For a game like RetroSpace, fostering open-ended exploration and encouraging player freedom are vital for achieving the "immersive" aspect of immersive sim gameplay, and it looks like the developers have drawn level design inspiration from an iconic example. Although Dark Souls 2 and Dark Souls 3 were a blast to explore, the original Dark Souls arguably perfected the formula with an intricately interwoven space where shortcuts and hidden paths connected even late-game areas with the central hub.
Speaking with Game ZXC, RetroSpace writer and designer Bálint Bánk Varga cited Dark Souls and the soulslike genre as a reference when the team was developing the game's vast, interconnected space station. He also mentioned that the team looked to the Metroidvania genre for progressive exploration, since a hallmark of Metroidvania design is teasing players with inaccessible areas to revisit after discovering a new ability or alternative path.
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RetroSpace Looks to Dark Souls' Interconnected World
Firelink Shrine in Dark Souls serves as the player's primary hub for progressing quests, and nearly the entire game can be accessed from this central location. Traversing a difficult late-game area and discovering a shortcut leading to and from this familiar safe haven is an extremely memorable experience, and RetroSpace's space station will have a similarly crisscrossing layout where most roads lead back to home.
We studied Metroidvania design and the level design philosophy of Soulslike games, especially the first Dark Souls . There should always be a hub of sorts where you can access multiple sections that you keep opening up, and you can always find shortcuts and secret paths. A lot of times, we'll show the player some kind of hint of where they can get to later to pique their curiosity, and then allow them to get there afterward but they have to do something or get something for it. It's a classic formula that is easy to define but hard to actually do right.
As players explore, they might discover shortcuts that further connect different areas aboard the space station, and the game's clever level design occasionally teases players with hints of what they'll be exploring later on. The ability to glimpse some of what's ahead is another terrific feature of Dark Souls' level design such as how players can see the much later Great Hollow leading to Ash Lake from Firelink Shrine, and RetroSpace's space station will hopefully offer more moments like that.
RetroSpace Was Inspired by Metroidvania Exploration
Of course, Dark Souls' level design is itself descended from Metroidvania exploration, and RetroSpace has been taking notes from the genre as a whole when it comes to how the game's progression and exploration are connected. In a typical Metroidvania game, the idea is generally to progress down one branch to unlock an ability or key that will open up a previously inaccessible path in another branch, and this can be repeated numerous times.
We'll be on a fairly open and free-to-explore space station, but new areas will keep opening up, often in places we've been before but for some reason couldn't get further. These can be opened up as the story unfolds, or as a result of an item or ability you've acquired. So in that respect, we're following a classic Metroidvania-like formula. We want the player to visit most of the locations in the game not just once but return to them several times, opening up new sub-locations, secret routes, shortcuts, and such.
An immersive sim game that looks to hallmark Metrodvania and FromSoftware level design techniques sounds like a recipe for success, though Varga pointed out that the inherent complexity of immersive sim gameplay has made development quite a challenge. However, Vargate notes that every challenge is met with equal joy when overcome.
RetroSpace is in development.
