This year is the 25th anniversary of The Legend of Zelda, and as a game designer, what better way to celebrate than with a short study on how a Zelda game is made. There are many factors that make a Zelda game great, but I’m going to try and focus only on the dungeons, which represent in my opinion the very core of the level design. The goal of this study is to understand the structure of a Zelda dungeon as a source of inspiration for designing levels.
What is a Zelda game?
Before starting to list what a Zelda dungeon is made of, we must first understand the core gameplay of a Zelda game. Most people will agree that a modern Zelda game is a third person action adventure game. And they are right. But this does not satisfy me in regard of describing the core gameplay of a Zelda game. Allow me to make an hypothesis and describe a Zelda game as the following sentence: A blocked path to Zelda; the player need to use his combat and puzzle solving skills in order to unlock this path. By that I mean that at any point in the game, the path to Zelda (or Triforce or whatever) is blocked and the player needs to find the “key” to proceed.
Keys and Doors
The main mechanic of a Zelda Dungeon is “Keys and Doors”. It’s simple, a door is blocking the player’s progress and he needs to find a key to open it. This often forces the player to take alternative paths in order to find the key. A good example that shows that mechanic is the very first dungeon of the original Legend of Zelda as show in the next picture. As we can see, the players needs to explore alternative rooms in order to find keys and proceed to the locked rooms.
The many shapes of a key
The “Keys and Doors” mechanic is very common in games, but what makes a Zelda game unique is the many shapes that can take the key. In fact, the” key” is nothing more than a metaphor. A “key” can be a simple small key, but it can also be a newly acquired item. For example, as shown in the next pictures, at the beginning of The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker, the player cannot go through the forest of Outset Island because the path is blocked with trees. Only after training with the old sword master, the player can get the sword and use it to clear the path. In this case, the trees are the “locked door” and the sword is the “key”. Items like the hookshot, the boomerang and the candle will all become the “key” at some point in the game.
Items are not the only “keys”; sometime the key has another shape or no shape at all. The “key” can be:
- A puzzle based on physic to solve on the spot (moving crates and pressing switches)
- A room that need to be cleared of enemies (defeat all the skeletons to open the door)
- A path that requires agility skills (jump from platform to platform to reach the next room)
- A path that requires combat skills (a path full of enemy bats)
- Taking down an enemy that holds a key or an item
Those are all the “keys” I can think of. Once we understand the “Keys and Doors” mechanic, we can better understand how to make a dungeon.
What do you need to make a Zelda dungeon?
The following is a recipe that includes the basic ingredient I found to make a Zelda dungeon.
The entrance
The entrance connects the dungeon with the overworld (world map). Usually, the player had to also deal with the “Keys and Doors” mechanic in the overworld in order to gain access the entrance of the dungeon.
The spider’s body
After passing through the entrance hall, the player usually ends up in a central area that I would like to call the “spider’s body”. This area connects the multiple main paths of the dungeon and can even be connected to the locked boss room.
The spider’s legs
In the spider’s body, the player can take on multiple paths that I call “spider’s legs”; some of those paths are locked and some are not. If the player does not have the necessary “key” to open a path, he will need to explore the paths that are unlocked in order to find it. Remember, a “key” in a Zelda game can have many shapes.
A room with a key
A spider’s leg consists of a series of room. Some room holds a “key” that enable the player to proceed in the dungeon.
A new item
A dungeon usually holds a new item, which is basically a new “key”. The player needs to figure out how to use it in order to unlock new paths.
The spider’s head
The boss room or the “spider head” is the location of the dungeon’s boss and the final room. Often this boss needs to be defeated with the newly acquired item (weapon). Defeating the boss usually clears the dungeon. I noticed in The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess that mid-level bosses are introduced in the middle of a dungeon to probably give a better pacing to the gameplay.
Conclusion
Well, I hope that my little personal study helped you to better understand the level design in a Zelda game and that it can inspire you for your own game projects.
