FUNDAMENTALS OF GAME DESIGN, SECOND EDITION

Hub-and-Spoke Layouts

In the hub-and-spoke layout, the player begins in a central hub that ordinarily doesn't present significant challenges or dangers. As such, it serves as a place of comfort or safety, a base to which to return. To explore the rest of the world, the player follows a linear path out from the hub and then returns back to the hub on the same path (see Figure 12.5). The return journey either should be quick—because the player covers old ground during the return—or should offer new opportunities for gameplay and new rewards as the player comes back. Normally you would also put a major challenge and a major reward at the outer end of the spoke.

This layout gives the player some choice about where he goes, which many players appreciate. You need not offer the player access to all the spokes at the beginning of the level; to make sure that the player doesn't try the harder challenges too soon, you can lock off some areas until the player tries the easier challenges available in other spokes. Note that if you unlock the spokes only one at a time, you effectively change the hub-and-spoke layout into a linear layout.

The Spyro the Dragon games use a hub-and-spoke plan. The games include several hubs, called homeworlds, each of which is the center of its level. Various spokes lead off from the hubs to areas with different themes.