For all 2 of you that are reading this and wondering what “Daily Game Design” is, let me briefly explain. Basically, I feel like I’ve had less motivation for game development lately, and a not-insignificant cause of this issue is that I haven’t been thinking about ideas for games in my spare time.

To help get back into this habit and make it more reliable and consistent, I’d like to start writing short posts on game design everyday to get those creative juices flowing. They won’t be very long and they probably won’t be particularly great, but they should at least be interesting. Plus, it’ll finally get some regular content up on this sorry excuse for a blog. Anyway, let’s dive into it.

Today’s Topic: Minimalist Metroidvania Gameplay

The Metroidvania genre generally consists of games with large, sprawling world that are packed to the gills with different areas, enemies, bosses, upgrades, and secrets. For a novice developer, though, this scale is a bit daunting, and definitely somewhat over-ambitious. To come up with a way to make this sort of game feasible as a basic hobby project, I’m going to try to identify the key elements of the design and then strip them down to pure essentials. If relevant, I’ll also be listing design choices where tradeoffs need to be made to keep the scope low.

Key Elements of the Metroidvania Genre

• Side-scrolling: This is somewhat nitpicky but I think needs to be stated outright. Running and jumping make up the bulk of the most of these games, and are a large component of what makes them fun. There are similar types of games that use a different perspective, but for my purposes I’d like to focus on platformers.

• Focus on Combat: A lot of side-scrollers place a lot of emphasis on accurately-timed jumps and precise platforming across bottomless pits, but Metroidvanias generally focus on dangers that the player can fight off. Some environmental hazards (e.g. spikes, lava, etc.) may be present, but in general falling off a ledge does not lead to instant death. This reduces the player’s concern of messing up a jump, allowing them to concentrate on maneuvering around enemies and managing resources.

• Exploration: The player should be rewarded for going off the beaten path and investing time to find hidden things. This is probably the most critical part of the experience: even if there are a bunch of upgrades available, if they’re all mandatory and acquired in a totally linear fashion, player freedom isn’t entering into the equation.

• Item-based Progression: Whether through big upgrades like new abilities and weapons or small power-ups like boosts to max HP/ammo capacity, there are things players can find in the field to permanently improve their capabilities. For a small game, we’ll have to rely primarily on the latter.

• Non-linear Progression: The player should have several options for locations to visit, at least by the mid-way point of the game. Even if most players stick to the critical path, they should have the freedom to venture off it if they so desire. This requires several different areas to properly accomplish, though, so it’s not as feasible for a small game without cutting back on other features.

• Bosses: At the end of most areas, there is a single challenging enemy that cannot be avoided (generally speaking) and the player must defeat. Boss monsters aren’t restricted to Metroidvanias, but they’re definitely a staple of the genre. For a small game, there’s probably not room for more than one boss, but that only makes it an extra opportunity to be a greater, more exciting challenge than the regular enemies.

This gives us a rough list of what’s needed to make a Metroidvania-style game. In particular, for a small scope it looks like the best approach is to create a combat-focused platformer that has a single area with a boss at the end. The level will be mostly linear by necessity, but there will be several “pockets” at various points branching off from the main path that contain hidden upgrades (max HP boosts, max ammo/resource boosts, maybe even damage or defense buffs).

This will be simple enough to be manageable with a small scope, but still meaty enough to be a satisfying and challenging experience for the player. There are other ways I could have broken this down, such as stripping down the combat mechanics and/or boss to focus on a maze with non-linear exploration and lock-and-key upgrade advancement (c.f. Knytt Stories or You Have to Win the Game), but for this project I want to try my hand at an action-platformer. Tomorrow I’ll start hashing out the details for how this particular game will work.