In “The Witcher 3”, progression is guided through enemy difficulty/leveling. The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild © Nintendo Level-based Progression Once you complete a few dungeons and understand the game mechanics, you are then allowed to leave and explore other areas. In “The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild”, you start off restricted to one tiny area of the map.

This is how the game can drive the player in a linear way through the game story, and through the game world itself. This gives a player a chance to explore the starting island, as well as serving as a point of where the story can take place. Grand Theft Auto IV © Rockstar GamesĪs the story expands, the player can explore other islands. The story is tied to one specific point in the game map, and that is where the player should be. The reason why they do this is that they want you to get familiar with the island that you start off with.

As you progress through the game, more and more islands get unlocked. When starting out, you can only explore one island. Let’s start by looking at an example– “Grand Theft Auto IV”. But while this is true, many open-world games still have control over where the player goes in relation to progression. The idea of an open world is that the player can travel anywhere they want at any time. We need to figure out how we can have control over the player’s progression through our open world. They have the freedom to go wherever they want. Unlike linear levels, open world games pose unique challenges when designing levels as it is inherently “open” to the player.

Level design blender