Castle Paradox

Joe Man · Posted: Sat Dec 15, 2007 1:07 pm Post subject: Overworlds

I haven't noticed much discussion on this, so I figured it'd be good to bring up overworlds in games.

Sure, the term "overworld" is pretty vague, but let's take it to mean the central hub of the game, the area that connects the parts (which naturally does not always apply).

So, what overworlds do you find noteworthy? What makes them good or interesting?

For example, my personal all-time favorite is Myst Island. Moreso than the individual ages of Myst, Myst Island had a particular air of mystery about it. The island itself held plenty of puzzles, because each of the ages were off-limits until the player could figure out how to unlock them given the vague clues lying about. Even then, the ages only existed to help solve the greater puzzle.

Another of my favorites is Dinosaur Island from Super Mario World. Although there wasn't really anything you could do from the overworld aside from go to the individual levels, it had a touch of interactivity with unlocking levels, particularly secrets, which gave visual gratification as the world slowly was covered with little yellow spots.

Any other games you think have good overworlds? Any comments on what you think makes them good?
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"Everyone has 200,000 bad drawings in them, the sooner you get them out the better."
~Charles Martin Jones

Last edited by Joe Man on Fri Dec 13, 1957 1:21 am; edited 2,892 time in total

msw188 · Joined: 02 Jul 2003 Posts: 1041

Actually there was just a pretty large discussion about this over at Slimy Salad:
http://www.slimesalad.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=154

It was mostly triggered by an article in Hamsterspeak 10:
http://superwalrusland.com/ohr/issue10/index.html

You should go and read those. However, they are very RPG-focused. For games in general, the main Mario games from SMB 3 on had some pretty cool 'overworlds' so to speak, especially Mario 64, if we take that to mean the castle. Another game with fun overworlds in this sense was Kirby's Adventure; sort of a precursor to the idea of Super Mario World where finding a secret in a stage opened up a different part of the overworld.
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My first completed OHR game, Tales of the New World:
http://castleparadox.com/gamelist-display.php?game=161

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Leonhart · Joined: 25 Feb 2004 Posts: 383 Location: Philippines

I started a topic once about world maps:

http://castleparadox.com/ohr/viewtopic.php?t=4608
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The man who smiles when things go wrong has thought of someone to blame it on.
- Robert Bloch

Joe Man · Posted: Sun Dec 16, 2007 5:42 am Post subject:

Aha, so you did. And it's still on the first page too. Apologies, I missed that one.
_________________
"Everyone has 200,000 bad drawings in them, the sooner you get them out the better."
~Charles Martin Jones

Last edited by Joe Man on Fri Dec 13, 1957 1:21 am; edited 2,892 time in total