Fallout co-creator Tim Cain has stressed the importance of not assuming what the players are going to do if your game is non-linear.
"Rule one, our game is nonlinear – don't assume that players will go somewhere first or talk to someone first," Cain explains in a new YouTube video titled Eight Level Design Guidelines. "I wanted to remind level designers that just because you put a guard outside the town, don't assume that everybody will stop and talk to that guard."
He adds that "if you want to force that, you can put a gate in the town that doesn't open until you talk to the guard, or worse, force the guard to go into conversation with the player."
But when it comes to that guard, if a player is given the ability to take them out from a distance, Cain notes: "I'm gonna go into that town without talking to the guard. And you may think, well, at that point, it's OK because everyone in the town will attack you."
However, he explains, "In general, I just like to remind level designers, don't assume anything the player is going to do in a particular order. Your job is to provide a nice map for them to play on and not make such assumptions."
Nonlinearity in games is definitely something that is an acquired skill. It will never not impress me when a game like The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild comes along that will allow you to go and get into a scrap with the final boss the second you finish the tutorial. It's also one of the things that frustrates me most about GTA and Red Dead Redemption maker Rockstar Games, where the studio will produce one of the most expansive and deep open worlds ever made, but then have missions that don't allow you to walk 2ft off the main path. These sort of restrictions are clearly something Cain is keen to avoid, and you need only look at the likes of Fallout 1 and 2 to see that in action.
