Pale Coins is an Action RPG set in a fantasy world with challenging combat, open world exploration and a variety of items. Traverse old forests, dark caves, weathered ruins and unknown places, to find the Champion's Coin and fulfill your greatest wish.
- references -
Before starting with the world design, I thought about the worlds of other games. Especially the design of the Gothic series and The Legend of Zelda ALTTP.
What fascinated me about the world design of Gothic 1 was how to get the most out of a small world. There was a natural boundary which limited your access to only a small part of that island. Inside that small region you still had three different camps, a few dungeons, forests and a lot to explore.
A Link to the Past also had a somewhat limited world and was able to put so much content in there. There’re different biomes, temples, caves, a village and there was always something to find. Also, that world is perfect for randomizers.
- biomes -
Speaking of biomes… I absolutely loved how A Link to the Past had different biomes such as mountains, swamps, lakes, forests and whatsoever. Having a variety of biomes truly benefits the top-down style of 2D games.
While in 3D games you can see in the distance, you are limited in perspective in 2D games. Having to look for several hours at the same type of grass would be boring, right? Therefore it is a welcome change to switch from a grass area to a cave, or mountain, or a swamp, or anything else.
- world size -
In terms of size I tried to keep the world as small as possible to be able to avoid empty maps.
The focus was to create value in every map you’ll explore. There’s something to find everywhere. Be it a chest, a new weapon, curatives or even a letter with some notes.
Still, the world had to be big enough to fit in the different biomes, camps and dungeons. Also, the areas had to make sense. I wanted to avoid creating an area just for the sake of it.
Grenmark - that is the name of the area where the main story is taking place - has a forest, a capital, several mountains, caves, a wasteland and even a swamp. In the screenshot above you can see almost every area.
- progression -
The world is built in a way where there is more than one path to your goal. Dark Souls 1 did a great job in terms of connecting the world via different paths.
Let's have a look at the start of Pale Coins. You are not able to access the eastern side of the river due to the bridge being broken (as seen above). What options do you have?
The most obvious answer would be to repair the bridge, right? But you can also progress the main story and cross the river in a different way. If you don’t feel like doing the main quest or repairing the bridge, there is another way to get to the other side of the river.
- boundaries -
In Gothic 1 there weren't many boundaries. You were free to explore almost everything right from the start of the game. However, if you were to explore an area which was way above your level you were in trouble. That is a great way to guide the player through the world and the story.
Having these natural boundaries was something I tried to replicate. You can visit almost every area right from the start of the game. Surely, you will soon find out that certain areas are not meant to be visited right away.
- finishing words -
I hope you liked my thoughts on the world of Pale Coins. It should be obvious that I am not an expert in designing worlds. I just thought about what I liked in other games and tried to replicate that.
If you want to explore the world by yourself, you could play the demo or wishlist Pale Coins on Steam to get notified as soon as Pale Coins is released. Any wishlist would be really appreciated.
Check it out here: Store.steampowered.com
Please let me know your thoughts on world design!
Thank you for reading the article and have a great day,
Lukas
