Open world

Short description: Type of video game design

For other uses, see Open world (disambiguation).

Video games

Platforms

* Arcade game
* Console game
* Game console
* Home console
* Electronic game
* Audio game
* Electronic handheld
* Handheld console
* Mobile game
* Online game
* Social-network game
* PC game
* Linux
* Mac

Genres

* Action
* Beat 'em up
* Hack and slash
* Fighting
* Platform
* Shooter
* Survival
* Battle royale
* Action-adventure
* Stealth
* Survival horror
* Adventure
* Interactive fiction
* Interactive movie
* Visual novel
* Gacha Game
* Role-playing
* Action role-playing
* Tactical role-playing
* Simulation
* Construction and management
* Life simulation
* Sports
* Vehicle
* Strategy
* 4X
* Auto battler
* Multiplayer online battle arena
* Real-time strategy
* Real-time tactics
* Tower defense
* Turn-based strategy
* Turn-based tactics
* Horror
* Massively multiplayer online

Lists

* Arcade games
* Best-selling games
* franchises
* fastest-selling
* Highest-grossing games
* arcade
* mobile
* Most-played games
* mobile
* Games considered among the best
* Game of the Year awards
* Negative reception

Development

* Game AI
* Game design
* Video game design
* Interaction
* Programming
* Art
* Graphics
* Music

* v
* t
* e

Screenshot of the 2019 video game A Short Hike, in which the player can freely explore the game world

In video games, an open world is a virtual world in which the player can approach objectives freely, as opposed to a world with more linear and structured gameplay.[1][2] Notable games in this category include Software:Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas (2004), The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild (2017), Red Dead Redemption 2 (2018), and Minecraft (2011).[3][4]

Games with open or free-roaming worlds typically lack level structures like walls and locked doors, or the invisible walls in more open areas that prevent the player from venturing beyond them; only at the bounds of an open-world game will players be limited by geographic features like vast oceans or impassable mountains. Players typically do not encounter loading screens common in linear level designs when moving about the game world, with the open-world game using strategic storage and memory techniques to load the game world dynamically and seamlessly. Open-world games still enforce many restrictions in the game environment, either because of absolute technical limitations or in-game limitations imposed by a game's linearity.[5]

While the openness of the game world is an important facet to games featuring open worlds, the main draw of open-world games is about providing the player with autonomy—not so much the freedom to do anything they want in the game (which is nearly impossible with current computing technology), but the ability to choose how to approach the game and its challenges in the order and manner as the player desires while still constrained by gameplay rules.[6] Examples of high level of autonomy in computer games can be found in massively multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPG) or in single-player games adhering to the open-world concept such as the Fallout series. The main appeal of open-world gameplay is that it provides a simulated reality and allows players to develop their character and its behavior in the direction and pace of their own choosing. In these cases, there is often no concrete goal or end to the game, although there may be the main storyline, such as with games like Software:The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim.

## Contents

* 1 Gameplay and design
* 1.1 Distinctions between open world and sandbox games
* 1.2 Emergent gameplay
* 1.3 Procedural generation of open worlds
* 1.4 Level streaming
* 2 History
* 2.1 20th century
* 2.2 21st century
* 3 See also
* 4 References
* 5 Further reading

## Gameplay and design

An open world is a level or game designed as nonlinear, open areas with many ways to reach an objective.[7] Some games are designed with both traditional and open-world levels.[8] An open world facilitates greater exploration than a series of smaller levels,[5] or a level with more linear challenges.[9] Reviewers have judged the quality of an open world based on whether there are interesting ways for the player to interact with the broader level when they ignore their main objective.[9] Some games use real settings to model an open world, such as New York City.[10]

A major design challenge is to balance the freedom of an open world with the structure of a dramatic storyline.[11] Since players may perform actions that the game designer did not expect,[12] the game's writers must find creative ways to impose a storyline on the player without interfering with their freedom.[13] As such, games with open worlds will sometimes break the game's story into a series of missions, or have a much simpler storyline altogether.[14] Other games instead offer side-missions to the player that do not disrupt the main storyline. Most open-world games make the character a blank slate that players can project their own thoughts onto, although several games such as Landstalker: The Treasures of King Nole offer more character development and dialogue.[5] Writing in 2005, David Braben described the narrative structure of current video games as "little different to the stories of those Harold Lloyd films of the 1920s", and considered open-ended stories to be the "Holy Grail" for the fifth generation of gaming.[15] Gameplay designer Manveer Heir, who worked on Mass Effect 3 and Software:Mass Effect: Andromeda for Electronic Arts, said that there are difficulties in the design of an open-world game since it is difficult to predict how players will approach solving gameplay challenges offered by a design, in contrast to a linear progression, and needs to be a factor in the game's development from its onset. Heir opined that some of the critical failings of Andromeda were due to the open world being added late in development.[16]

Some open-world games, to guide the player towards major story events, do not provide the world's entire map at the start of the game, but require the player to complete a task to obtain part of that map, often identifying missions and points of interest when they view the map. This has been derogatorily referred to as "Ubisoft towers", as this mechanic was promoted in Ubisoft's Assassin's Creed series (the player climbing a large tower as to observe the landscape around it and identify waypoints nearby) and reused in other Ubisoft games, including Far Cry, Software:Might & Magic X: Legacy, and Watch Dogs. Other games that use this approach include Software:Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, and Marvel's Spider-Man.[17][18][19][20] Rockstar games like Software:Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas and Grand Theft Auto IV lock out sections of the map as "barricaded by law enforcement" until a specific point in the story has been reached.

Games with open worlds typically give players infinite lives or continues, although some force the player to start from the beginning should they die too many times.[5] There is also a risk that players may get lost as they explore an open world; thus designers sometimes try to break the open world into manageable sections.[21] The scope of open-world games requires the developer to fully detail every possible section of the world the player may be able to access, unless methods like procedural generation are used. The design process, due to its scale, may leave numerous game world glitches, bugs, incomplete sections, or other irregularities that players may find and potentially take advantage of.[22] The term "open world jank" has been used to apply to games where the incorporation of the open world gameplay elements may be poor, incomplete, or unnecessary to the game itself such that these glitches and bugs become more apparent, though are generally not game-breaking, such as the case for No Man's Sky near its launch.[22]

### Distinctions between open world and sandbox games

Open world flight simulator GeoFS

The mechanics of open-world games are often overlapped with ideas of sandbox games, but these are considered different concepts. Whereas open world refers to the lack of limits for the player's exploration of the game's world, sandbox games are based on the ability of giving the player tools for creative freedom within the game to approach objectives, if such objectives are present.

For example, most flight simulators are considered to be open-world games as one can fly anywhere within the mapped world, but they are not considered a sandbox game as there are generally few creative aspects brought into the game.[23]

### Emergent gameplay

The combination of open world and sandbox mechanics can lead towards emergent gameplay, complex reactions that emerge (either expectedly or unexpectedly) from the interaction of relatively simple game mechanics.[24] According to Peter Molyneux, emergent gameplay appears wherever a game has a good simulation system that allows players to play in the world and have it respond realistically to their actions. It is what made SimCity and The Sims compelling to players. Similarly, being able to freely interact with the city's inhabitants in Grand Theft Auto added an extra dimension to the series.[25]

In recent years game designers have attempted to encourage emergent play by providing players with tools to expand games through their own actions. Examples include in-game web browsers in EVE Online and The Matrix Online; XML integration tools and programming languages in Second Life; shifting exchange rates in Entropia Universe; and the complex object-and-grammar system used to solve puzzles in Scribblenauts. Other examples of emergence include interactions between physics and artificial intelligence. One challenge that remains to be solved, however, is how to tell a compelling story using only emergent technology.[25]

In an op-ed piece for BBC News, David Braben, co-creator of Elite, called truly open-ended game design "The Holy Grail" of modern video gaming, citing games like Elite and the Grand Theft Auto series as early steps in that direction.[15] Peter Molyneux has also stated that he believes emergence (or emergent gameplay) is where video game development is headed in the future. He has attempted to implement emergent gameplay to a great extent in some of his games, particularly Black & White and Fable.[25]

### Procedural generation of open worlds

Procedural generation refers to content generated algorithmically rather than manually, and is often used to generate game levels and other content. While procedural generation does not guarantee that a game or sequence of levels is nonlinear, it is an important factor in reducing game development time and opens up avenues making it possible to generate larger and more or less unique seamless game worlds on the fly and using fewer resources. This kind of procedural generation is known as worldbuilding, in which general rules are used to construct a believable world.

Most 4X and roguelike games make use of procedural generation to some extent to generate game levels. SpeedTree is an example of a developer-oriented tool used in the development of Software:The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion and aimed at speeding up the level design process. Procedural generation also made it possible for the developers of Elite, David Braben and Ian Bell, to fit the entire game—including thousands of planets, dozens of trade commodities, multiple ship types and a plausible economic system—into less than 22 kilobytes of memory.[26] More recently, No Man's Sky procedurally generated over 18 quintillion planets including flora, fauna, and other features that can be researched and explored.[27]

### Level streaming

With more advanced computing hardware with faster input/output data transfer rates, such as optical drives, hard disk drives (HDDs), solid-state drives (SSDs), and larger amounts of memory, game developers have been able to take advantage of continuously loading new level assets - models, textures, and audio - into the computer or console's memory as the player approaches the edge of one level and the start of a new one. This can effectively make the transition from one level to another level appear to be seamless and avoid the use of loading screens. This is known as level streaming or in-game streaming, and is often used for open world games to give the perception of a fully-interconnected space. There are often tricks used to give the computer hardware sufficient time to load the assets for the next area. The player's speed may be reduced, while story cues are presented to draw the player's attention. The player may be required to enter areas in which their view of the world is plausibly restricted, sometimes referred to as "loading tunnels".[28] With newer consoles, such as the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X and Series S, special SSD arrays alongside software libraries that have a total high data throughput can eliminate the need for any loading tunnels in a seamless world game.[29][30]

## History

### 20th century

There is no consensus on what the earliest open-world game is, due to differing definitions of how large or open a world needs to be.[31] Inverse provides some early examples games that established elements of the open world: Jet Rocket, a 1970 Sega electro-mechanical arcade game that, while not a video game, predated the flight simulator genre to give the player free roaming capabilities, and dnd, a 1975 text-based adventure game for the PLATO system that offered non-linear gameplay.[22] Ars Technica traces the concept back to the free-roaming exploration of 1976 text adventure game Colossal Cave Adventure,[32] which inspired the free-roaming exploration of Adventure (1980),[33][34] but notes that it was not until 1984 that what "we now know as open-world gaming" took on a "definite shape" with 1984 space simulator Elite,[35] considered a pioneer of the open world;[36][37][38][39] Gamasutra argues that its open-ended sandbox style is rooted in flight simulators, such as SubLOGIC's Flight Simulator (1979/80), noting most flight sims "offer a 'free flight' mode that allows players to simply pilot the aircraft and explore the virtual world".[37] Others trace the concept back to 1981 CRPG Ultima,[40][41][42] which had a free-roaming overworld map inspired by tabletop RPG Dungeons & Dragons.[35] The overworld maps of the first five Ultima games, released up to 1988, lacked a single, unified scale, with towns and other places represented as icons;[35] this style was adopted by the first three Dragon Quest games, released from 1986 to 1988 in Japan.[43][5]

Early examples of open-world gameplay in adventure games include The Portopia Serial Murder Case (1983)[44][45] and The Lords of Midnight (1984),[46] with open-world elements also found in The Hobbit (1982)[47] and Valhalla (1983).[48] The strategy video game, The Seven Cities of Gold (1984), is also cited as an early open-world game,[49][50][51] influencing Sid Meier's Pirates! (1987).[49] Eurogamer also cites British computer games such as Ant Attack (1983) and Sabre Wulf (1984) as early examples.[38]

According to Game Informer's Kyle Hilliard, Hydlide (1984) and The Legend of Zelda (1986) were among the first open-world games, along with Ultima.[52] IGN traces the roots of open-world game design to The Legend of Zelda, which it argues is "the first really good game based on exploration", while noting that it was anticipated by Hydlide, which it argues is "the first RPG that rewarded exploration".[53] According to GameSpot, never "had a game so open-ended, nonlinear, and liberating been released for the mainstream market" before The Legend of Zelda.[54] According to The Escapist, The Legend of Zelda was an early example of open-world, nonlinear gameplay, with an expansive and cohesive world, inspiring many games to adopt a similar open-world design.[55]

Mercenary (1985) has been cited as the first open world 3D action-adventure game.[56][57] There were also other open-world games in the 1980s, such as Back to Skool (1985),[58] Turbo Esprit (1986)[59][60] and Software:Alternate Reality: The City (1985).[61] Wasteland, released in 1988, is also considered an open-world game.[62] The early 1990s saw open-world games such as Colorado,[63] The Terminator (1990),[64] The Adventures of Robin Hood (1991),[35] and Hunter (1991), which IGN describes as the first sandbox game to feature full 3D, third-person graphics,[65] and Ars Technica argues "has one of the strongest claims to the title of GTA forebear".[35] Sierra On-Line's 1992 adventure game King's Quest VI has an open world; almost half of the quests are optional, many have multiple solutions, and players can solve most in any order.[66] Atari Jaguar launch title, Cybermorph (1993), was notable for its open 3D polygonal-world and non-linear gameplay. Quarantine (1994) is an example of an open-world driving game from this period,[67] while Iron Soldier (1994) is an open-world mech game.[68] The director of 1997's Blade Runner argues that that game was the first open world three-dimensional action adventure game.[69]

I think Software:The Elder Scrolls II: Daggerfall is one of those games that people can 'project' themselves on. It does so many things and allows [for] so many play styles that people can easily imagine what type of person they'd like to be in game.

—Todd Howard[70]

IGN considers Nintendo's Super Mario 64 (1996) revolutionary for its 3D open-ended free-roaming worlds, which had rarely been seen in 3D games before, along with its analog stick controls and camera control.[71] Other 3D examples include Mystical Ninja Starring Goemon (1997),[72][73] Ocarina of Time (1998),[5] the DMA Design (Rockstar North) game Body Harvest (1998), the Angel Studios (Rockstar San Diego) games Midtown Madness (1999) and Software:Midnight Club: Street Racing (2000), the Reflections Interactive (Ubisoft Reflections) game Driver (1999),[74] and the Rareware games Banjo-Kazooie (1998), Donkey Kong 64 (1999), and Banjo-Tooie (2000). 1UP considers Sega's adventure Shenmue (1999) the originator of the "open city" subgenre,[75] touted as a "FREE" ("Full Reactive Eyes Entertainment") game giving players the freedom to explore an expansive sandbox city with its own day-night cycles, changing weather, and fully voiced non-player characters going about their daily routines. The game's large interactive environments, wealth of options, level of detail and the scope of its urban sandbox exploration has been compared to later sandbox games like Grand Theft Auto III and its sequels, Sega's own Jet Set Radio and Yakuza series, Fallout 3, and Deadly Premonition.[76][77][78][79]

### 21st century

Galactic trade route map of the space trading and combat simulator, Oolite

Grand Theft Auto has had over 200 million sales.[80] Creative director Gary Penn, who previously worked on Finance:Frontier: Elite II, cited Elite as a key influence, calling it "basically Elite in a city", and mentioned other team members being influenced by Syndicate and Mercenary.[81] Grand Theft Auto III combined elements from previous games, and fused them together into a new immersive 3D experience that helped define open-world games for a new generation. Executive producer Sam Houser described it as "Zelda meets Goodfellas",[82] while producer Dan Houser also cited Software:The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time and Super Mario 64 as influences.[83] Radio stations had been implemented earlier in games such as Maxis' SimCopter (1996), the ability to beat or kill non-player characters date back to games such as The Portopia Serial Murder Case (1983),[84] and Valhalla (1983)[48] and the way in which players run over pedestrians and get chased by police has been compared to Pac-Man (1980).[85]

The Assassin's Creed series by Ubisoft uses open world mechanics set in historical real world locations, such as the Holy Land or Renaissance Italy. The early games were notable for requiring the player to climb large towers as to survey the land and identify landmarks which would then populate the player's mini-maps with quests and other points of interests; this was explained in-game as to synchronize the memories of the character in the historical setting with a character in contemporary times that was viewing these genetic memories via a device called the Animus. This mechanic was reused in other Ubisoft series such as Far Cry and Watch Dogs, as well as used in other open world games like The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and Software:Batman: Arkham Knight. The mechanic has been seen to gain some overuse in Ubisoft games, leading it to be called "Ubisoft towers" in a derogatory fashion.[86][87]

In 2011, Dan Ryckert of Game Informer wrote that open-world crime games were "a major force" in the gaming industry for the preceding decade.[88]

Another popular sandbox game is Minecraft, which has since become the best-selling video game of all time, selling over 238 million copies worldwide on multiple platforms by April 2021.[89] Minecraft's procedurally generated overworlds cover a virtual 3.6 billion square kilometers.

No Man's Sky, released in 2016, is an open-world game set in a virtually infinite universe. According to the developers, through procedural generation, the game is able to produce more than 18 quintillion (18×1018 or 18,000,000,000,000,000,000) planets to explore.[90] Several critics found that the nature of the game can become repetitive and monotonous, with the survival gameplay elements being lackluster and tedious. Jake Swearingen in New York said that the players can procedurally generate 18.6 quintillion unique planets, but they can't procedurally generate 18.6 quintillion unique things to do.[91] Updates have aimed to address these criticisms.

In 2017, the open-world design of The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild was described by critics as being revolutionary[92][93][94] and by developers as a paradigm shift for open-world design.[95] In contrast to the more structured approach of most open-world games, Breath of the Wild features a large and fully interactive world that is generally unstructured and rewards the exploration and manipulation of its world.[96] Inspired by the original 1986 Legend of Zelda, the open world of Breath of the Wild integrates multiplicative gameplay, where "objects react to the player's actions and the objects themselves also influence each other".[97] Along with a physics engine, the game's open-world also integrates a chemistry engine, "which governs the physical properties of certain objects and how they relate to each other", rewarding experimentation.[98] Nintendo has described the game's approach to open-world design as "open-air".[99]

## See also

* Nonlinear gameplay
* Persistent world

## References

1. ↑ Booker, Logan (July 14, 2008). "Pandemic Working On New 'Open World / Sandbox' IP". Kotaku. http://www.kotaku.com.au/2008/07/pandemic_working_on_new_open_world_sandbox_ip/.
2. ↑ "The complete history of open-world games (part 2)". Computer and Video Games. May 25, 2008. http://www.computerandvideogames.com/article.php?id=189599. Retrieved July 25, 2008.
3. ↑ Muncy, Jake (December 3, 2015). "Open-World Games Are Changing the Way We Play". Wired. https://www.wired.com/2015/12/open-world-games-2015/. Retrieved June 6, 2017.
4. ↑ Balasubramanian, Karthik (August 22, 2022). "The Evolution of Open-World Games". https://www.gameopedia.com/the-evolution-of-open-world-games/.
5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 5.4 5.5 Harris, John (September 26, 2007). "Game Design Essentials: 20 Open World Games". http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/1902/game_design_essentials_20_open_.php.
6. ↑ Kidwell, Emma (March 13, 2018). "Video: Looking at open world games to understand player autonomy". Gamasutra. https://www.gamedeveloper.com/design/video-looking-at-open-world-games-to-understand-player-autonomy.
7. ↑ Kohler, Chris (January 4, 2008). "Assassin's Creed And The Future Of Sandbox Games". Wired. https://www.wired.com/2008/01/assassins-creed-2/. Retrieved July 26, 2008.
8. ↑ Harris, John (September 26, 2007). "Game Design Essentials: 20 Open World Games - Air Fortress". http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/1902/game_design_essentials_20_open_.php.
9. ↑ 9.0 9.1 Kohler, Chris (November 23, 2007). "Review: Why Assassin's Creed Fails". Wired. http://blog.wired.com/games/2007/11/review-why-assa.html. Retrieved July 26, 2008.
10. ↑ James Ransom-Wiley (August 10, 2007). "Sierra unveils Prototype, not the first sandbox adventure". Joystiq. http://www.joystiq.com/2007/08/10/sierra-unveils-prototype-not-the-first-sandbox-adventure/.
11. ↑ Poole, Steven (2000). Trigger Happy. Arcade Publishing. p. 101. ISBN 9781559705981. https://books.google.com/books?id=8NGzkDOZljIC.
12. ↑ Bishop, Stuart (March 5, 2003). "Interview: Freelancer". ComputerAndVideoGames.com. http://www.computerandvideogames.com/article.php?id=88288.
13. ↑ "Redefining Game Narrative: Ubisoft's Patrick Redding On Far Cry 2". GamaSutra. July 18, 2008. http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/3727/redefining_game_narrative_.php.
14. ↑ Plante, Chris (May 12, 2008). "Opinion: 'All The World's A Sandbox'". GamaSutra. http://www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/news_index.php?story=18545.
15. ↑ 15.0 15.1 Braben, David (December 31, 2005). "Towards games with the wow factor". BBC News. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/4553620.stm.
16. ↑ Purchase, Robert (October 23, 2017). "I've seen people literally spend $15,000 on Mass Effect multiplayer cards". Eurogamer. http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2017-10-23-manveer-heir-bioware-mass-effect-ea-monetisation.
17. ↑ Williams, Mike (March 27, 2017). "Exploring and Uncovering the Dreaded Ubisoft Tower". US Gamer. http://www.usgamer.net/articles/exploring-the-dreaded-ubisoft-tower.
18. ↑ Maxwell, Ben (June 28, 2017). "How Far Cry 5 is shaking itself free from Ubisoft's open-world template". PCGamesN. https://www.pcgamesn.com/far-cry-5/guns-for-hire.
19. ↑ Meikleham, Dave (January 21, 2017). "How collectibles, stealth and climbing came to define the Ubisoft open world game". PC Gamer. http://www.pcgamer.com/how-collectibles-stealth-and-climbing-came-to-define-the-ubisoft-open-world-game/.
20. ↑ Carter, Chris (September 6, 2018). "Here's a tip for easily descrambling Spider-Man PS4's towers". https://www.destructoid.com/here-s-a-tip-for-easily-descrambling-spider-man-ps4-s-towers-520310.phtml#disqus_thread.
21. ↑ O'Luanaigh, Patrick (2006). Game Design Complete. Paraglyph Press. pp. 203, 218.
22. ↑ 22.0 22.1 22.2 Paez, Danny (July 19, 2020). "How A Successful Game Genre Became The Butt Of An Internet Joke". Inverse. https://www.inverse.com/gaming/open-world-games-meaning-definition-history-ghost-tsushima-gta.
23. ↑ Breslin, Steve (July 16, 2009). "The History and Theory of Sandbox Gameplay". Gamasutra. https://www.gamedeveloper.com/design/the-history-and-theory-of-sandbox-gameplay.
24. ↑ "Le Gameplay emergent" (in fr). jeuxvideo.com. January 19, 2006. http://www.jeuxvideo.com/dossiers/00006203/le-gameplay-emergent.htm.
25. ↑ 25.0 25.1 25.2 Kosak, Dave (March 7, 2004). "The Future of Games from a Design Perspective". gamespy.com. http://archive.gamespy.com/articles/march04/dice/molyneux/index.shtml.
26. ↑ Shoemaker, Richie (August 14, 2002). "Games that changed the world: Elite". Computer and Video Games. http://www.computerandvideogames.com/article.php?id=78368. Retrieved June 20, 2008.
27. ↑ Khatchadourian, Raffi (May 18, 2015). "World without end: creating a full-scale digital cosmos". The New Yorker 91 (13): 48–57. http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2015/05/18/world-without-end-raffi-khatchadourian. Retrieved August 5, 2015.
28. ↑ Avard, Alex (March 21, 2019). "The secret art of the video game loading screen, and why they won't be going away anytime soon". GamesRadar+. https://www.gamesradar.com/the-secret-art-of-the-video-game-loading-screen-and-why-they-wont-be-going-away-anytime-soon/.
29. ↑ Leadbetter, Richard (March 18, 2020). "Inside PlayStation 5: the specs and the tech that deliver Sony's next-gen vision". Eurogamer. https://www.eurogamer.net/articles/digitalfoundry-2020-playstation-5-specs-and-tech-that-deliver-sonys-next-gen-vision.
30. ↑ Leadbetter, Richard (March 16, 2020). "Inside Xbox Series X: the full specs". Eurogamer. https://www.eurogamer.net/articles/digitalfoundry-2020-inside-xbox-series-x-full-specs.
31. ↑ Neltz, András (January 19, 2015). "The Four-Decade History of Open World Games". https://kotaku.com/the-four-decade-history-of-open-world-games-1680367028.
32. ↑ Moss, Richard (March 25, 2017). "Roam free: A history of open-world gaming". Ars Technica. https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2017/03/youre-now-free-to-move-about-vice-city-a-history-of-open-world-gaming/. "Amazingly, open-world games can be traced back to the days of mainframes—namely, to the 1976 text-only game Colossal Cave Adventure for the PDP-10. Adventure at its core wasn't much different to the GTAs, Elites, and Minecrafts of today: you could explore, freely, in any direction, and your only goals were to find treasure (which is scattered throughout the cave) and to escape with your life."
33. ↑ Harris, John (September 26, 2007). "Game Design Essentials: 20 Open World Games". Gamasutra. http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/1902/game_design_essentials_20_open_.php?print=1.
34. ↑ Moss, Richard (March 25, 2017). "Roam free: A history of open-world gaming". Ars Technica. https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2017/03/youre-now-free-to-move-about-vice-city-a-history-of-open-world-gaming/. "Colossal Cave Adventure was a direct inspiration on 1980 Atari 2600 game Adventure. Its open world may have been sparse and populated by little more than dragon-ducks and simple geometric shapes, but its relative vastness enabled players to imagine magnificent adventures of their own making."
35. ↑ 35.0 35.1 35.2 35.3 35.4 Moss, Richard (March 25, 2017). "Roam free: A history of open-world gaming". Ars Technica. https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2017/03/youre-now-free-to-move-about-vice-city-a-history-of-open-world-gaming/.
36. ↑ Sefton, Jamie (July 11, 2007). "The roots of open-world games". GamesRadar. https://www.gamesradar.com/f/the-roots-of-open-world-games/a-200807111086555044.
37. ↑ 37.0 37.1 Barton, Matt; Bill Loguidice (April 7, 2009). "The History of Elite: Space, the Endless Frontier". https://www.gamedeveloper.com/design/the-history-of-elite-space-the-endless-frontier.
38. ↑ 38.0 38.1 Whitehead, Dan (February 4, 2008). "Born Free: the History of the Openworld Game". http://www.eurogamer.net/article.php?article_id=91968.
39. ↑ "The complete history of open-world games (part 1)". Computer and Video Games. May 24, 2008. http://www.computerandvideogames.com/article.php?id=189591. Retrieved July 25, 2008.
40. ↑ "10 Biggest Open-World Video Games - Hexapolis". HEXAPOLIS. November 5, 2014. http://www.hexapolis.com/2014/11/05/10-biggest-open-world-video-games-terms-map-size/.
41. ↑ Open World Origins. YouTube. January 18, 2015. Archived from the original on November 4, 2021. Retrieved September 25, 2015.
42. ↑ Kaiser, Rowan (January 27, 2012). "Ultima: Most. Important. Game Series. Ever.". https://www.engadget.com/2012/01/26/ultima-most-important-game-series-ever/.
43. ↑ Kalata, Kurt (February 4, 2008). "The History of Dragon Quest". https://www.gamedeveloper.com/game-platforms/the-history-of-dragon-quest.
44. ↑ Peter Tieryas (April 5, 2015), "The Murder Mystery from the Creator of Dragon Quest", Entropy, https://entropymag.org/the-murder-mystery-from-the-creator-of-dragon-quest/, retrieved February 22, 2017
45. ↑ "Megal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain". Official Xbox Magazine. Christmas 2015. https://archive.org/stream/Xbox_The_Official_Magazine_Xmas_2015#page/n107/mode/2up.
46. ↑ Mason, Graeme (April 9, 2017). "10 games that defined the ZX Spectrum". http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2017-04-09-10-games-that-defined-the-zx-spectrum. "Lords Of Midnight's wonderful storyline (inspired, unsurprisingly, by The Lord Of The Rings), open-world gameplay and elegant graphics were one thing - its seemingly effortless welding of the traditional adventure game to these features set a new standard for software that remains an amazing feat over 30 years later."
47. ↑ McCasker, Toby (March 31, 2016). "Revisiting the gloriously weird games of Australia's golden age". Kill Screen. https://killscreen.com/articles/revisiting-the-gloriously-weird-games-of-australias-golden-age/. Retrieved October 14, 2017. "The game's design even proved to be a precursor to key elements of modern day open world games like BioWare's Dragon Age, Mass Effect, and Baldur's Gate series.".
48. ↑ 48.0 48.1 Jankiewicz, Joshua (July 22, 2016). "Valhalla". Hardcore Gaming 101. http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/valhalla/valhalla.htm. "Still, for a pre-King's Quest graphic adventure, Valhalla remains pretty unique with its open-world aspects. Being able to kill anyone and anything can be great fun, and seeing what weird things the NPCs will do on autopilot is strangely endearing."
49. ↑ 49.0 49.1 Suellentrop, Chris (May 8, 2017). "'Civilization' Creator Sid Meier: 'I Didn't Really Expect to be a Game Designer'". Rolling Stone. https://www.rollingstone.com/glixel/interviews/civilization-creator-sid-meier-i-didnt-really-expect-to-be-a-game-designer-w480988. Retrieved July 19, 2017. "Pirates! was probably the second open-world game after Seven Cities of Gold.".
50. ↑ Koon, David (February 8, 2012). "Dani Bunten changed video games forever". Arkansas Times. https://www.arktimes.com/arkansas/dani-bunten-changed-video-games-forever/Content?oid=2059426. "Seven Cities of Gold, an Ozark Softscape title produced for EA in 1984 that eventually became the best-selling game of Bunten's career, was one of the first video games to take a stab at an 'open world' concept, allowing players to explore a virtual continent and set their own path rather than follow a regimented series of events."
51. ↑ Bailey, Kat (March 9, 2012). "These games inspired Cliff Bleszinski, John Romero, Will Wright, and Sid Meier". Engadget. https://www.engadget.com/2012/03/09/these-games-inspired-cliff-bleszinski-john-romero-will-wright/. "Seven Cities of Gold was one of the first games with randomized maps and an open world..."
52. ↑ Hilliard, Kyle (2017) (in en). Big Book of Zelda: The Unofficial Guide to Breath of the Wild and The Legend of Zelda. Triumph Books. p. 27. ISBN 9781633199569. https://books.google.com/books?id=Oq82DwAAQBAJ&pg=PT27. "Zelda, alongside games like Ultima and Hydlide, are among the first to be considered open world."
53. ↑ "IGN India discusses game design: Combat in open world games". November 2, 2015. https://in.ign.com/india/82586/feature/ign-india-discusses-game-design-combat-in-open-world-games.
54. ↑ "15 Most Influential Games of All Time: The Legend of Zelda". http://www.gamespot.com/gamespot/features/video/15influential/p9_01.html.
55. ↑ "How The Legend of Zelda Changed Video Games". http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/video-games/16779-How-The-Legend-of-Zelda-Changed-Gaming.
56. ↑ "Origins of the Open World: Mercenary". USGAMER. July 12, 2013. http://www.usgamer.net/articles/origins-of-the-open-world-mercenary.
57. ↑ "The First Open World, Part One". ELECTRONDANCE. September 23, 2014. http://www.electrondance.com/the-first-open-world-part-one/.
58. ↑ GameCentral (September 11, 2015). "Retro console battle: Sinclair ZX Spectrum Vega vs. The Recreated Sinclair ZX Spectrum – plus the 10 best Spectrum games ever". Metro.co.uk. http://metro.co.uk/2015/09/11/retro-console-battle-sinclair-zx-spectrum-vega-vs-the-recreated-sinclair-zx-spectrum-plus-the-10-best-spectrum-games-ever-5386121/. "The sequel to Skool Daze is even better than the first and a prime example of the '80s approach to open world adventure."
59. ↑ Rignall, Jaz (February 8, 2017). "Open World Games Make me Drive Like an Idiot". USGamer. http://www.usgamer.net/articles/open-world-games-make-me-drive-like-an-idiot. "While Turbo Esprit sounds like a racing game, this quite revolutionary release is actually a very early example of an open-world driving game."
60. ↑ "First open-world driving videogame". Guinness World Records. http://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/world-records/first-driving-game-to-feature-an-open-world-environment. "The first game to feature an open-world environment was the 1986 Turbo Esprit for the ZX Spectrum."
61. ↑ Davison, Pete (July 7, 2013). "Origins of the Open World: Alternate Reality". USGamer. http://www.usgamer.net/articles/origins-of-the-open-world-alternate-reality.
62. ↑ "Original Wasteland released on Steam and GOG". November 14, 2013. http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2013-11-14-original-wasteland-released-on-steam-and-gog. "Wasteland, which launched in 1988, spawned the Fallout series and won plaudits for its open-world design."
63. ↑ Majewski, Jakub (2023). "Last Remnants of the French Wild West: Remembering Colorado (1990)". Anglica Wratislaviensia 61 (2): 15–30. doi:10.19195/0301-7966.61.2.2. https://doi.org/10.19195/0301-7966.61.2.2. Retrieved 2026-07-10.
64. ↑ Cobbett, Richard (December 31, 2011). "Saturday Crapshoot: The Terminator". PC Gamer. http://www.pcgamer.com/saturday-crapshoot-the-terminator/. Retrieved October 14, 2017. "With nothing but 1990s 3D technology, it presented an open world action game set in modern-day Los Angeles...".
65. ↑ Fahs, Travis (March 24, 2008). The Leif Ericson Awards , IGN, Retrieved on November 13, 2021
66. ↑ Miller, Chuck (January 1993). "King's Quest VI: Heir Today, Gone Tomorrow". Computer Gaming World: 12. http://www.cgwmuseum.org/galleries/index.php?year=1993&pub=2&id=102. Retrieved July 5, 2014.
67. ↑ O'Connor, Alice (January 15, 2015). "Have You Played… Quarantine?". https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2015/01/15/have-you-played-quarantine/. "An open-world taxi game set in a hyperviolent dystopian futurecity, 1994's Quarantine is hugely exciting in my foggy memory."
68. ↑ "The History Of: Iron Soldier". Retro Gamer (Future Publishing) (165): p. 79. March 2017. "Sean Patten was on board to produce and Atari was adamant that the game be open world. "Those were the three pillars that formed Iron soldier", explains Marc, 'heavy property damage, a mech theme and a game that was open world and not on rails.'"
69. ↑ "Ars Technica". February 12, 2019. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zkwpa5YPhx8.
70. ↑ Crigger, Lara (2008). "Chasing D&D: A History of RPGs". http://www.psu.com/forums/archive/index.php/t-136810.html.
71. ↑ Thomas, Lucas M. (January 10, 2007). "Super Mario 64 VC Review". https://www.ign.com/articles/2007/01/10/super-mario-64-vc-review.
72. ↑ "Mystical Ninja Starring Goemon". April 17, 1998. https://www.ign.com/articles/1998/04/17/mystical-ninja-starring-goemon. Retrieved November 13, 2021.
73. ↑ "Import Arena - Ganbare Goeman". N64 Magazine (Future Publishing) (7): 56. October 1997. https://archive.org/details/N64_Magazine_Issue_007_1997-10_Future_Publishing_GB/page/n55. Retrieved May 18, 2019.
74. ↑ Guzman, Hector (March 20, 2006). "GameSpy: Driver: Parallel Lines - Page 1". GameSpy. http://ps2.gamespy.com/playstation-2/driver-4-working-title/697084p1.html.
75. ↑ Sharkey, Scott. "Top 5 Underappreciated Innovators: Five genre-defining games that didn't get their due". http://www.1up.com/features/top-5-underappreciated-innovators.
76. ↑ Brendan Main, Lost in Yokosuka , The Escapist
77. ↑ Shenmue: Creator Yu Suzuki Speaks Out , GamesTM
78. ↑ "Yu Suzuki". http://uk.games.ign.com/top-100-game-creators/9.html.
79. ↑ "The Disappearance of Yu Suzuki: Part 1". http://www.1up.com/do/feature?pager.offset=3&cId=3182648.
80. ↑ Makuch, Eddie. "Grand Theft Auto shipments reach 125 million". http://www.gamespot.com/articles/grand-theft-auto-series-shipments-reach-125-million/1100-6400652/.
81. ↑ Donovan, Tristan (January 31, 2011). "The Replay Interviews: Gary Penn". https://www.gamedeveloper.com/design/the-replay-interviews-gary-penn.
82. ↑ IGN Staff (September 10, 2001). "Rockstar's Sam Houser Mouths Off". https://ign.com/articles/2001/09/10/rockstars-sam-houser-mouths-off.
83. ↑ Houser, Dan (November 9, 2012). "Americana at Its Most Felonious: Q. and A.: Rockstar's Dan Houser on Grand Theft Auto V". The New York Times (Interview). Interviewed by Chris Suellentrop. Archived from the original on November 10, 2012. Retrieved July 30, 2015.
84. ↑ Szczepaniak, John (February 2011). "Portopia Renzoku Satsujin Jiken". Retro Gamer. http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_kGAOBLrWIr4/TUgMtkSB28I/AAAAAAAACyk/oj3PBRY70HM/s1600/DSC01599.JPG. (Reprinted at Szczepaniak, John. "Retro Gamer 85". Hardcore Gaming 101. http://blog.hardcoregaming101.net/2011/02/retro-gamer-85.html. )
85. ↑ Ashcraft, Brian (July 16, 2009). "Grand Theft Auto And Pac-Man? "The Same"". http://www.kotaku.com.au/2009/07/grand-theft-auto-and-pac-man-the-same/.
86. ↑ Evans-Thirlwell, Edwin (March 13, 2025). "No Assassin's Creed sequel has ever matched the weird poetry of the first game's towers". Rock Paper Shotgun. https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/no-assassins-creed-sequel-has-ever-matched-the-weird-poetry-of-the-first-games-towers. Retrieved June 1, 2025.
87. ↑ Williams, Mike (March 28, 2017). "Exploring and Uncovering the Dreaded Ubisoft Tower". VG247. https://www.vg247.com/exploring-and-uncovering-the-dreaded-ubisoft-tower. Retrieved June 1, 2025.
88. ↑ Ryckert, Dan (April 2011). "Embracing the Crazy". Game Informer (GameStop) (216): 49.
89. ↑ Winslow, Jeremy (3 May 2021). "Minecraft Reached 140 Million Monthly Users And Generated Over $350 Million To Date". https://www.gamespot.com/articles/minecraft-reached-140-million-monthly-users-and-generated-over-350-million-to-date/1100-6490962/.
90. ↑ Hiranand, Ravi (June 18, 2015). "18 quintillion planets: The video game that imagines an entire galaxy". http://www.cnn.com/2015/06/18/tech/no-mans-sky-sean-murray/.
91. ↑ "Why Everyone Should Play No Man's Sky — Even If It's Not a Great Game". August 16, 2016. https://nymag.com/selectall/2016/08/why-you-should-play-no-mans-sky.html.
92. ↑ Kamen, Matt. "Zelda: Breath of the Wild review: an epic masterpiece". Wired UK. https://www.wired.co.uk/article/legend-zelda-breath-wild-nintendo-switch-review. Retrieved November 2, 2017.
93. ↑ "How Breath of the Wild dunks on most open-world games". July 5, 2017. https://www.destructoid.com/how-breath-of-the-wild-dunks-on-most-open-world-games-446857.phtml.
94. ↑ Gerardi, Matt (March 17, 2017). "Is The Legend Of Zelda: Breath Of The Wild one of the best games of all time?". https://www.avclub.com/is-the-legend-of-zelda-breath-of-the-wild-one-of-the-b-1798259591.
95. ↑ "How will The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild change the open-world paradigm?". June 6, 2017. http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2017-06-05-how-will-the-legend-of-zelda-breath-of-the-wild-change-the-open-world-paradigm.
96. ↑ "Why Breath of the Wild is the future of blockbuster games". March 17, 2017. https://www.theverge.com/2017/3/17/14957460/the-legend-of-zelda-breath-of-the-wild-nintendo-switch-future-games.
97. ↑ Dornbush, Jonathon (March 1, 2017). "GDC 2017: Breath of the Wild Team-Built 2D Zelda Prototype to Test Gameplay". https://www.ign.com/articles/2017/03/01/gdc-2017-breath-of-the-wild-team-built-2d-zelda-prototype-to-test-gameplay-abandoned-zelda-concepts-revealed.
98. ↑ Gray, Kate (May 30, 2017). "Is The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild the best-designed game ever?". https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2017/may/30/the-legend-of-zelda-breath-of-the-wild-nintendo-game-design-open-world-player-explore.
99. ↑ "The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild's open-air concept is the new standard, producer says - Gematsu". April 4, 2017. http://gematsu.com/2017/04/legend-zelda-breath-wild-open-air-concept-new-standard-producer-says.

## Further reading

* Moss, Richard (March 25, 2017). "Roam free: A history of open-world gaming" (in en-us). https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2017/03/youre-now-free-to-move-about-vice-city-a-history-of-open-world-gaming/.
* Michael Llewellyn: 15 Open World Games More Mature Than Grand Theft Auto V. thegamer.com. April 24, 2017.

* v
* t
* e

Concepts of video games

Glossary of video game terms

Attributes|

* Health
* Life
* Experience point
* Magic

Mechanics|

* Item
* Power-up
* HUD
* Warp
* Fast travel
* Fog of war
* Invisible wall
* Cutscene
* Mini-map
* Paper doll
* Destructible environment
* Loading screen
* Replay value
* Saved game
* Scripted sequence
* Password
* Line of sight
* Critical hit
* Level
* Stats
* Permadeath
* Status effect
* Boss

Movement techniques|

* Rocket jumping
* Strafing
* Trickjump

Modes|

| Player type|

* Single-player
* Multiplayer
* Cooperative

|

Competitive gameplay|

* Esports
* Speedrun

Gameplay type|

* Capture the flag
* Deathmatch
* Last man standing

0.00

(0 votes)

Original source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open world. Read more

|

Retrieved from "https://handwiki.org/wiki/index.php?title=Software:Open_world&oldid=4562053"
*[v]: View this template
*[t]: Discuss this template
*[e]: Edit this template