I Just Want Players to Save Money, They Insist on Giving Me!
Chapter 745 - 232: The Game Design Concept That Made Global Manufacturers Kneel! _3

Chapter 745: Chapter 232: The Game Design Concept That Made Global Manufacturers Kneel! _3

"The ’Zelda’ series has handled the framework aspect extremely well; it’s absolutely textbook level. Let’s see how Zelda does it."

In the article, Beici inserted Figure 5, an aerial map of ’Zelda,’ with a dense array of markings for all the related side quests, items, points of interest, enemies, and more.

"If we look closely, it’s not hard to discover."

"’Zelda’s’ framework structure employs the principle of layering."

"First, at the center of the map, a castle is placed, ’Hyrule Kingdom.’ Then, the game’s main quest naturally emerges. And that is to head to the castle to rescue Princess Zelda, right? Everyone knows this."

"We’ll call this the primary framework, the greatest driving force for players playing this game. Some might feel, ’I’m having a great time in Hyrule; I don’t have the slightest intention to rescue the princess...’ However, this is under the presumption that there is such a main quest. In the absence of this premise, the player has no ultimate goal, and every adventure in Hyrule Continent would be meaningless. Everything would seem like a waste of time, and they would naturally lose interest. So, although this main quest may seem superfluous, it can certainly sustain the primary framework."

"Of course, having only this main quest isn’t enough. Right now, the vast Hyrule Continent would be akin to a blank paper with only one chess piece placed on it, nothing else. In this case, players would only need to reach that chess piece, and they could finish the game—a game that would undoubtedly be boring."

"Therefore, Designer Ke refined the primary framework and expanded out a secondary framework."

"The Four Divine Beasts are the secondary framework of Hyrule Continent."

"Designer Ke evenly distributed The Four Divine Beasts in the four corners of the continent, the Thunder Divine Beast in the dune region, the Wind Divine Beast in the snowy mountain region, the Fire Divine Beast in the volcanic region, and the Water Divine Beast in Zora’s Domain, dividing the whole land into four."

"At this point, besides the main objective of the main quest, players now have secondary goals, which are to go to the regions of The Four Divine Beasts and gather their Strength to augment the final battle’s intensity."

"Then, when players leave the Initial Plateau once more, they won’t head straight for the central kingdom but will choose to explore the four corners of the continent first."

"It’s that age-old issue again: in many game developers’ hands, open-world maps tend to seem empty."

"Even with the central kingdom and the explorations of the regional Divine Beasts, this kind of game progression is not only short but also the player will be very bored on the way to the four regions."

"If it were other game developers, they might have started placing points of interest along the way by now, but as I said before, you must be clear about the primary and secondary. If players are too fixated on resolving the task of the Four Divine Beasts, none of your points of interest would make them stop."

"As a result, Designer Ke further refined the framework once more."

"This time, he used tertiary objectives, the 16 Sheikah Towers scattered across the world, which further dissected Hyrule Continent into even finer parts."

"The benefit of lighting up these towers is evident; it unlocks the current area’s map. With a map, players can better progress towards the regions of the Four Divine Beasts."

"You see, if points of interest can’t make players stop, then we’ll introduce some things into them that are more beneficial to advancing the game to slow down the player’s exploratory progress without causing any aversion."

"Now, the players’ attention will shift from hastily activating the Four Divine Beasts to unlocking all the towers first and lighting up the entire map of the continent."

"OK, on our current map, we already have a primary goal—Hyrule Kingdom, a secondary goal—The Four Divine Beasts, and a tertiary objective—the Sheikah Towers. The map now looks a bit denser, not so empty, and the players’ paths have already been defined."

"But if players just keep running back and forth unlocking towers and expanding their view, will they really be willing to play this game? Are these elements alone enough to make ’Zelda’ the best-open world game in Blue Star? Obviously, it’s not enough."

"Therefore, Designer Ke infused the entire map with something more soulful, which is exactly what brought the entire open-world exploration delight to spill out from the screen!"