Hidden Design Decisions Behind Believable Open-World Cities

Veteran World Designer Nathan Cheever explains how pathways, landmarks, infrastructure, world states, rapid prototyping, and over 30 major layout iterations shaped Mafia 3’s New Bordeaux. Veteran Game World Designer Explains Why Bigger Game Worlds Aren’t Always Better In his previous 80 Level article , veteran World Designer Nathan Cheever examined how traversal speed, encounter density, production resources, and player expectations determine the appropriate size of a game world. Once that scale has been established, however, developers still need to turn the available space into a coherent, navigable, and believable place.