WEBVTT

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How do you make an open world where 
the player is completely free to

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explore - but is also led towards key 
locations that will advance the story?

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This was the biggest challenge 
that Nintendo faced when making

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their very first open-world game, The 
Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild.

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They wanted to give players a 
sense of freedom and exploration,

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not seen in the franchise since 
the very first Zelda game on NES.

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But they also wanted to make 
sure players were always making

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progress towards the overarching 
goal of saving Princess Zelda.

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This was no easy task to overcome 
- Nintendo had to go through false

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starts and bad playtests before finally 
arriving at the game we all know today.

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The one that made us rethink how 
exploration can work in an open world game.

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And Nintendo actually shared their experience 
of this difficult development process at the

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'Computer Entertainment Developers 
Conference' in Japan, back in 2017.

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It was a really interesting lecture 
- and a rare act of Nintendo openly

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discussing the nitty gritty details 
of their game design and development.

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But that information is sadly 
very hard to access today.

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The lecture was never uploaded.

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All of the reports are in Japanese (and 
the only English translation is a tweet

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thread summary that's been mangled by Twitter).

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And Nintendo actually got journalists to pull 
down their photos of the original slides.

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So - I thought it was time to right that wrong.

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To mark the imminent release of the 
next Zelda game, Tears of the Kingdom,

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I decided to resurrect that old talk.

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I gathered different write-ups of the 
talk, and had them translated into English.

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I used internet archives to 
rediscover the lost slides,

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and used motion graphics to make them come alive.

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And I used AI upscaling to 
bring back old screenshots.

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So, without further ado, I'm 
Mark Brown, this is a GMTK Mini,

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and here's how Nintendo solved the biggest 
problem in Breath of the Wild's design.

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Okay, so Nintendo had built a humongous world 
map for Hyrule, and let players explore in any

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direction - but they needed to find some 
way to lure players towards key locations.

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The initial idea was to use a 
system of "points and lines".

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The points are the the Sheikah Towers: those 
giant, neon-lit spires that soar above the ground.

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They're clearly visible from a great distance, 
and they confer a great benefit to the player:

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they reveal a massive chunk of 
your map when you get to the top.

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So these 15-or-so towers would be obvious

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waypoints for the player - which should 
effectively lead them around the map.

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The lines are the routes and 
roads between the towers.

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And so Nintendo could place 
various events along those lines.

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As players walked towards the towers,

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they would discover characters, enemy 
camps and other goodies as they went.

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But this idea... completely flopped.

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The guidance worked - but 
it actually worked too well.

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Playtesters felt they were stuck on a linear 
path, and forced to follow the towers.

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Many complained about being trapped on 
an invisible, but obvious guide rope.

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And those who deviated from the line would just 
get lost, or find little of interest to explore.

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And the data bore this out: Nintendo 
tracked the playtesters' movements and

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created a heat map to see 
where people had explored.

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And they discovered that players were 
split into two completely different groups:

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about 80 percent dutifully followed 
the main route from tower to tower,

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and the other 20 percent just 
sorta randomly wandered around.

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Neither play style was close 
to what Nintendo was after.

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So they decided to go for a different approach.

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Instead of nudging players to always 
travel towards Sheikah towers,

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they could get players to move around the map by

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luring them towards a larger variety 
of landmarks and points of interest.

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Things like shrines, stables, 
and enemy encampments.

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They just needed to find ways to make 
players gravitate towards these places,

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like moths flapping towards a flame.

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So, they first made sure each area 
would confer obvious benefits.

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Completing shrines lets you 
increase your health or stamina.

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Enemy bases are filled with weapons to pick up.

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And while stables were initially just for 
registering horses, Nintendo made them much more

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attractive by adding beds for healing, a shop, and 
NPCs who would hand out rumours and sidequests.

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Other areas would be worth visiting 
for the resources contained within.

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Nintendo purposefully got rid of 
simple healing items like hearts,

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so players would have to go into forests 
to get mushrooms or find animals to hunt.

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And they made rupees extremely rare, 
so players would need to go towards

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mountains and quarries to mine valuable 
ore, which can be sold to shopkeepers.

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For this plan to work, they would 
need to make other adjustments, too.

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You see, the Sheikah towers are enormous and 
easy to see - the smaller landmarks less so.

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So Nintendo had to make them stick out from 
a distance, or from a high-up vantage point.

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Shrines were given a distinctive, lit-up 
look; campfires give off a tall tower of

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smoke; enemy bases are often built 
around massive skull-shaped rocks;

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and the stable is a gigantic 
wooden statue of a horse.

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Wherever you look, you should 
find something interesting to do.

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Also, while there's usually only one or 
two Sheikah towers on screen at once,

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there could be dozens of other, 
smaller landmarks nearby - and

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that many options can be completely 
overwhelming in an open world game.

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And that was partly the reason behind 
Nintendo creating the "triangle rule".

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You see, Nintendo designed 
the terrain and landscape

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of Hyrule to be mostly made up 
of triangles - it's all hills,

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mountains, and rock formations that 
are shaped like pyramids and cones.

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And this has various benefits 
for the world design.

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Like, whenever you face a giant mountain, 
players have to decide whether to scale it,

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or go around it - creating 
decision making during exploration.

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Also, the player's eye is naturally 
guided to the tip of the triangle - so

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you can place points of interest at 
the peek to draw the player closer.

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But most importantly: these triangles 
simply block whatever's behind - meaning

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that the player is rarely overwhelmed 
by a massive field of things to do.

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There's usually only a couple 
attractive places on screen,

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and the rest is hidden behind hills and mountains.

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But as you go towards these mountains, 
whatever's behind is gradually revealed.

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Whether you climb the hill 
or try to move along side it,

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more terrain will start to be shown.
And this has an interesting outcome:

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it creates a constant source of surprise and 
curiosity as new locations make themselves known.

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So you might be going towards one landmark,

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but as you travel there - two or 
three new places are revealed.

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Perhaps a shrine on the horizon, 
or an enemy camp around a corner,

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or a distinctive-looking rock, or a 
curious sight on the peek of a mountain.

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Wherever you go and whatever you do,

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you'll be given a few new things 
to catch your eye and attract you.

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Perhaps that new landmark will distract you,

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and you'll ditch your old plan 
and go somewhere new instead.

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When you're finished, you'll remember 
where you were supposed to be going

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and head back there - only to be distracted again.

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Whatever the case, this creates a chain reaction.

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An infinite loop of discoveries.

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A breadcrumb trail of landmarks.

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All of which makes you slowly move across 
the map - in an addictive quest of "ooh,

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what's that?", "ooh, what's 
what?", "ooh, what's that?".

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And before you know it... 
you're at a Sheikah tower!

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Which is exactly where Nintendo 
wanted you to go in the first place.

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So now, with this system of attractive landmarks,

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players still went from point to point - but, 
this time, instead of following a specific line,

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they were simply following a breadcrumb trail 
of interesting landmarks - one that would,

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eventually, lead players to Breath 
of the Wild's most important locales.

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And where following the towers made players 
feel like they were being forced to travel in

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a specific way, the littered landmark approach 
was much more organic, and player-driven.

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Players would naturally pick places to go,

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based on their own curiosity - and 
depending on their current goal or mood.

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Locations might be more or less attractive based 
on what you need: if you're looking to increase

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power, then shrines and enemy camps suddenly 
become more attractive than stables and towers.

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Then when night falls, other locations 
become more visible and appealing.

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So players no longer felt forced 
to follow a certain landmark or

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goal - but they still ended 
up where they needed to go.

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And Nintendo could clearly see 
this improvement on the heatmap.

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There was no longer that awkward 80/20 split

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in the experiences - instead, all players 
fell into Nintendo's vision for the game:

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they could see that players freely explored 
various places, following their curiosity

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from landmark to landmark - but almost all 
players eventually got to the key locations.

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And I totally found this when 
playing Breath of the Wild myself.

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I never felt particularly guided or led around 
the world - I was just following my own curiosity

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and exploring on my own terms.
But I still ended up stumbling into

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important locations - and was always 
making progress through the story.

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So this was Nintendo's first, proper open-world game.

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And the team clearly had a lot to learn.

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In the second half of the talk, Nintendo explained 
that to get a sense of scale and density,

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it initially used data from Google Maps to have 
Link run around Nintendo's hometown of Kyoto,

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and clamber up Japan's famous Himeji Castle.

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And they shared how they had to make all new tools

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to allow for a large team to 
collaborate on a single map.

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But through clever design, driven by a 
desire to create a specific experience

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for the player - it solved the biggest 
problem in Breath of the Wild's design.

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Nintendo created an open world game that 
beautifully balances guidance and exploration.

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A feeling of freeform adventure that I've 
only really seen since in Elden Ring - and,

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almost certainly, will see 
in Tears of the Kingdom.

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I look forward to jumping in later this week.

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Thanks for watching,