Chapter 19 — Exercises

These exercises move from world analysis to implementation. Allocate 2-4 hours per exercise. Do them in order — the later exercises assume the artifacts produced earlier.

Exercise 19.1 — Map a World You Love

Type: Analysis Time: 60-90 minutes

Choose a game with a world you've spent 10+ hours in. Close the game. Without looking at any reference material, draw its world from memory on a blank sheet of paper.

Mark: - The hub (if any) - The major regions and their approximate relative positions - The landmarks you can remember - Any shortcuts between regions you know about - The direction of progression (where you entered the world; where you went next)

Now open the game (or look up an official map). Compare.

Questions: - What did you remember accurately? Why do those elements stick? - What did you misremember? Why? - Where was your mental map wrong in ways that still "felt right"? - What did the designers do to build the accurate parts of your mental map?

Deliverables: - Your drawn map - The official map (for reference) - A one-page reflection addressing the four questions

📝 Note: Your memory is not a failure; it's evidence. The parts you remember are the parts the design successfully imprinted. The parts you forgot are either uninspired or were buried by stronger elements.

Exercise 19.2 — Count the Gates in a Metroidvania

Type: Analysis Time: 2-3 hours (playtime + note-taking)

Play the first three hours of a Metroidvania you haven't completed (Hollow Knight, Super Metroid, Ori and the Blind Forest, Metroid Dread, Bloodstained). As you play, maintain a running log of every gate you encounter.

For each gate, record: - Gate type: ability / key / story / skill / resource - Location (region name) - What lies beyond - Whether you could pass it now, or had to come back - Did the gate tease what was beyond (you could see through, hear audio from, or otherwise sense the locked content)?

Deliverables: - A spreadsheet or table with at least 20 gate entries - A paragraph answering: what ratio of gate types did you observe? Did one type dominate? - A short reflection on how the gates felt — rewarding to hit, or frustrating?

💡 Intuition: Well-designed Metroidvanias tease their gates. A door you can see but not yet enter is more satisfying than a door that appears in your inventory menu. Look for this teasing pattern as you log.

Exercise 19.3 — Design a Hub-and-Spoke World on Paper

Type: Design Time: 2 hours

Imagine a world with one hub and five spokes. Each spoke is a 1-2 hour level. The player progresses through them in a loose order.

Design: - The hub. What does it look like? What NPCs are here? What services are available (shop, save point, upgrade bench)? How does it change as the player progresses? - The five spokes. Give each a name, a theme, and a core mechanic or reward. - The progression gating. Which spokes are available at the start? Which require something from other spokes to unlock? - The mental map. Draw the topology — where each spoke is relative to the hub, and any shortcuts or cross-connections.

Deliverables: - A hand-drawn map of the hub and its spokes - A one-page description of the hub (layout, NPCs, services, evolution) - A table of the five spokes with name, theme, mechanic, reward, gating - A paragraph on what makes this specific world feel cohesive — why do these five spokes belong in one world?

Exercise 19.4 — Implement the Scene Transition System

Type: Implementation (Godot) Time: 90 minutes

Implement the SceneTransition.gd script from the chapter. Set it up as an autoloaded singleton with a CanvasLayer and a ColorRect child.

Test it by: - Placing two simple scenes in your project, each with a button. - The button in Scene A transitions to Scene B. The button in Scene B transitions back to A. - Verify the fade-out, scene change, fade-in sequence works visibly and smoothly.

Then tune the fade_duration parameter. Try 0.2s, 0.5s, 1.0s, 2.0s. Note which feels right for your game.

Deliverables: - The transition script - Two test scenes with working buttons - Your final fade_duration value and a sentence on why you chose it

✅ Best Practice: Too-short fades feel glitchy. Too-long fades feel sluggish. Most games land at 0.3-0.7 seconds. Celeste uses about 0.4s. Hollow Knight uses about 0.5s. Dark Souls uses about 0.7s (it is a slower-paced game).

Exercise 19.5 — Build an Ability-Gated Door

Type: Implementation (Godot) Time: 2 hours

Create a PlayerState autoload singleton with: - A Dictionary of abilities - grant_ability(name: String) — adds the ability - has_ability(name: String) -> bool — checks for it - revoke_ability(name: String) — removes it (for debugging)

Now build the WorldGate.gd script from the chapter. Place a gate in a simple test scene. Walk into it as the player. Verify: - Without the required ability, you cannot pass and see a message. - After calling grant_ability(...) from the debugger, you can pass.

Deliverables: - The PlayerState singleton script - The WorldGate script - A video (15-30 seconds) showing the failed attempt, the ability grant, and the successful pass

Exercise 19.6 — Connect Two of Your Existing Levels Through a Hub

Type: Implementation (Godot) Time: 3-4 hours

Using your levels from Chapters 17 and 18, build a hub scene that connects them.

Requirements: - A new scene, hub.tscn. - The hub contains a spawn point for the player. - The hub has at least three gates: two leading to Level 1 and Level 2, one locked gate that requires an ability. - Transitioning from Level 1 or Level 2 back to the hub places the player at the appropriate "return" spawn point. - The hub has at least one decorative NPC or prop.

Deliverables: - The hub scene file - A short design note: what does your hub feel like? What gives it atmosphere? Would you want to spend time there?

📐 Project Checkpoint: This exercise produces a working world loop. By the end, you can play your game from hub → level → back to hub → different level → hub. This is the minimal Metroidvania skeleton. Everything else is content.

Exercise 19.7 — Design the Third Level

Type: Design + Implementation Time: 3-4 hours

Design and build Level 3 of your game — the level gated by the "ice_key" ability.

Requirements: - Thematically distinct from Levels 1 and 2 (different biome, color palette, enemies, or mechanic). - Uses the ice key in its core mechanic (e.g., ice blocks that melt, ice floors that are slippery, an ice enemy). - Has at least one shortcut that unlocks partway through the level and returns to the hub. - Has a clear endpoint — a boss, a collectible, or a story beat.

Deliverables: - The Level 3 scene - A 30-60 second video of you playing through it - A paragraph on the design choice that defines this level

Exercise 19.8 — Place the Ice Key Collectible

Type: Implementation Time: 60 minutes

In Level 1 or Level 2 (your choice), place the Ice Key as a collectible. When the player touches it: - It plays a sound effect - It displays a message: "You obtained the Ice Key!" - It calls PlayerState.grant_ability("ice_key") - It removes itself from the scene

After collecting the key and returning to the hub, the previously locked gate should now be passable.

Test the full loop: start in the hub, go to Level 1 or 2, find the key, return to the hub, pass the gate, enter Level 3.

Deliverables: - The Ice Key scene/script - A video of the complete key-collection-to-gate-unlock loop - A sentence on where you placed the key and why

Exercise 19.9 — Fast Travel vs. Meaningful Travel Decision

Type: Design Analysis Time: 90 minutes

For your current game-in-progress, write a design document answering:

  • Should your game have fast travel? Justify with specific reference to your world size, player audience, and design goals.
  • If yes: is fast travel available from the start, or must it be unlocked? At what points? With what constraints?
  • If no: why would fast travel damage your game? What replaces the efficiency it would provide?

Then implement your decision in the hub. Options: - Add a map screen with fast-travel points (if yes). - Add a teleport crystal that must first be activated in each area before use. - Add only walking-based movement (if no).

Deliverables: - A one-page design document - Either: the implementation of your fast-travel system, or: a sentence on what you added instead to make traversal more rewarding

Exercise 19.10 — Analyze the Ubisoft Formula

Type: Analysis Time: 2 hours (with game footage)

Pick one Ubisoft open-world game (2010-2018 era: Far Cry 3, Assassin's Creed IV, Watch Dogs, Ghost Recon Wildlands). Watch or replay the first 2 hours. Document:

  • How many towers/viewpoints does the player climb?
  • How many distinct icon types appear on the map after climbing a tower?
  • How many icons of each type exist within the first region?
  • How many "collectibles" are advertised (if the UI tells you)?
  • What is the time-to-interesting from any random point on the map?

Then answer: - Which part of the formula works well? - Which part feels dated or tedious? - If you were redesigning this game today, what would you cut? What would you add?

Deliverables: - A data table of your observations - A 500-word critical analysis

Exercise 19.11 — The Mental Map Test

Type: Playtest Time: 2 hours (with testers)

Recruit a playtester. Have them play your game for at least 30 minutes, spanning the hub and at least two levels. Then pause them and:

  1. Hand them a blank sheet of paper.
  2. Ask them to draw the world as they remember it.
  3. Note their commentary as they draw.

Now compare their drawing to your intended mental map.

Questions: - Did they correctly identify the hub as central? - Did they remember which direction each level lies from the hub? - Did they remember any landmarks inside the levels? - Did they remember the Ice Key's location? - What was missing or wrong?

Deliverables: - The playtester's drawing (photographed or scanned) - Your intended map for comparison - A one-page reflection on where your world-design communication is strong and weak

🪞 Learning Check-In: This is the hardest exercise in the chapter. It's also the most important. The mental map test reveals whether your world design is working or whether you are relying on in-game UI to paper over a confusing structure. If the playtester cannot draw a coherent map, the world has a problem — even if the levels are individually great.

Exercise 19.12 — Design a Shortcut That Collapses Your World

Type: Design + Implementation Time: 2-3 hours

Identify a path in your game that the player traverses repeatedly — perhaps from the hub to a specific region of Level 1, or from the end of Level 2 back to the hub. Design a shortcut.

Requirements: - The shortcut must not be available from the start. - Unlocking it requires the player to have completed some prior action (defeat a boss, find a switch, obtain a key). - The shortcut dramatically reduces traversal time (at least 50% reduction). - Opening the shortcut should feel like a reward — accompanied by a moment of revelation.

Implement it. Playtest it. Specifically note: does the moment of unlocking feel as good as it should?

Deliverables: - The shortcut scene elements (door, elevator, switch, etc.) - Before/after traversal time measurements - A one-paragraph reflection on whether the shortcut feels rewarding, and what you could tune

Summary

By completing these twelve exercises, you have: - Analyzed how great worlds build mental maps (19.1, 19.2, 19.10, 19.11) - Designed worlds on paper before coding (19.3) - Implemented the core overworld tech: transitions, gates, player state (19.4, 19.5) - Connected your existing levels through a hub with gated progression (19.6, 19.7, 19.8) - Made deliberate choices about travel, formula, and shortcuts (19.9, 19.12)

You are now a world designer, not just a level designer. The difference is one you can feel: levels are rooms; worlds are places.