Hollow Knight: A lesson in Game Design
By today, you have probably already played or at least heard about Hollow Knight, an independent game developed through crowdfunding that turned out to be, in my humble opinion, one of the best in its generation. If you have not, let me warn you that this article might contain a few spoilers, so don´t proceed unless willing to face them.
As one of the finest examples of the metroidvania genre, Hollow Knight invites the player to an adventure through a forsaken, decaying, still attractive and majestic world. Anyone brave enough to face the (really) tough bosses, mazes and platforming in the game will be rewarded with a compelling story, revealed on a peacemeal basis by cutscenes, characters and even the backgrounds. And there lies the reason why we should pay close attention to that game: its design. Apart from how you like Hollow Knight or if it speaks to you, it is one of the greatest achievements in Game Design of the last decade. Analyzing some of its aspects can teach a lot about designing video games, as well as alternative ways of telling stories through interaction. That analysis is what I will try to do in the following lines.
This great article, based on an interview with Ari Gibson and William Pellen, a.k.a. Team Cherry, the ingenuous minds behind the game, can shed some light on the process that gave birth to Hollow Knight as we know it. It basically presents the…
