Thoughts on an Open World?

[photonblaze]

Would you guys want to see this game being an open world game or not?
I personally don't... keep it classic like the original Banjo Kazooie

[Thomx]

"Open world" is a pretty broad term. What do you mean?

[Floyd]

Entirely open world? Definitely not, it would make it very hard for the developers to create good level design. But this style of game has always been open world within each level, and I'm pretty sure it will still be like that.

[polomi]

Like if there is no boundaries between levels? As long as there still are areas that are thematically well defined, I don't mind whether there are boundaries or not.

[MacroToast]

All I can really remember about the worlds after I calmed down was something about the worlds being expandable as you progress through the game, which I suppose could be open-world-ish. Plus I think they mentioned the game was non-linear, unless I miss-heard them.

[Jim]

Just like Banjo, DK 64, Mario 64...a giant hub world where i have acess to other levels.
It MUST have secrets, just like they said in the interview. Good job!

[Loggo]

I hope it's closer to Kazooie than Tooie in terms of world design. Tooie became a bit too open and ambitious for my taste.

[Taylor]

[WereMagnus]

I preferred Tooie's world. Especially how they were all linked in some way. Unlocking train stations and discovering the secret tunnels between worlds is one of my favorite Banjo memories

[White Falcon]

I think the Hub World that connects levels a la Mario 64/Banjo works best with this genre.

I think they talked before at Rezzed about this being the case for P. Ukulele didn't they?

Tooie tried to bring a bigger world and, while it wasn't bad, I didn't enjoy it as much as the one in Kazooie.

[HarmfulSpacenaut]

Tooie was already kinda open worldish, considering the size of the hub world and all the levels had entrances that made it look like they are still part of that world and not like separate section, and the interconnection between the levels themselves. But it was already pretty much too big and pompous for me, compared to kazooie.

[tk7261]

Yea, definitely smaller better designed levels as opposed to large open worlds with not as much in them. Banjo had the perfect size, and every level was jam packed with stuff to do. BK2 was too big for me. I loved that the Banjo levels where not linear but still contained. They had so much character.

[Lukhuta]

I want levels based around themes that you can access from a hub. A la Banjo Kazooie.

[Dustin Demon]

[Dovla]

Another vote for more Banjo Kazooie/Mario 64 style levels, Tooie was a bit too much open for my taste and I got lost frequently. I like completing levels in chunks and progressing through a hub world of sorts. The game should have a big hub world with little secrets hidden everywhere but not so much that you get lost trying to figure out where stuff is.

[DKVineChad]

Personally, I preferred the Tooie balance, as it made for more interesting puzzles and interaction between characters. I think one of the frustrations people felt in playing Tooie was that they entered the experience trying to play it like B-K. That is, entering a world, beating it 100%, and moving on.

That's simply not possible in B-T. You really need to approach the game as if you're dealing with issues as you encounter them, not ticking things off an arbitrary World-by-World list. If you can do that, I think you would appreciate the game in an entirely different way, and perhaps enjoy it a lot more.

Supplemental reading: Related thread at DK Vine .

[Taylor]

[Dustin Demon]

Agreed, it definitely makes it feel more like an actual world that way, instead of jumping in, going "OKAY, I GOTTA DO THIS THIS THIS AND THIS THEN LEAVE", which is kind of how I feel playing the original Banjo Kazooie game these days. I mean I love it, but it kind of feels like going grocery shopping. "Okay, I need to get chicken, eggs, 100 musical notes, then leave." Doesn't really give you as much time to really APPRECIATE the frozen dinners aisle.

[polomi]

Metroid Prime has kind of the right balance to me. There's backtracking, but it most often unlocks new parts of the levels. It's not just backtracking to get that one collectible that we couldn't reach before and then move on.

I think even one of the devs talked about it during the questions today, when asked what kind of games had some influence on them and on the industry.

[Alph]

I'm just hoping for a good old fashioned hub world with magic portals or whatever that take you to various well designed, diverse, and highly explorable environments with lot's of cool things to find hidden all over the place.