5 levels above you while it always one shots you. (gotta keep it balanced)

This only-vaguely has to do with open world games, but I had an idea awhile back about a linear story with branching paths. Sounds contradictory, but no. The idea was to give the player a FEELING of an open world, while still technically keeping them on a linear track. It worked like this; lets take a game like Half-Life2, specifically the section from the Airboat Dock to Black Mesa East. You have a single linear path connecting you from one stage of the game to the other. That one linear section is full of all sorts of fun interactive puzzles, deadly chases, and intuitive combat encounters, with brief airboating sections in-between. But what if you wanted to hoof it on foot? No problem! You can either take the airboat through the canals, OR, you can take a back-path through the sewers of City 17. Spelunking your way through the infested, grungy tunnels, stumbling across the remnants of the Resistance's underground railroad, fighting through a Combine-controlled dam, and trudging through the remains of a rebel shanty-town, before finally arriving at Black Mesa East. You still arrive at the same destination, and overall the outcome doesn't change, it just gives you a whole new experience to explore. And the idea that sparked all this was the complexity of open worlds. I admit I'm too dumb to plan out an ENTIRE open world where the player can do anything they want, but I still wanted that feeling of adventure and exploration. I felt linear, branching paths was the best solution to this, where you still get that feeling of adventure, but the game's story doesn't change.

@Artindi

2 ай бұрын

This is a great way to find a balance between narrative and open world feel, I think. :)

@ballom29

2 ай бұрын

Would be a problem of ""waste of time"". So let's say you want to make 3 different paths, normally making one path would require X effort to make Y amount of playtime for the player. Now if you make 3 paths, then you need 3X effort to make it.....only to give Y time to the player... or one player gonna be a completionnist and spend 3Y time before completing the level but damn he's gonna feel he just paddled throught useless content in the fear he missed some important stuff. And not only that, but your 3 paths gonna be balanced, you wouldn't want to risk to have 2 great path, only for the 3th path to ruin the experience of the players who picked it. Anyway...rainworld

@imperfectimp

2 ай бұрын

I agree with ​@@ballom29. If that's what you want to do, maybe look up the "illusion of choice". Basically make sure the branches get back to a single path as often as possible.

@theangrypotato2.031

2 ай бұрын

You just made an open world telltale game lmao

@gamertardguardian1299

2 ай бұрын

There are many games like this, that give the illusion of being open world. The problem with this is that some people like it, while others don’t

For anyone interested, Wave Function collapse is kind of a cheat code for proc gen. It's not going to solve the problem of you having a lack of content in your game, but if you want procedurally generated environments that differ from one-another, WFC is the way to go.

I came in expecin the same level of thoughtful, gentle critique as the rest of the gamedev videos youtube's been recommending to me, and instead got all the snark and cynicism I was going to leave in a comment to such a video. This is very cathartic, thank you.

@Artindi

2 ай бұрын

oh you are most welcome. :)

kenshi did manage to make a huge open world mostly solo, but thank to a lot of good decision the general grindness, emptiness and unfairness of the game actually help the ludo-narrative

This is basicly what bethesda did with starfiled Also can you make "How to fail at Souls-Likes"

@Artindi

2 ай бұрын

I said I wasn't naming any games in particular..... ;) Also, no, Souls-like games are perfect and cannot be failed at... (shifty eyes)

@banko-xv4rt

2 ай бұрын

how to fail at souls likes: Release a masterpiece on a console that is barely able to run it. Give it a good DLC. Never return to it. Never port it to PC. Never make a remaster version.

@titanics.o.s2101

2 ай бұрын

@@banko-xv4rt nah just copy paste lords of the fallen (2014) and you'll be fine

@leadpipejustice9253

2 ай бұрын

Haha "starfail"

Unsighted is an open world indie game which I like a lot. It's 2D and doesn't take itself too seriously, but you can totally travel anywhere right at the start by using valid game mechanics (like crafting yourself a huge spinner and using it to bounce over the water)

@Artindi

2 ай бұрын

Cool! might have to check it out. :)

Can't wait to make the next GTA! All by myself.

@krischurch3763

2 ай бұрын

😂😂

The fact that big companies do the things you mentioned about indie game dev mistakes is halirious 😂

Love this style of video, had a good laugh. Good work mate, nice to see your channel growing!

“I could draw others but eh I’m lazy” is the smartest way to illustrate your point I’ve ever seen

this one is the most aggressive and direct of these videos. love it

Gothic 1 and 2 have the perfect open world type. It's perfetly accessible from the beginning, areas just have enemies way stronger than you so you don't want to go there before leveling up. And the world is actually fairly small in comparison even to games that came out around the same time, but it's absolutely packed with content. Hidden paths, hidden items, enemies, locations, quests, NPCs... Everything feels way bigger than it actually is.

@blossom357

2 ай бұрын

Gothic is literally the only good open world game I have played. To be fair I've not tried Morrowind so maybe it's good?

@kompatybilijny9348

2 ай бұрын

@@blossom357 I don't know, the only TES I've played was Oblivion

@richardprazak8649

2 ай бұрын

I was going to write the same thing

Broo... Cool one, I like your style! Keep on!

I genuinely don't get proc gen in open world games. It's like skipping the soul of the world. Works for something like Minecraft because it's a survival game but for something like botw it would suck

@Artindi

2 ай бұрын

Yup, depends on the feel you are going for. pro's and con's for both. and like you said, works better for some genres over others. :)

@josecarlosmoreno9731

2 ай бұрын

I think it depends, the problem being mainly scope. If the goal of an open world is exploration, then proc gen is useful and the blandness/interesting scale is simply a matter of variation, how places interact, and level of detail. For example, one can compare early minecraft with today's minecraft and moreso with mods/datapacks like Terralith, etc. It's still a type of hand crafting simply with more variability. If the goal is to tell a story, then places need to be consistent and so proc gen is only useful for filling in grass or something. Though if it is not a fixed story, that can be interesting as well by implementing either a simple sim (dragon wanders about, attacks town when hungry, returns to cave) which helps create organic stories (if attacked, town asks for help, hero defends town OR hero follows dragon to cave to kill there OR hero places a pile of food somewhere so dragon eats that instead of attacking town OR hero blocks off cave and dragon starves, etc). Certain plot events and characters can be proc gen'd as well (every 20 days, some npc is going to become a thief, rob someone, and that someone will ask hero to find and return item), the issue here is simply having enough detail and space between repetition to keep things interesting. Yes, it eventually gets repetitive, but so does doing the same static quest over and over, games don't need to be infinitely enjoyable such that it replaces your whole life.

@gamertardguardian1299

2 ай бұрын

@@josecarlosmoreno9731Look at AI dungeon, that AI is like 5 years old and its still able to *somewhat* create unique quests by judging the environment. Procedural world generation would go hand in hand with AI story builders, at least when AI is a bit more smart and memorable

Well in fact Gothic 1 an 2 nailed the world building in game. The worlds in both arent large, in fact they are pretty small but they are o filled with everything, full of secrets, interesting stuff and they are also expanded vertically, so they seem huge and alive. Second, the progression. Worlds in those games are open since the start. So, how do you recognise that you shouldn't be in this area yet? You get your ass beaten in moment by monsters in that area. Of course there are few places that are tied to the story, but there is only few of them and they are completely logical. And last thing, the fast travel. You do not have teleportation at first or any fast travel means. Its not a big problem since as i said those worlds arent so huge. In fact its extremely good, because you are naturally forced to exploe the world, learn it, find a lot of things. You get telepotation runes, and only to few key places in like half of the game, when you already learned how the world looks and cleared the areas between key locations.

There was this guy who made a really big rpg world by himself for the original gameboy, it took years, even with useful tools like GB studio [the game is called dragonborne]

@AlgaeNymph

2 ай бұрын

Neat. What was it?

@villagerjj

2 ай бұрын

@@AlgaeNymph its called dragonborne

1:57 There are semi-procedural map creation tools available which allow you manual adjustment of a proceduraly generated points. For example, microverse for Unity - it allowed me to create a decent looking 16km^2 (nature-only though) map in a less than a month. The same goes with Gaia+Gena, but with less manual control.

Jokes aside, the comment section here and the video itself is super helpful for me. I lost my old game project’s file from file corruption, making me lose 4 years of progress. But is a blessing in disguise as I’m now remaking it from the ground up whilst heavily improving on everything, specifically the world and its lore. But the main struggle is the open world itself. All the stuff here has already given me ideas on what to do and what to avoid; and has even given me ideas such as rather than simply adding fast travel to the game like I was going to originally, completing certain sidequests or main story quests will reward the player with new shortcuts of varying types that help them travel around the world much quicker should they choose to do so. These shortcuts themselves may even sometimes contain extra stuff as well, such as a path to a different area of the map previously thought to be inaccessible

Your truthfully words wound so deep :D "If you never try, you're not really failing". If not for that, many people could believe that they "failed" by not trying and be done with it and move on with their lives. Instead, there is a need - a drive - to fail properly (technically, "to succeed OR to fail demonstrably enough") and so one still has to do an actual attempt =) And the more honest your attempt is, the less mistakes you're allowed to make knowingly, because that's like making failing easier for yourself. I guess, if "not trying at all" is failure of the zeroth degree, then "trying while ignoring obvious mistakes" is failing of the first degree, but it's still not good enough for a true Failure Knight! =D

@Artindi

2 ай бұрын

An excellent way to put it. Very insightful. :)

Shows how tight the line that games like Rain World walk is.

While a AA or AAA title, the Yakuza series has the right ideas about an open world. It is open world, but they only give you a single city district to explore. But oh man, that single city district is full enough with life, interesting locations, quests, mini games and atmosphere enough for 3 Ubisoft games. The games director wanted to make a living breathing district.

aw lovely little video well done. love the cycism

Couldn't agree more. I also find it hard to care a lot about most video game stories because they have to share so many tropes with the other 8,000 video games we've already played. Two games can have completely different stories yet still managed to feel so insanely similar.

There’s a solo-dev open world game, called Gedonia, that I really enjoy. Now, it’s no infinite-polygon, 4k graphics, AAA game. Its story is short and cliche, and the voice acting is flatter than a crepe. But there’s a ton it does super well, one of which is its fast travel options. Regardless of your build, there are several warp points in set locations throughout the world. To travel to any warp point, you must first be at a warp point. Furthermore, you have to unlock warp points for fast travel by approaching and interacting with them. The warp points are few, far between, and rarely close to where you need to go, so you are often depending on your legs, a mount, or speed boosts to get around. If you make a mage/wizard build, you’ll have teleportation available as a mid-late game option on your skill tree. This spell takes you anywhere within a certain distance from where you’re at, costs more mana the farther it takes you, and has an exorbitant 3-4 minute cooldown. But the best fast travel by far is flying. With the same wizard build, you can unlock and upgrade a flight spell, which at its max upgrade lets you soar across the map in tens of seconds. It’s convenient, but also incredibly fun, and you can still enjoy the view (as long as the rendering can keep up with you lol).

2nd Avernum (Or Realms if you're really really old) handled that well. Open world with big magical barriers locking you in to the starter area. Main quest at the start: nobody knows where these DAMNED magical barriers came from and by now we are so desperate, and so short on manpower that we're sending some rando lose- eum adventurers to find out wth is up.

@Idle_Wisdom

2 ай бұрын

Yes. The Avernum/Exile games did a good job of making the barriers part of the story world.

My favorite part of skyrim was the large (for the time) natural looking spaces. I think it worked so well for me because of all the resources, animals, and npcs along the way. I usually avoided fast travel because of it. But after having played so much skyrim in the past I'm not sure it would still hold my attention now.

@Artindi

2 ай бұрын

yeah, I have to mod it now to keep things interesting. :)

@SyndicateOperative

Ай бұрын

That was something I found great on my most recent playthrough. I'd find little quests I knew nothing about just by walking along the roads or exploring - e.g. a skooma den, in which an imperial soldier recognises you from Helgen. If you use the skooma there, you get captured by vampires.

Pst, heres a secret for making high quality base world maps "ez". Either draw or hire someone to draw you a cool world map reference you like. Next sculpt a scaled miniature of it in 3d, or hire someone to do it for you. Its actually a lot cheaper than you could ever imagine. Make sure to add height based texture to the map, mind you it wont be fine detail, you just want rough detail from the height based texturing. Next scale it up to the real scale. Now you have a pretty high quality world map base. From there all you have to do is the hard work, which is everything else. But this method is used to rough out major map designs fast while sticking close to the reference material. There are professional tools for making maps but you could do this using most 3d programs including blender. I suggest importing your world map base into unreal to apply the finner details. UE has amazing map making features for free. With paid addons its even better. If anyone wants some other map making advice I'm happy to see if I can help.

Just make sure that, when making the world, you do so in a way that guarantees that players ask the all-important question: "Where the heck am I supposed to go?"

Quick vid,love it

1:36 You literally described my TGG paradox.

For me what makes open world great, and I noticed it during AC Valhalla in particular, is the "follow road - [e] go to quest location" feature. Riding to far off blue dot on the map with meaningless rewards but a bit of funky story is neat, and not having to "drive" the horse but just looking around while I eat a waffle or light a cigarette is pretty relaxing to me. Of the 78h I'm into the game, I probably "followed road" for 3-4 hours by now if I had to guess, and I honestly do not regret it lol. That said I'm on great medication, not sure how I'd feel about it without.

This is good advice for me, I was actually planning on building a horror rpg and the concept kind of forced me to make it open world to some extent Getting reminded not to overdo it is pretty important

@steve16384

2 ай бұрын

I'd keep at it. Even if it does fall by the wayside, and most indie projects do anyway, the experience and knowledge gained will still make it worth it. Only stop when it stops being fun.

@emilygordbort7300

2 ай бұрын

@@steve16384 Yeah, it'd give me work experience and something to put on a resume

the stone of barenziah reference as a useless collectible gave me flashbacks

Don't forget the most important one In order to have the world not seem empty just copy and paste the stuff you already have everywhere. Have 3 bandit camps within five feet of each other! Have ten shrines different of power visible at one time! Put literally a thousand tree poop in every corner of the map! You know that guy who you can help to get an item? Make sure you can see more than one instance of him at the same time! Have your mini-map so full of collectible markers that you can't see the ground! The possibilities are endless

I think Stalker style "open world" is a fantastic mix of linear and exploration. Semi large open levels with traversal points (i.e tunnels, roads etc) connecting them. Venturing into more dangerous zones is a whole spectacle as you dont know whether youll walk in with no problem or get ambushed at the entrance

this video made me laugh 😂. and btw, can you make a video of “how to fail at rhythm games”? thx

@Artindi

2 ай бұрын

Eventually it will be done. :)

@mimifurwalker

2 ай бұрын

make the game force the player to press early or late without any indication while the notes are always misplaced they won't notice it right?

@Nemesis2005

2 ай бұрын

fnf mods in a nutshell

Ok according to this GTA San Andreas has a bad open world because it has off-limits locations for most of the game, the progression is tied to the main story line and it has collectables in strange locations. But in fact, it's one of the most beloved open world maps there is.

@ygthemoth9425

2 ай бұрын

Almost like a lot of players don’t actually care about sth being off limits for a while as long as getting there is earned lol

@CrazyRiverOtter

Ай бұрын

The problem isn't a game having restricted areas and collectables, the problem is a gaming having nothing more than restricted areas and collectables

@EngiGODS358

Ай бұрын

Misinterpreted it award 🥇 Mentally handicapped award 🥇

@ygthemoth9425

Ай бұрын

@@EngiGODS358 Pro tip: if you’re going to insult someone, actually have an explanation of why they’re wrong. Otherwise you’re just going to sound like a 12 year old.

@EngiGODS358

Ай бұрын

@@ygthemoth9425 If you couldn't figure out that artindi was talking about games that do these things poorly then you should put one of your sockets to good use by probably putting a fork in it. GTA San Andreas does this without it being an issue because not only is the area you start in massive already but is also just a fun game with a great story which makes up for it. Like I said, put a fork in it.

Best openworld by solo dev I played recently have to be the moonring. (It's free on steam, BTW, so tryit, not only the world, but the whole game is great)

This. This video finally puts into words why I absolutely hate New Vegas.

Step one: Make a giant map Step two: Put a few big interest points, like cities or towns Step three: Put medium interest points in between the big ones, like towers or forts Step four: Put small interest points in between the medium ones, like random encounters or natural views Step 5: ??? Step 6: Profit

Your content is great man. Keep doing what you are doing, try to gradually improve your art/talking skills and there isn't a doubt in my mind that your channel is gonna be huge!

HEY! I love your videos.

@Artindi

2 ай бұрын

HEY! I love you comments.

Thank you for this tutorial. I was just having the hardest time failing my open world game. Like everything i did just turned out to be masterpieces.

Other things you should add: Resource collecting, it would make the game more immersive. A needlessly complicated cooking mechanic that the players wont ever bother learning because the can just select whatever ingredients and make a sufficient meal. A needlessly complicated vehicle building mechanic that probably took up most of the development time. Recolors of enemies that have more more hp as the game goes on so people might not notice the lack of enemy variety. The most underwhelming sky islands ever, but make them seem like a big deal in the trailers. Make running tied to a stamina bar that drains even when not in combat.

@ConcavePgons

2 ай бұрын

Hmm...

@plantas007

2 ай бұрын

Other than the sky Islands i don't think these mechanics are bad

@raathh

2 ай бұрын

I'm not sure but i think you should totally try Zelda ToTK, you might like it!

@ballom29

2 ай бұрын

And add one towering sky island that would be the biggest after the 2 only islands who felt like proper place, but put it at one of the hightest altitude from the game, surrounded by others islands but so far away from them the place is practically inaccessible without using method that feel like going around the intended away. This island gonna tease the player, he's gonna wonder what can even be up there, surely some optional late game dungeon or at least one epic challenge or secret content. And once arrived you'll realize it's almost like any other sky island, a huge bulk of the island that make it look so large is just useless decorations, an island bit more original than the rest but ultimately just a quick look around of the place and it's time to move on. Zonaite forge was one hella big letdown for me, the view of this hard to access island hyped me so much.

I like the way stray makes it feel like an open world, even though its a very linear game

I like how your diss of proc gen infinite games could be interoperated as either starfield or no man's sky.

I love this series!

@Artindi

2 ай бұрын

I love this comment!

Hey putting collectibles in impossible places can be really endearing!

I wish more open world games would understand the formula of "big world with a lot of empty space" + "very face modes of transportation" like how the Just Cause series does it. JC2 had a map so big it could take hours to walk, but you could bypass the distance by hookshotting onto a fighter jet.

You know, I like this series. Most people learning anything regarding software development, especially game development, are very adverse to any kind of critique, but this series explains it in an amusing and relatable fashion. Hopefully it'll help people become aware of their flaws, or at least, the flaws of their creations...

I love the quantity over quality approach to open world games

this one dropped just in time.. i was considering making my current project an open world (but i'm not sure how i'm gonna approach this)

Make sure to make the decorative novelty of the game something unique that you otherwise couldn't experience in real life, like space. That way, you can mask the games' complete lack of content and slow paced story behind "but at least it looks pretty", and then maybe people will stop paying attention to how weird the face textures look

At one point I was trying to find a fun rpg game for mobile where I could just spend a few minutes playing, and just kill some time. I found some pretty good ones, there were some bad ones, but one took the cake. I remember downloading a fairly small, but not obscure game. I can't remember the name, sorry. It was online, open world, and had a really cool class based rpg type gameplay style. The issues started from the first quest. For example tje quest would be kill Reginald's Grass Giant. I would be fighting it for ages, until a high level player came in, finished it, and I didn't get the quest finished because I didn't kill the giant. So then I had ro wait 5 minutes for it to respawn. Then the term "open world" was used incredibly loosely. You had two roads that connected the map together, with half the map being inaccessible because of hills that were too steep. So the game forced you to one route every time. The road had branches, but you couldn't explore properly, which kinda ruined it for me. It had a class system, but that was pretty much useless, because you'd be able to unlock everything anyway, and be able to level it up quickly. Of course you could speed it up by spending a little dough. It had about three big rock textures, and about two tree textures. Half of the trees were floating, and most of the enemies were just the same enemies, just slightly different looking. The game was horrid. 1/10 wouldn't play again, and I'm glad I forgot the name of it.

I didn't even need the guide to make my game exactly like this! I am so good at failing!

These Barenziah Stones are giving me nightmares.

I think you should do How to Fail at boss fights for the next episode.

@Artindi

2 ай бұрын

It's a good idea, but I think I'm going to do how to fail at survival games, felt like I needed to do open worlds before I could though, but now that that is done I can do survival. But Boss fights will be a great future episode. :)

@gatoreptiliano8785

2 ай бұрын

Give the boss an overly complicated attack pattern that doesn't matter in the end because all you need to dodge him is to repeatedly roll over the floor 🤣

@ygthemoth9425

2 ай бұрын

“Put five billion kilometres between respawn points and the boss arena.”

@TheMamaluigi300

12 күн бұрын

@@gatoreptiliano8785 Make said attack patterns obnoxiously long to die out, and give the player a mere second to strike before it starts the pattern all over again Optional: Make a boss that blocks every single attack, sans one single special attack you’ll now have to spam cheaply to win

This bit killed me (Fast travel) 1:07

Theres a dev who worked a simple menial job and worked on a game for 10 or more years afterwards getting the deserved attention and finally a crew. One guy made everything, and his story inspired me, because the game itself is kinda about hard work. And his game has lore that you yourself needs to find out, as it wont be laid out for you, the game will be harsh to you and there will be many reasons why. There are no quests because you are a nobody who nobody cares about, you will die alot and that will make the world bigger. Kenshi.

you forgot the most important part, never have random events that just happen while exploring anywhere, because if you have fun stimulating events then the player wont be able to rubber band their control stick while afk to make it to the next town, and everyone knows rubber banded control sticks are the future of gaming

Sound exactly like Starfield ;)

@Artindi

2 ай бұрын

I guess you are one of the people who "know" ;)

@enderfire3379

2 ай бұрын

@@Artindiyeah, i was also thinking minecraft

This guy teaches people by not teaching them he's like a genius Love ur content btw

If you want a large scale open world you could make something like Shadow of the Colossus, it would still probably take months for a solo guy to make that map. But smaller open worlds are feasable for sure, especially if you have assets already

The Stone of Barenziah as a collectible example is crazyyy. Such an annoying quest.

@Artindi

2 ай бұрын

I was sure someone would recognize that. lol.

I think a great way to give a sense of exploration without going full open world would be the approach of the earlier Pokémon games with routes and interesting locations along the way.

This started to sound more and more like most open-world games to come out... ever.

Oh hey, it's starbound!

Then add microtransactions for fast travel or making a new character...

As someone who just started their first attempt at a game, I am now more encouraged and disheartened than ever thanks to the comments 😂

Ima need a how to fail at shooter game development

@Artindi

2 ай бұрын

it's on the list. :)

@Artindi

2 ай бұрын

of things I need to do. ;)

@helix4267

2 ай бұрын

@@Artindi 🔥 🔥

One game where i like fast travel was in kingdom come deliverance though thats not that huge of a map and it itself has some issues themselves

i like how goofy this video was in compareson to the other ones

@Artindi

2 ай бұрын

Thanks! I think... :)

@gabrielx24_44

2 ай бұрын

@@Artindi how to fail at rythm games next perhaps?

@dazcarrr

2 ай бұрын

it's really difficult to say "you can make an indie open world game like skyrim!" with a straight face

Sure, there are literally no examples of a hand-crafted, true open world made and completed by a solo indie dev, but surely that's because nobody has ever bothered to try except for me! And I've already gotten burnt out after a week of trying to make the sprawling, enormous MMO from my dreams, so I have plenty of free time!

@Artindi

2 ай бұрын

I thought you where serious for the first half and was going to give you examples of open world games that have been made by solo devs. then I read the rest of your comment. lol. :)

The fact a lot of people call Open-World a genre makes your point perfectly. People see it as a genre instead of what it really is: a level structure. So instead of thinking of their mechanics and their "real" genre, they first look at what an open-world game "needs to have", and fall prey to the classic mistake of thinking everything in a Ubisoft-era-openworld is scalable to indie size. Think first about your game mechanics, your genre, the experience you want the player to have, and only then think of how you want the world to reinforce those. "Open-World as a genre" only works if you have the budget to make the world into your center piece and are ready to cut down on the rest of the design to do so. And even then, you're better off not doing that. Elden Ring isn't an open world dark souls, it's dark souls with an open world. The distinction is pretty important in why this game's world feels so unique.

I wish there was an open world game that was beautifully handcrafted, packed to the brim with content, and had no fast travel, oh wait! PLAY OUTER WILDS!

@Artindi

2 ай бұрын

yeah... I need to get that game. :)

Actually gating areas by high level monsters is actually good... when you give player option to pass through them if they're clever enough. Like, make an entire area, a desert full of flying dragons that challenge even if you're high level, but you're low level rn... but there's a small shrine on an island near the shore that has an obelisk that can grant your characters a bit upgrade to all the stats! So if you're clever enough to dodge all the dragons, you can reach the shrine and give your characters a nice boost! ...Or you can use a hidden teleport right in the starting location that warps you direclty there, and there's a teleport in the wall that can warp you back to starting area. ...What i have described actually exists in Might and Magic 6 Mandate of Heaven. Seriously, old Might and Magic games, specifically from 3 to 6, are examples on HOW TO make an open world game. And they're not too big! But full of content enough to make them feel very big.

Make How to fail at Tycoon Games

@Artindi

2 ай бұрын

I'll add it to my list! :D

1:35 Gothic 2 is the best "not open-world" game world design I have ever experienced.