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People Don't Really Need Bigger Worlds in Games, They Need Better Ones, Says Dying Light 2 Director

Dying Light 2 creative Tymon Smektala argues that people don't really need bigger worlds in their games, they need better ones (quality wise)

wccftech.com

As we are approaching the release date of this highly desired sequel, Techland's Dying Light 2 Creative Director Tymon Smektala recently spoke to Xbox: The Official Magazine (January 2020, issue 185). In his interview, he expressed the opinion that gamers do not need bigger worlds, they need better ones.

I’m not sure they will get bigger. I think what will change is the fidelity of everything. I
don’t think people really need bigger worlds, they need worlds that are of better quality
and that they feel more immersed in what surrounds them. It’s not that difficult for the
current generation to create huge worlds by streaming as you play. So you go somewhere
and it loads a little chunk around you and another chunk and so on. So you can create
extremely big worlds that don’t really impact the performance. What impacts performance
is the number of NPCs you see around you, the variety of them and how they behave, and the number of animations. The improvements in the next generation will allow us to go further in that direction. This is basically our mission as a studio, we want to create first-person open-world games with high-fidelity graphics and with high-fidelity immersion, where you feel like you are really there.

 

[Phunkydiabetic]

""We are witnessing a lot of changes in the technology side," said Pawel Rohleder, chief technology officer at developer Techland, in an interview on the Nvidia GeForce YouTube channel. "The game world will be four times bigger than the whole game before," he continued. "Streaming technology allows us to make really huge worlds."

Dying Light 2's World Is Four Times Bigger Than Previous Game

Techland's upcoming zombie RPG will have a large map for you to parkour across.

www.gamespot.com

What kind of shit you tryin to pull here Techland.

 

[hunthunt]

I dont see anyone claiming the contrary?

 

[Shifty1897]

As someone who thinks Assassin's Creed Odyssey is too big, I agree.

 

[zeorhymer]

No shit Sherlock?

 

[Nero_PR]

Yeah, bigger doesn't necessarily means better. I feel that the next big generational leap we have to make in videogames is having more believable worlds, with better world building, better AI and more packed worlds in general. Interactivity between player and the gaming world needs a huge step up, of course not every game needs it, like: Shadow of the Colossus, Ico, some Zelda games, Death Stranding. But look at something like GTA VI and other open worlds where we have a huge number of NPCs, stores, houses. Games like this would benefit a lot from being more interactive and packed with more gameplay aspects using the citizens AI, real time events, and expanding exploration, not just fetch quests or side missions.

It will be a glorious day when we get to this level of deep interaction with the media. The downside of this is that must be super taxing to the developers to build a more believable world even if the resources are there.

 

[PuppetMaster]

I would take super detailed single room. Over minecraft.

 

[Gargus]

Grand theft auto, breath of the wild, red dead, and a bunch of other games I hated because the world was boring as fucking hell. God damn I could handle a boring world if it's smaller, but I don't want to spend hours and hours running back and forth through a great big open world that is just boring and lifeless and uninteresting.

I've never finished any of those games because the worlds in them were too big, too boring and just not very interesting. Rare occasions you run across something it's guaranteed you'll run into it again a thousand more times, and when developers put effort into something interactive not related to the main game it's just there to waste even more of your time and is pointless.

 

[Fbh]

I dont see anyone claiming the contrary?

I mean yeah no one goes around saying "we need worse worlds!!!".

But ever since the open world boom started there has been a big focus on size above everything. I've lost the count of how many times during big conferences and presentations some dev goes like "and the map is 4 times bigger than our previous game!!!" as this big selling point, but I don't often see devs talking about how they'll make their world better and more immersive.
"If you see it you can go there!!!!....is there going to be anything worthwhile waiting for you? No..... but you can go there!!!!"

 

[Groszed]

The first Dying Light featured a lot of really varied places though. And with all the easter eggs, it was quite hard to get bored of exploring.

 

[Zannegan]

Plenty of devs pay lip service to this idea, but I like that they're actually doing something about it with a world that (claims to) react to player choice in meaningful ways, not just changing the banner color on forts and the armor sigil on guards. I really hope it pans out.

 

[GymWolf]

Dying light 2 is shaping like another goty contender this year (for me at least).

 

[GribbleGrunger]

Oh, right, so their new game is smaller than the last one ... got it. I wonder how they'll compensate for 'smaller'? Probably turn it into more of a shooter.

 

[Filthy Casual]

100%

 

[brian0057]

Warren Spector's one block role playing game is what we need.
Give me a couple of city blocks where everything and everyone has a purpose.
Give me more Deus Ex: Mankind Divided and less Skyrim/Horizon/Witcher/[insert barren open world here].

 

[Gavin Stevens]

He’srightyouknow.jpg

 

[Hinedorf]

As someone who thinks Assassin's Creed Odyssey is too big, I agree.

This was the exact example that came to my mind. There's so much content but it's really all the same at the end of the day, just A LOT OF IT.

 

[synchronicity]

Denser, more interactivity.

 

[Insane Metal]

Maybe both?

 

[DunDunDunpachi]

But wait until you see how big Skellige Isles are!

That's when I quit Witcher 3. Too much of a map is too much. Gimme a smaller sandbox to play in. Focus on adding more toys into the sandbox. MGS5 is still one of the best open-world games of all time for that reason.

 

[sublimit]

Meanwhile:

Dying Light 2's game world will be "four times bigger" than the first.

https://www.pcgamesn.com/dying-light-2/size In an interview with Nvidia GeForce, Techland’s chief technology officer Pawel Rohleder discussed the scale of Dying Light 2’s world compared to the first, overhauling the gameplay in light of new technology, and the challenge of managing all the...

www.neogaf.com

 

[Kumomeme]

quality vs quantity

 

[Kenpachii]

It's true i am currently completing 100% ac odyssey and its fucking horrible how they reuse everything.

Any dialogue u can just straight up skip because its, kill animal, kill husband, kill commander, rescue wife for 100 hours after eachother.

With the same character models for every quest being reused in every town multiple times. It's like u see the same guy u just killed, now u gotta help him and then i find him as he's a big child from some demon that's why he looks so big and the next island its a warrior of a cult.

It's like laughable bad on how they did it.

Then slam the same camp 200 times on the map. It's like building random houses on a RTS game on a map and call it a day, same goes with caves.

But luckely the next assassin creed is going to be bigger then ever before !.

Can't wait for the copy past ctrl V developers to do there thing.

 

[alabtrosMyster]

I can't disagree with this one, I wonder why nobody though of it before!

UbiSoft should hire this guy, he would put some sense into them... but it seems a lot of people don't are about doing the same thing over and over again in a world that looks the same everywhere.

Can't wait for the copy past ctrl V developers to do there thing.

"Copy Paste" would be a great name for a studio!

 

[Dr. Claus]

Yakuza does this perfectly. A highly dense, beautifully crafted world that doesn't take 2 damn hours to traverse. Learn from them, ubisoft.

 

[dGamerMonk]

Yakuza does this perfectly. A highly dense, beautifully crafted world that doesn't take 2 damn hours to traverse. Learn from them, ubisoft.

I half agree to this. At times the game felt too dense.

Large worlds are fantastic, and the brief pauses in between traveling (as long as it's being supplemented by interesting visuals) offer immersion on a level smaller worlds can't bring --- BUT only if the world is well crafted.

 

[Danjin44]

I mean yeah no one goes around saying "we need worse worlds!!!".

But ever since the open world boom started there has been a big focus on size above everything. I've lost the count of how many times during big conferences and presentations some dev goes like "and the map is 4 times bigger than our previous game!!!" as this big selling point, but I don't often see devs talking about how they'll make their world better and more immersive.
"If you see it you can go there!!!!....is there going to be anything worthwhile waiting for you? No..... but you can go there!!!!"

The problem is these days "open world" it just there as a tech piece rather serves the gameplay, this exactly how felt with Horizon Zero Dawn, its pretty but thats there is to it not really fun to explore or interact with.

 

[scalman]

Dont tell me what i need. And yes big living worlds we need not boring worlds.

 

[Groszed]

According to the factions you'll help not only this open-world will change all along, but your gameplay and enemies you'll encounter as well. It's like you've got several games in a single one. I tried to sum it up here if you want to catch up.

 

[Fuz]

It's not a "either or" type of situation here.

I like big worlds. When designed properly.

 

[gunslikewhoa]

Oh, right, so their new game is smaller than the last one ... got it. I wonder how they'll compensate for 'smaller'? Probably turn it into more of a shooter.

No. They're new game is 4x bigger than the first.

 

[Belmonte]

There is appeal in a giant open world. The problem with the modern open world is the amount of casual mechanics they are putting in them.

If loot is scaled, exploration is undermined. The excitement of discovering, the possibility of find a cool piece of equipment is substituted by a constant flow of micro doses of dopamine.

If monster levels are scaled, exploration is undermined also. When levels are scaled you are awesome or less awesome, never bad. There is no hero journey and the map is only a background for your badassery. When enemies are not scaled, the world feels greater than yourself and the journey feels like a journey. You need to plan your routes, weight the possibilities of winning against your foes, be an adventurer.

One of the most fun exploration in an open world I get this generation was from a modest open world -when comparing to the giants of the genre-, Elex. It has GPS, but since nothing is scaled, I was always thinking about how should I go from A to B and if picking herbs/itens/loot was a good or bad idea. A lot of risk/reward.

 

[Monkeygourmet]

Didn’t they just say their new title is 4 time’s as big as there Last?

 

[Hostile_18]

Yakuza does this perfectly. A highly dense, beautifully crafted world that doesn't take 2 damn hours to traverse. Learn from them, ubisoft.

Maybe on a single game basis but I wouldn't want them to use the exact same map every game.

I've always preferred Sandbox levels I.e Deus Ex, Dishonoured, Shenmue etc.

 

[Slings and Arrows]

The only game I can think of where I thought "I wish this map was bigger with more shit" was Dragons Dogma. Maybe that's because some of it was off-limits for the first half of the game, due to scary monsters.

 

[Stiflers Mom]

100% agree.
I feel I can't be arsed with running around in that bleak shitty empty Hyrule anymore in BotW.
That place is so empty and lifeless it actually depresses me. Like walking around in a postapocalyptic landscape where civilization has gone.
Give me small places full of life and stuff to do.
I play games to fill my daily life with something, I don't want to fill it with something where I have to search for what I need to to.

It's like Inception, but with boredom.

 

[Dr. Claus]

Maybe on a single game basis but I wouldn't want them to use the exact same map every game.

I've always preferred Sandbox levels I.e Deus Ex, Dishonoured, Shenmue etc.

They don't use the same map every game. They alter Kamurocho. New buildings, old ones torn down, new events and even new locations (such as Osaka in 0)

 

[Th3loadingscreen]

I disliked The Witcher 3 for this reason

 

[nemiroff]

I disliked The Witcher 3 for this reason

I'm confused.. in my mind W3 is a positively charged example of what he"s talking about, not the opposite. Getting fatigued from a 100 hour long game jam packed with content is a different thing IMO. I think a better example would be No Mans Sky (which I like and have 140 hours in), a completely pointless near-infinite universe. This game would be better off with a more condensed and handcrafted experience.

 

[Oddvintagechap]

I hate big worlds, I just want more detail.

 

[Hostile_18]

They don't use the same map every game. They alter Kamurocho. New buildings, old ones torn down, new events and even new locations (such as Osaka in 0)

I've only got 0 and Kiwami to compare but they felt very similar to me .

 

[bumleforce]

i agree with this. I think bigger worlds are whats needed. Examples are GOD of war Rise of the tomb raider and metro. Not big to be big and they are filled with things to do. Mafia 3 is an example of open world just to be open world.

 

[stickkidsam]

Open world games need to focus more on what they fill the world with than the side of the world itself. Breath of the Wild was a fine size. Take something like that and try to fill it with as many interesting puzzles and secrets as you can!

What made open world games an exciting prospect was that there was more to explore. More obstacles to learn to overcome. What we've gotten instead is massive maps filled with the same shit you see in every other part of the map. You might get a different aesthetic here and some different bad guys there, but what does that have to do with being open world? It's like buying a bigger toy box but not getting new toys to fill it with.

It's just a bunch of empty space and I'm so fuckin bored with it! That's not even getting into the cancer that is waypoints.

 

[MoreJRPG]

As someone who thinks Assassin's Creed Odyssey is too big, I agree.

I’m playing through it right now and you’re right. I don’t see how it’s fun running through forests and climbing mountains over and over again for what? It’s just space for the sake of space. It’s all lifeless and doesn’t immerse the player. It’s just artificially padding the game length.

 

[Dr. Claus]

I've only got 0 and Kiwami to compare but they felt very similar to me .

Kamurocho is similar, there is no denying - but there are a good amount of changes between games. The design is very much like towns in the real world. Maybe a new business or two every couple of years. Some failed businesses. Pop up shops, etc.

 

[Th3loadingscreen]

I'm confused.. in my mind W3 is a positively charged example of what he"s talking about, not the opposite. Getting fatigued from a 100 hour long game jam packed with content is a different thing IMO. I think a better example would be No Mans Sky (which I like and have 140 hours in), a completely pointless near-infinite universe. This game would be better off with a more condensed and handcrafted experience.

I understand where you are coming from. For me personally I could have went without the Skellige islands. So in that regard for me personally it was "too big" I guess