Название: Game Design Deep Dive: Metroidvania
Автор: Joshua Bycer
Издательство: CRC Press
Год: 2025
Страниц: 144
Язык: английский
Формат: epub (true)
Размер: 20.7 MB

Game Design Critic and expert Joshua Bycer is back with another entry in the Game Design Deep Dive series for a look at one of the most popular, and confusing, genres out there. Metroidvania is a genre of high‑highs and low‑lows, and Josh is taking up the task to explain what a metroidvania is, the very long history and variety of it, and what you need to do to create one yourself.

Welcome to the deep dive into one of my favorite genres to play, and one of the most confusing to articulate what it is. Metroidvania design is not the oldest genre covered in this series, but it is one of the hardest to define for a lot of people. By the end of this book, you should be able to settle any argument as to what is and is not a metroidvania. While the genre is predominantly known around 2D design, there are clever examples in first-person and 3D that offer new takes on it. The progression and pacing of a metroidvania is very important to get right, as it is what distinguishes it from other genres.

Because of the focus on 2D, this deep dive gives me a chance to provide an updated discussion on 2D and platformer design. My first Deep Dive was on platforming, and I feel like it is my weakest book due to being the second one I’ve ever written, and I missed some important points on UI/UX that I want to rectify here. Writing this book has given me a chance to think more about the inherent design of metroidvanias and what are the core aspects that make it up. I’m hoping that for the reader, you will be able to understand not only what makes up a metroidvania, but how to then take it in an original direction going forward.

The user interface of a game refers to how someone interacts with a game; both the physical interaction and understanding what is happening on the screen with the graphical user interface (GUI). For the designer, it is your responsibility to create a working UI for your game based on the platform that you are developing it for. For PC games, many will have control functionality for both the keyboard and mouse and a gamepad. The user experience refers to how a game is presented to the player and what elements help or hurt the approachability of a game. With the UX, this is where designers will spend hours getting playtesting and feedback on their game to figure out if people are enjoying it and if there are any issues or situations that are frustrating people. Every game will have a “main screen” GUI, this is the screen the player is going to be viewing when they are actually playing the game. The requirements for this screen depend on the genre and what information is important to playing the game. If we’re talking about a shooter, then the player needs to see at minimum what their health is, current weapon, and ammo.

• A look at the history of metroidvania design
• A primer on 2D platforming UI/UX
• Explaining the design and specific elements that make a metroidvania or could be applied to other genres
• Perfect for designers and students alike