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For most people, open world seems to be a category that can only be done by large teams or 3A studios, such as "The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild", "The Elder Scrolls 5 Skyrim", "GTA 5", "Red Dead Redemption" 2" and so on are all top masterpieces.

However, this does not mean that the open world is a restricted area for small and medium-sized teams. For example, overseas independent developer Adam-Yu released an open world game "A Short Hike" in 2019, and it only took a few months to develop. In his previous GDC speech, he gave a detailed review of the entire project, and some of the practices may be very useful to his peers.

The following is the translated speech content:

My name is Adam-Yu. I made a game called "A Short Hike". First of all, I would like to thank everyone who helped me during the development of the project and those who helped with testing. Thank you for your contribution.

If you’re not familiar with the game, here’s a promo for A Short Hike:

It is a hiking and travel-themed game. You play as a bird visiting an island. You have to climb mountains, explore, collect items, and find other hikers on the island.

This is the entire map of the island, it's open world but not that big of a world.

In this review, I will mainly talk about the purpose of making games, how I started doing research and development, how to complete it before the deadline, and the level design experience, writing experience and marketing experience I learned during development, etc. , which is basically a review of the entire project.

an original story

I think it is necessary to first talk about how I got to the stage of game development. I think the most difficult part of making a game is whether to decide to start research and development.

In 2017 I made the questionable decision to quit my job as a software engineer and move back to Toronto to develop a short indie game full time. Before this, all the games I'd made were very small free Itch.io games, but I felt like this was my chance to make a big game of my own.

A year later, I wanted to make a very ambitious game that was a large RPG with many characters, locations, and combat mechanics. However, I didn’t have a clear idea of ​​the entire goal, so that a year later I still had a lot to do. Sure. I found out that this game might take many years to work on, and I felt very stressed and frustrated that it might never be finished. However, this project was something I was determined to achieve because it was my first attempt.

But in November 2018, I decided to give myself a short break, bought myself a Christmas gift, and then made a creative prototype for a small game, completed the development with Unity, and then put everything I thought was interesting into it. .

Later, I also announced my creative prototype idea on social media.

At the time, this was a very difficult choice for me. Due to personal reasons, I really want to do an RPG project, and I have invested more than a year in it. I feel that it has opened a lot of doors for me, so I am not sure whether the decision to shelve it and make a small hiking-themed game is correct.

Game development is full of uncertainties. It's hard to know whether you should try a project. What if I just need to continue the project to complete my RPG masterpiece?

But in 2018, I was still playing two other smaller games, namely "The" and "Minit". They let me know that a short-term game can also be successful.

So I decided to start making little games on hiking trips, and it was a great decision for me. I think there are a lot of benefits to doing small projects, especially when you're just starting out. You have less risk if the game doesn't succeed; it doesn't necessarily need to be a huge success to make it worth the time invested; smaller goals are easier to achieve; and you can ship the game faster, which helps you learn a lot, and Might bring in some income.

Determine game art style

One of the things I started working on very early on in the A Short Hike project was determining the art style of the game. I'm an unknown indie developer and the only thing I can rely on is social media like this to get people interested in my game, so I think style is important because you only have a short time to get people's attention.

For independent developers or small teams, it is difficult to make people invest time in the game by creating such a style. So I considered my limitations in art. For example, I can't do good-looking hand-painting, and I haven't done much modeling. I can only try to make the game more interesting based on my existing skills.

I have more experience in programming, so I rendered this little world in a pixel style. I think the pixel style is cool. It allows me to make the game bigger, avoid doing a lot of modeling work, and create more content in a shorter time. Although it is not perfect, it allows players to play enough. Imagination looks for details while being able to know what I want to express.

To achieve this effect in Unity, the world shader is this small one, and then another camera in Unity will look at this and use the Point filter mode to zoom it in.

I learned this skill through a plug-in. If you are interested in this tool, you can pay attention to it.

Very early on, I was selecting colors and using them to express the mood I wanted for the game. I did this simply by looking for photos of fall in Canada and looking for sample colors directly from those photos. These samples were sure to me. Game palettes are helpful.

However, to make it realistic in the game, they would sometimes look distorted in different lighting conditions, so I wrote a custom shader myself that gave me almost control over how each object's shadows looked. . Overall, my goal is to make the colors and shadows in the game look coherent and natural.

This is the general process of how I made custom lighting. The leftmost one is the default ramp, and then it is made into a ladder-like shape. The final result is to move all the shadows closer to white, so that they will be closer to the real color. .

Also, using this color style allows me to create UVs quickly, and I save a lot of time on texturing by splitting the UVs into palettes.

And this method is also very convenient to experiment with.

I want to use post effects to add more visual expression to my game. You can get a lot of free assets in Unity's standard free asset library, and you can also change the feel and look of the game without replacing a lot of assets. Effect.

Without any special effects, this is what "A Short Hike" would look like. In this way, objects in the distance are more noisy, making it difficult to notice what is happening in front.

So, the first thing I did was add a layer of fog to the game so that the player could focus on what was happening in front of the screen.

I then used edge detection to select the outline of the background, which gave me a dramatic effect, which was accidental while trying out different filters.

If you look closely at the left side, you can see the difference after I added color correction at the end, so I increased the shade of blue to make it look more realistic.

If you are a small team or a solo developer, here may be some things you can consider:

Play to your strengths, experiment with the tools available to you, and consider the impact of art style on your development process and the size of your game. Your limitations may end up making your game look unique.

From creative prototype to project

Most of the above work was completed in December 2018. Considering that what I am doing is a small project, I think the game can be completed and released within three months.

When I was working on a creative prototype, I made a planning document, roughly dividing the research and development into three stages, and spent three months on alpha testing, beta testing and release preparation.

I think what works very well for me is that I have a very flexible goal in my mind. I set the core goals of the project very compactly and can completely complete it within the three-month deadline. However, there are a lot of features I want to add, so I consider them stretch goals.

Ideally, the game itself can be fun and interesting even if the stretch goals aren't made.

In fact, most of the stretch goals were not added in the original store release, but were later added to the Steam version.

I also track my progress and use the simplified version of the Scrum process to check my progress every week, letting me know what things I have a lot of time to do and how to plan ahead. It's not easy to plan like this when you're working on your own, but I find it useful to track progress this way.

Additionally, I set an external deadline for the entire project to help me get it done, I think this way it allows you to focus on getting something done rather than making one thing perfect.

take shortcuts

I wanted to do as much as possible in the game, so I had to take some shortcuts, such as the art style mentioned earlier that saved me a lot of time creating art assets.

But I also reused knowledge, tools, and resources from previous projects. For example, I used Yarn as a dialogue system. I have used it before on a small RPG project. There are many tools and processes that I have tried before, so it is very fast to use.

I also used a plugin to support controllers, which almost automatically supports most controllers at once.

I used it to quickly build a dynamic camera system, which allowed me to create a lot of virtual cameras in different areas of the game. The real camera can follow the movement of the character and change between different areas.

I understand that learning new tools comes at a cost, but it pays off in the long run if you become familiar enough with them that you can reuse them on future projects.

I also have my own resource scripts that I can use for different games, I just need to put them in each game's resource library.

I also reused assets from previous RPGs and other games.

Most of the game world is completed using Unity's default terrain tools. Using terrain tools directly in Unity makes creative prototyping and level design easier.

Also useful is that it automatically colors the terrain so you don't have to re-render each surface when rotating.

My terrain shader also uses Unity's default paint tools, so adding beaches and other terrain is easy. I had to check the blending code to use the appropriate shapes for this style, but this was a change that had to be made.

In addition, I also made a custom tool, which is actually very simple. It is to quickly move the character to a position and then preview it under the camera or from a camera angle.

Later, I also made tools for the river and waterfall grids in the game, so that I didn't have to change them back and forth every time I changed the terrain. This tool saved me a lot of time, and the creation process was also very interesting.

Making these tools takes a lot of time, so my advice is to only do it when your project requires it.

Another thing that needs to be emphasized is that when you create a lot of resources, bugs are inevitable. I don’t know if this situation is a bug, but for me, adding more content is better than going through all the trouble to solve it. This bug is more important. These small bugs are not noticed by many players, and if you are an independent developer or a small team, there are some small problems that players can forgive.

Next, I want to summarize how I completed the development on time. I divided the game development into different milestones and constantly updated the completion time of each milestone. You also need to take uncertainty into account when planning goals, you can use previous knowledge, tools and resources, create some tools when the workflow requires it, and you don't need to solve every bug.

What I want to talk about next is my experience in level design.

I wanted to make a game where getting lost was part of the game. I think being able to go in any direction at any time adds a magical feel to the game. Any path that has not been taken may be full of new things. I want to give players the feeling that there is always something new to discover.

So when I was creating the island, I directly used Unity to carve out different areas and found different climates to add to them. This process gave me a lot of inspiration, so in the end I brainstormed a lot of ideas and added different climates to each area. Lots of activities and events, and some time to think about what the main plot of the island is.

The main route starts from this hut, from where the protagonist can enter the town, where you can learn how to play the game and be introduced to the world. But there are obstacles here that seem impassable. Eventually, though, you can collect coins and feathers that allow you to climb up the cliff, and after passing that, you're on the left side of the mountain to the rendezvous point high above.

At this time, you cannot reach the top of the mountain because you need to collect 7 golden feathers. With this design, players cannot clear the level quickly and have more time to explore the game world.

I know there are many shortcuts that can be taken, mainly to ensure the freedom of the game. But I think for more satisfied players, you might want to do some unexpected things in the game. However, controlling the pace of the game is still very helpful because it allows me to make the gaming experience better.

During the test, some players felt that it would be boring to explore and meet other people all the time. They would not communicate with the NPCs on the mountain when they saw them, but just ran all the way. This got me thinking about the pacing of the game, and over a long period of time I was constantly designing new characters and areas to keep players interested.

Having a plan can help you pace yourself, but things won't always go as you imagined.

For example, in the test, many players did not enter the fast pace as I imagined. On the contrary, they jumped directly into the sea. Maybe many people want to try whether the game allows them to swim? Some people will be happy if you allow swimming.

But there are some players who don't do this, and they keep walking around the island. This is very common, not everyone does it, but I saw it a lot in my testing.

Many players will get lost on the back side of the mountains, and they will miss the important tutorial part of the game.

What makes this situation worse is that there wasn't much to explore on the back side of the mountain in the initial version being tested.

To solve this problem, I ended up adding a cave on the back of the mountain. I felt that after people walked for a long time, a cave would arouse their curiosity and they would walk through the cave, which would lead them directly to the newbies. Tutorial section.

Therefore, there are some things to pay attention to when allowing players to play as planned.

The first thing is to provide some gentle guidance, I don't want the player to feel forced to do something. There are many ways to provide guidance to the player, and these rhythms help them follow my plan to progress the game. If the guide is something natural, like a cave in a mountain or a cool landmark, this will make players interested in actively exploring it.

There are also some more direct guidance methods, such as gold coins, paths, etc. There are also some signals that can help lost players return to the main area. If you are not lost, you don't need to pay attention to them. Since the goal of the game is to reach the top of the mountain, by climbing up each slope, players will always find a way to get over.

Another way is to use doors to block off part of the area until the players gain enough knowledge or experience.

But I wouldn't use a door like that in the game. Instead, I would try a more natural door. In a hiking trip, an unscalable cliff would be a door. This design method is natural and makes players feel that there may be more ways to solve the problem, such as collecting enough feathers or gaining the ability to jump before passing.

Another way to keep players on track is to use silent repetition. For example, at the beginning of the game, you can find a toy shovel. Later in the game, you can change it to a real shovel and dig things on the island. Technically, this is an optional item, but players will feel like they're missing out on a lot if they miss it.

Originally, I designed the toy shovel to be picked up by an attentive group of players who could then switch to a real shovel. But many players chose to avoid this shovel for various reasons. Some people saw the road in the mountains and walked directly there, and some people saw the cliff and wanted to climb it, which completely disrupted my plan.

So, I decided to put not just one toy shovel in the game world, but five, all at the beginning of the area. As long as the player takes a shovel, the other four will automatically disappear. So, if the player doesn't pick up the shovel themselves, they'll notice it somewhere else, and there's no way you can ignore it.

These designs solve problems and are good practices. But I also made a novice tutorial message. You have to climb to the top of the mountain at the end of the game, so you must learn how to get there, such as learning the second level jump. If the player has never climbed a cliff, they will see a signal just because they climbed a mountain. If they have learned to climb on their own, they will not see these things.

The last one is to pay attention to the players, that is, when they are playing the game, you have to put something into their minds.

For example, climbing is difficult for players to learn to climb at the beginning of the game. I think this is not very intuitive, because in most games you can jump, but not every wall you see can be climbed. And climbing requires context. You need to push the wall and hold down a key. None of this happens by accident. Even if it is clearly marked in the dialogue, players may skip the dialogue and not see it. The guidance you gave me.

The last thing I did was to add a climber club to the game. For example, when you collect feathers, you need to ask them how to climb. Even if you miss the task, you can watch how other characters climb when passing by, and eventually learn this ability. .

I'd also like to mention a few issues related to the final area of ​​the game, which is perhaps the most difficult area to design. I want this area to be a maze that's a little more difficult than the other areas.

When the player reaches this area, their feathers will not recover, so once they are frozen, you will need to go to a warmer place to get the feather recovery effect before you can come back. This way, players won't be able to use their collected feathers to climb all the way to the top. Instead, they will have to plan where to stop to accumulate feathers and devise a way to reach the top.

This area was originally designed to be much smaller than the final version, and also more confusing to play. I actually had to redo this area, which was difficult because it was the last thing done and had to leave room for other places.

The last point is that I added a clear route to the top of the mountain, so when they get here, players can clearly see how to reach the top, but they don't have enough feathers to achieve the goal. They need to come back from time to time to accumulate feathers and do it mentally. Good plan to get to the top instead of just walking up.

I actually added more feathers. During the test, it was more difficult to reach the top. Although adding more feathers would disrupt the rhythm of the game and make the game more difficult, the player's progress would be stuck, but I think this can bring a more interesting experience.

One more part I want to say is collaboration. When I first started working on this project, I didn't expect to write so much, but I ended up writing a lot, which was hard for me because writing itself is not easy, at least for me.

When I was making RPG games in the past, writing was more difficult because you had to design the story and dialogue. So while working on A Short Hike, I decided to make writing a little easier. Instead of lengthy plots, I designed some short pop-up conversations, like texting a good friend.

When I was doing research and development, I didn't intend to write the story very deeply, and I felt that the plot was not the main part of the game. Sometimes it was my partners who checked the dialogues I wrote.

game distribution

After the game is developed, let’s talk about distribution.

A Short Hike was originally released and surprisingly the feedback was very good, I don't know how many people played this version but it got good reviews.

So, I decided to do a major update before the Steam version is released, partly because I still have a lot of stuff I want to add, and partly because I want to be more generous to players. At this stage, what I added most to the game were some mini-games, such as fishing and racing.

The way I promote the game is by posting some fun GIFs that show some interesting and important information to players. This is important to me because people give me feedback, and there are some gifs that players like that I put in the trailer.

Before the game was released, I also made a media package and sent it to game journalists who might be interested in my game. I also found people who liked the game on the Internet. Although not everyone reported on my game on the day of release, A few mentions is a big success for me.

I don't think A Short Hike is a game that everyone can enjoy. It's slow-paced and has no real puzzles. So I choose my words very carefully when presenting the game to avoid raising too high expectations for players. For example, there is short in the name, and the description is "a small exploration game about hiking in the mountains."

At the beginning of the game, I also designed a scene about going hiking away from the city, which gave players a feeling that the game experience was relaxing.

Finally, on July 30, 2019, the game was launched on the Steam store. I didn’t have high expectations from the beginning, but the final performance exceeded my expectations.

From the data point of view, the largest source of external traffic in the first week of release is, and in the first week of Steam release, most of the traffic comes from the Steam platform, so I think the popularity it brings is of great help. The above is what I will share today. Content.

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