Extended Practice Hub World Research: Spyro

The next game series that I wanted to look at was Spyro, for the hub world designs as I think they are done brilliantly throughout most of the game series, up until A Hero's Tail anyway.The hub world, or homeworld as it is referred to in the games, are the place where all of the levels are connected together for that world, and in most Spyro games there are about 5 or 6 of these homeworlds. The general idea of them is brilliant and the homeworlds all vary in shape and size throughout the games, and they have secrets and collectibles of there own for the player to find and collect making it feel like just another level in the game itself.

The first Spyro game's homeworld ranged from a lush green field like area, through the dry desert to the wonders of the dream weavers lands that are floating through the sky. There is a good amount of  range throughout and the theme of the homeworld generally sets the theme for most of the levels in that area.

 The second game featured the same kind of idea when it came to the hub world, but there were only four altogether, autumn, winter, spring and summer plains that where all similar in look but had the obvious seasonal change. These levels also did not set the theme for the levels coming off in the area, and they were generally random and didn't have certain themes, which definitely wasn't as interesting as the first game.

 The third was different altogether having very random homeworlds that didn't follow any consistent theme or pattern in any way and again having those random levels that branch out from it. This showed the introduction to a lot more mini games, which again were not as fun to complete and detached the player from the true game play. The homeworlds where very nicely designed but just lacked that theme-based aspect from the first game.

 The fourth game was so different that it only had one homeworld and it wasn't very well designed at all. The idea of it wasn't exciting, although it was very large. The theme was a little dull, just using the same concept of a grassy field that has been copied from the first homeworld in the very first Spyro game, and features a small beach at the end of it. It just didn't feel like a world that was well thought out, random things where placed everywhere and there wasn't hardly any platforming in the homeworld something that really made it rather boring.

 The last game is Spyro a Hero's Tail which did exactly the same thing as the previous game as only had one home world but it was huge. You could probably get lost due to the size of this level and it did feel like you where walking through about three levels just in the homeworld. But there was a lot to do, and a lot of platforming which was nice, although there was still the mini game aspect which wasn't very fun, but altogether it wasn't totally bad, just far to big and again without too much imagination.

Altogether I believe that if I was going to take inspiration from any of these games it would be the first. The way in which the levels where set out in a homeworld that isn't too big is the best idea for a  hub world. You don't want to be walking around it aimlessly for so long that you eventually get bored of it, and the themes that are used throughout determine what is going to be happening throughout the levels in that world, a very nice touch that could be considered for our own game.