The Last of Us and Uncharted Director: 'Linear Games Are Just Easier to Make' - News

Text adventures are even easier.

Sky is blue. Water is wet.

That's controversial...?

It is quite obvious since you have more control over what the player do, how they do and how much you show at any point. It also makes it cohesive experience and I indeed prefer it.

I thought this was like... common knowledge

If someone worked or was near where TLOU was made and farts there has to be an article. yeah no shit sherlock

Er... sure. Puzzle games with no story and simple graphics are probably even easier. I say probably as I don't know, I'm not a games developer.

That why there's no multiplayer in TLoU2?

Honestly, I think we need more linear games, or at least smaller, more focused worlds, preferably with discrete levels. I think open world games are oversaturated, and most of them really would have been better off if their game worlds were something other than some gigantic sprawl.

If you want the "TL;DR" version, well, I believe that not every game needs to be open world. There's too many of them, most don't really do anything worthwhile in the game that justifies having an open world. There is a lot of merit in more traditional linear or semi-linear level design, and we could honestly use more games like that. Also, while "linear" is a dirty word to many, a linear game doesn't need to be one where you're being railroaded down narrow paths from Point A to Points B, C, D, etc. In other words, they don't all have to be like the typical Call of Duty campaign.

Now for the long version...

In my experience, vanishingly few games do open worlds right. Usually, they involve a checklist of a bunch of repetitive objectives. So many open world games just involve crisscrossing the massive map as you climb a dozen different towers, clearly 50 different enemy encampments, etc. The objectives just seem to be there for no other reason than to justify the existence of such a massive game world. The game itself may have an enjoyable enough gameplay loop that you might be willing to overlook these issues, but it doesn't change the fact that the world design itself is rather uninspired and lacking a variety of interesting things to do outside of the main story. Games like Spider-Man 2018, Horizon, and Halo Infinite were fun despite their open world design, not because of them, and their best parts were rarely if ever off the beaten trail. Even the best open worlds are not fully immune to this, as there is a lack of time and resources to avoid populating their world with at least some repetitive things (see Breath of the Wild's lack of thematically distinct dungeons compared to previous Zelda games, and its use of "Ubisoft towers").

A good open world would focus on exploration, and give players a reason to explore other than ticking off boxes. The world should be treated as more than just a collection of various sectors with the same copy-and-paste objectives. It should be populated with places that are interesting to go to in and of themselves, with unique challenges and thematic variety. Elden Ring is probably the best open world I've played to date in this regard. While it has some problems with repetitiveness (multiple repeat bosses, multiple overly-similar caves and catacombs), most optional places are actually worth exploring, and the game actively encourages you to do so. You might find an awesome weapon or spell that fits your play style, or you might just simply get the satisfaction of fighting and (possibly) beating a cool boss or simply learning more about the world you're exploring.

There's definitely a lot to be said about more traditional approaches to level/world design. A game can have opportunities for exploration and still have discrete, mostly linear levels. For example, see Halo CE (namely its second and fourth levels), or any Doom game, or the original BioShock. None of them are open worlds and they have discrete levels with definite beginning and end points, but still offer a lot more freedom of movement & exploration. Metroidvania games can offer a sort of compromise between the linear and the open world, with the existence of discrete areas that are still connected or semi-connected to at least one other area, with multiple branching pathways in each area. In other words, a sort of guided exploration. Such games are much more focused than your typical open world, but still have a lot of freedom in determining where to go. Beyond just Metroid, a recent action title that comes to mind is Jedi: Fallen Order. Even the Dark Souls games and Bloodborne have world designs similar to a Metroidvania.

Linear or semi-linear, the games I mentioned in the preceding paragraph feel like every challenge, encounter, and objective is meaningful and purposeful, and not something that's simply there to take up space and pad out the length of the game with tedious busy work.

I mean, yeah.