How Disney Inspired a Generation of Designers

Would you believe us if we told you that game designers are constantly stealing open-world designs from Disneyland theme parks? From the moment you walk through the gates to the highly themed areas. Designers have been stealing these key points to find better ways to organize their own open world and help players feel more immersed in their content.

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♪ Outro Music: "Dreaming in Pixels" by Tiffany Roman

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[TheInfernoSquid]

I'd argue that Adventureland is actually designed well by being harder to find. Once you get to the central hub, the bridge to Tomorrowland is a very enticing direction to go, almost as if the park designers are directing you to start working your way around the wheel from there. However, if you want to go on an adventure, what thematic sense would it make for an unexplored jungle to have a massive, dramatic entrance? By using your guide map and exploring the park, you're rewarded by suddenly coming across the Adventureland attractions. That moment is made even stronger by using foliage and trees to completely block your view of the castle, making you feel like you're deeper in the jungle than you really are.

[itskdog]

This also helped me think about some of the ways Pokémon misstepped with their trek into open-world. There was an over-reliance on expecting the player to use the map to help them find where they're going than using landmarks. You get the 18 main objectives marked on your map towards the end of the tutorial, but very few of those places (Levincia and the Glaseado Mountain are the 2 main exceptions I can think of) are visible until you get close, and if you just explore you can get interrupted with an intro cutscene if you get near to an objective without realising because you can't see that you're heading towards it as there's no landmark.

[MrFoof]

Although the lands at Disney are hard themed, at least in the Florida park (which was to fix all the issues with the California park), you should really look at how those themes transition. The ground, the decor, the buildings… all carefully chosen to split the difference and gracefully and gradually transition from one themed area to the other. Extremely clever, thoughtful design.

[theboardop]

Someone likely mentioned this already, but the Disneyland train system that runs around the park is very much like fast travel between significant or often visited locations.

[LiveAI]

Disneyland being the precursor of open-world game design is the lovablesort of notion I come to this channel for.

[RakoonCD]

Disney actually gave a reason for ToonTown's opening. They said it was there the whole time, inspiring the location of disneyland and was the place the characters went to after closing time, that's why it's outside the tracks. In the 90's they decided to open it up to the rest of the guests.

For the case of Galaxy's Edge, it actually is a world of its own, being a different canon. But that hasn't stopped disney from bringing the characters and story to Tomorrowland.

[DavidMDaut]

I feel like it’s important to note that, in the original Disney terminology, large points of interest that draw you into certain areas of the park (like Sleeping Beauty Castle) are called–

Wait for it…

Weenies.

[GuardDogEvents]

Something you forgot to mention is that disneyland is modeled after Knott's Berry Farm. Walt visited the farm multiple times to speak with Walter Knott when Walt was designing Disneyland

[RocketSlug]

I remember like a decade ago I saw a talk titled something like "Everything I Learned About Game Design Came From Disneyland" and it went into a lot of the same details

[griseldagimpel]

The city of Florence in Italy has a large central building that functions as a navigation landmark. It was even constructed to attract pilgrims -- the tourists of the time.

[LORDOFDORKNESS]

I really think Dark Souls 1 should be used as a great example of how to integrate DLC personally. It was extremely clever to use time-travel to basically 'layer' two areas above each other, letting you see a familiar place when it was in its heyday.
That's not the sort of trick a physical park can pull of quite~ yet~, but in that game it works great.

[crowonthepowerlines]

One idea for DLC that doesn't feel like an add on is to build up and into the existing structures in the game and story. Have a new guild move into the building that used to be a quiet home at the center of town. Have a group of mercenaries take up refuge in a dark alley you've explored many times before. Have an alien invade a previously peaceful section of a space station.

[DaStopher]

I have to disagree on the design of Adventureland. It's actually one of my favorite design features of the park. It gives the park a distinct maze-like feel while making it difficult to get lost. As a result the park seems much larger than it actually is to anyone who starts out in that direction.

Think about it, you can get to Rivers of America via Frontierland (boring since it just looks like another section of the park), or you can wind your way through an exciting jungle and get to Rivers of America via New Orleans Square, and in doing so discover a whole "new" hub away from the main hub.

Probably my only gripe with this area is that it crams an Amazon theme in between three western frontier themes, but it does at least keep the conflicting themes out of sight from each other fairly well.

Also, I really enjoy how the "DLCs" of Disneyland were done. Having them at the edge but inaccessible from the main hub gives the reward of a unique experience to those who explore deeper into the park. Critter Country is the same way (or was before Galaxy's Edge opened). It's almost like a Stanley Parable mechanic where you don't feel like you have completed the game until every last corner is sought out.

[captainnicehd]

It's not just open-world games. I recall the developers at Cyan saying that they took a lot of inspiration from Disneyland when they designed the layout of the original Myst.

[JDBriceProductions]

The World of Warcraft example is also cool because the lay of the map depends on your faction. Some maps have two of these map layouts blended together, with some areas working for both factions. Pretty cool to see it evaluated like this.

[Ava_luvsu]

Now I not only know how Disneyland affects open world games but I now also know how to get around the place! Now that's a good deal

[shadowdart]

There are also Parkour towers all over disneyland that you can climb to get your map updated to find all the Disney collectibles nearby.

[projectnightfall]

As a Theme Park designer and long time watcher of this show I love that you've made this episode. It's true and vice versa there's a lot games are doing now that can inspire the story telling in parks.

[dawnknightx]

In Scott Rogers’ book, level up, he says you can learn everything about game design from Disneyland and he is pretty much right. I read that book in my 3rd year of college and took several trips to the park to learn.

Everything from the design of the park to the design of the queues and rides build curiosity, anticipation, and excitement. Rides are themed very appropriately and their designs are masterful examples of telling a story with physical space.

For example, Splash Mountain (I would say RIP but I’m excited for the retheme) has one big highlight, that tremendous drop.

Natural flow of traffic in either direction entices people with the drop and it’s front and center as the selling point of the attraction. Once you get on the ride, it’s one of the first things you really see as you turn a corner, and you’re more than likely to see people taking the drop. You have several smaller moments where you go up and take a drop prepping the rider to actually get incredibly anxious as the final slope up takes forever, all with ominous music and you approach the climax of the (literal) rising action. Then you take the giant drop and immediately met with catharsis and a happy ending celebration.

[archsteel]

New Vegas is one of my favorite examples of the “Big Looming Monument” style of play orientation. The big glowing towers of New Vegas, the T-Rex of Novac, the giant statue of two rangers handshaking, even just a roller coaster outside of the first area.