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Analysis • Palworld by Pocketpair: the equal-opportunity offender

PreMortem.Games

It’s an open-world survival craft game where you tame monsters and put them to work. Both feature large open worlds and show the same exact environmental indicators (e.g., The hottest game these weeks is Palworld by Japanese developer Pocketpair. And it has earned more than $200 million in its first five days.

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I’ve noticed that when I play open world games I can have wildly different emotional reactions to exploration. Like, a new quest hub opens up and sometimes I go “Oh nice, there’s so much to do” and sometimes I go “oh no, there’s so much to do”. Why does this happen and what design choices make the difference?

Ask a Game Dev

In cognitive psychology, there’s this concept called “Cognitive Load”. For an open world game like you mention, this means careful placement of quest givers and quest goals relative to each other in the world. It refers to the maximum number of things a person can easily remember and recall at once.

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Fly around on a broom in cozy adventure Mika and the Witch’s Mountain by Chibig

PreMortem.Games

Combining the looks of a Ghibli movie with the condensed open world of that game, gave birth to the idea of an apprentice witch delivering packages. When we told Ernest Sala about Mika’s game idea, it didn’t take him long to create a series of concepts that defined the style of the world and characters.

Indy 104
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Mystery investigation specialist EQ Studios “All our murder scenes are fictional”

PreMortem.Games

Ideas for the game’s content were inspired mainly from movies and TV shows, while the game designs came from the games the team loves to play, like Everquest for the open world concept and The Vanishing Hitchhiker for the atmosphere. All the murder scenes are fictional”, assures Tomi.

Studios 127
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Solo dev Almar works on debut game Repunk “I’ve had some darker moments”

PreMortem.Games

I usually start with a location or concept from which I build a ‘mind map’. An open-world social simulation of a whole human civilization on Mars. This concept grew organically from a single idea. What’s your creative process? “My This helps me define the set of key ideas I’d like to explore. It was a disaster!

Dev 158
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Design review of Redfall by Arkane Studios Austin

Radiator Blog

I completed the main campaign in Redfall ( official site, Steam , also on Game Pass), a 4 player co-op open world shooter by Arkane Austin, who's mostly known for detailed single player story-filled action games. There are two open world regions, Redfall Commons and Burial Point.

Studios 98
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Bukola Akingbade of Kucheza Gaming on nurturing dreams and shaping industries

PreMortem.Games

Unable to continue in-person school activities, they used the time to create a concept. It started as an ambitious open-world project but was streamlined into a mobile game with a few missions. “ Bukola found inspiration in the book “The Wild Kingdoms” about Yoruba mythology.

Esports 136