History SoYouWantTo / MakeAMetroidvania

# '''Keep the story integrated''': The plot should tend towards "Natural" or "Deliberate" integration on the SlidingScaleOfGameplayAndStoryIntegration. Much of the appeal of the genre comes from exploring a consistent world, so jerking the player away from it's a definite no-no. See the Necessary Tropes section for ideas on how to integrate common gameplay elements into the story.

* MultipleEndings: Altering the story based on the player's choices is a good way to add replay value or simply act as a gauge of how well the player did (i.e., if they unlock everything they get the GoldenEnding).

* CuriosityKilledTheCast: Despite the above, Deconstructions of the player's motives are certainly in vogue, as of the 2010's. Why not [[YouBastard call the player out]] and tell them they could have walked away (i.e. stopped playing the game...[[BrokenAesop you're meant to be encouraging them to play]])?

* AbilityRequiredToProceed: Smashing the same obstacle again and again isn't a puzzle on its own. Do your best to use your obstacles in interesting ways (Lighting torches opens doors? Make some of them traps which explode when lit or introduce a means of putting torches out and have the player work out the pattern!).

* {{Railroading}}: This is a double edged sword; it's recommended to use this to give the player a sense of direction and keep them from getting lost or overwhelmed from having too many choices at once, but ''in moderation''--giving a player too few choices on where to go or what to do and constantly holding the players hand is detrimental to a Metroidvania.

* PlotCoupon: It's generally not a good idea in a Metroidvania to segregate abilities and keys from each other--each ability should not only serve as the key to accessing a new area, but also enhance or change the nature of the gameplay itself.

* SequenceBreaking: Even if you don't leave in ways to break the normal sequence of events, [[TheDevTeamThinksOfEverything assume the player will find some]]. Think ahead and come up with ways to accommodate every possibility (as a rule of thumb, BreakingTheFourthWall's perfectly acceptable if the player had to do so to get there). Include "backup" obstacles behind later ones (e.g., if the player isn't meant to have the red keycard until the endgame, make sure there're a few doors locked with interim key cards, or come up with a plausible BrokenBridge), but leave some sort of bonus before them so the player doesn't feel cheated.

* LostForever: Always give the player the chance to go back and collect things they missed (or at the very least make something that's about to be lost so obvious its the player's fault if they don't pick it up, and relatively inconsequential).

* DistressCall: These are a good way to get the main character out to an isolated location with whatever abilities and equipment you want to start them off with (you could always have them [[BagOfSpilling drop their suitcase]] if bring anything extra).

* DistressCall: These are a good way to get the main character out to an isolated location with whatever abilities and equipment you want to start them off with (you could always have them [[BagOfSpilling drop their suitcase]] if they're GenreSavvy enough to bring anything extra).

* MasterOfUnlocking: The main strength of the ability to open particular types of doors is also its main weakness; it's BoringButPractical and practically an obstacle by default. Unless you want to incorporate some sort of MiniGame or give the "key" some other use (e.g. Metroid's tradition of making new weapons open colour coded doors), it's best to make this an early skill.

* MasterOfUnlocking: The main strength of the ability to open particular types of doors is also its main weakness; it's BoringButPractical and practically a CardboardObstacle by default. Unless you want to incorporate some sort of MiniGame or give the "key" some other use (e.g. Metroid's tradition of making new weapons open colour coded doors), it's best to make this an early skill.

* CardboardObstacle: Smashing the same obstacle again and again isn't a puzzle on its own. Do your best to use your obstacles in interesting ways (Lighting torches opens doors? Make some of them traps which explode when lit or introduce a means of putting torches out and have the player work out the pattern!).

* BrokenBridge: While it's best to avoid too many of these, you can probably get away with one "skill" which consists of activating all the FloatingPlatforms, opening sealed doors or otherwise changing the environment to remove obstacles instead of giving you a way of getting past them. It's also possible to give the player some degree of control over this (e.g. being able to switch out the level of water), but this can get irritating quickly if the player needs to keep returning to the same spot to keep adjusting a variable (c.f. the infamous [[ThatOneLevel Water Temple]] of ''VideoGame/OcarinaOfTime'').

* Added Exploration: Give them something new to do the next time they come by. The last time they were here, they should have seen something that they couldn't reach. When you force them to come back, you should make sure that they have any abilities needed to reach those locations. Even if the rewards aren't very big, they do help the old terrain feel new.[[labelnote:example]]After getting the Speed Booster and Ice Beam in {{Super Metroid}}, you can leave Red Brinstar by heading back into Blue Brinstar. If you do, you will be able to use your newly-found gear to get all kinds of goodies.[[/labelnote]]

* DoorToBefore: One of the more common complaints about backtracking comes from having to constantly retread old ground; forcing the player to "travel" gets old fast. If the player's already been through an area and there's nothing else there (bonuses aside), give them a shortcut. This is usually as simple as having a shorter route which requires whatever skill the player picks up at the end of the area in question.[[labelnote:example]]{{Super Metroid}} provides an example here. The upper-right of Maridia has a one-way passage into the top portion of Brinstar, right near your ship. It appears to serve no purpose, since it requires a Super Missile, which you will certainly have by the time you ever see it from the Maridia side. It's purpose is to allow you to leave the upper part of Marida after killing Draygon easily. Without it, the only ways out are either at the bottom of Red Brinstar or on the other side of the Ghost Ship.[[/labelnote]]

It's important that the protagonist have a distinctive look; RuleOfCool should be in full effect (ideally, the PC should be immediately recognisable from the silhouette). However, this doesn't rule out the fact that practicality can have a hand in designing the costumes. Consider making the outfit contrast or clash with the area the protagonist's exploring to play their connection with it (if any) up or down (for example, Metroid contrasted Samus's bulky armour with the organic environment and the insectoid armour of the SpacePirates, while Castlevania gave its vampire hunter protagonists medieval outfits which fit in with the HammerHorror aesthetics of the castles they explored).

* Enemy Evolution: One problem that forced backtracking causes is that many enemy challenges in an area will no longer be challenging the second time the player enters the area. If the main sequence of play sends a player through old terrain, it may be important for the player to still be challenged through combat. So you should find a way to spawn different enemies in that area.[[labelnote:example]]Metroid: Fusion did this excellently in your second trip to Sector 2: TRO. In the first trip, you run across some worm enemies, who's only real power is absorbing a lot of damage before dying. Once you beat a boss, they turn into cocoons (which also block your access to certain areas the game doesn't want you to access yet). Later on, the cocoons hatch, and turn into very dangerous enemies that deal 50 damage per-hit (without the Gravity Suit).[[/labelnote]] Do be aware that this is not ''necessarily'' a good idea. Or at least, not for everywhere, all the time. When the player starts getting up to late-game exploration, you want them to be able to navigate most old terrain quickly and effectively. And this means letting the player bypass enemies much more easily than before.[[labelnote:example]]This is the purpose of the screw attack in most 2D Metroid games. They make killing (most) enemies effortless, and allow you to do so while on the move.[[/labelnote]]

* ''VideoGame/MetroidOtherM'' -- Its main failing (as far as gameplay is concerned) was moving too far towards a narrative structure, breaking the rule mentioned above; never let the story interfere with gameplay. Half of the areas are designed to be traversed in one direction, specifically the way the player goes when following the story.[[labelnote:note]]Sectors 2 and 3 suffer the most from this, as both are two loops that have a couple of interconnecting areas.[[/labelnote]] The game frequently [[{{Broken Bridge}} locks doors behind the player]], sometimes just to prevent the player from even thinking about doing any side exploration at that point in the story.[[labelnote:note]]For example, after defeating Ridley and returning to the Hub, the door to Sector 3 locks behind Samus. And the doors to Sectors 2 and the Main Sector are both locked. Because Samus must follow The Deleter into Sector 1 right now.[[labelnote:note]] Movement and ability upgrades (as opposed to collectables like missile expansions) are in all but two cases dispensed at times dictated directly by an in-story entity. Samus (and by extension, the player) has them, but can only use them when she is explicitly told to do so by a CO (who also tells them where to go), robbing the player of their exploration. In contrast to ''Simon's Quest'', this serves as an example of what happens when you take the Metroidvania mechanics out of a Metroidvania, rather than add them to a game where they don't fit.

* ''VideoGame/MetroidOtherM'' -- Its main failing (as far as gameplay is concerned) was moving too far towards a narrative structure, breaking the rule mentioned above; never let the story interfere with gameplay. Half of the areas are designed to be traversed in one direction, specifically the way the player goes when following the story.[[labelnote:note]]Sectors 2 and 3 suffer the most from this, as both are two loops that have a couple of interconnecting areas.[[/labelnote]] The game frequently [[{{Broken Bridge}} locks doors behind the player]], sometimes just to prevent the player from even thinking about doing any side exploration at that point in the story.[[labelnote:note]]For example, after defeating Ridley and returning to the Hub, the door to Sector 3 locks behind Samus. And the doors to Sectors 2 and the Main Sector are both locked. Because Samus must follow The Deleter into Sector 1 right now.[[/labelnote:note]] Movement and ability upgrades (as opposed to collectables like missile expansions) are in all but two cases dispensed at times dictated directly by an in-story entity. Samus (and by extension, the player) has them, but can only use them when she is explicitly told to do so by a CO (who also tells them where to go), robbing the player of their exploration. In contrast to ''Simon's Quest'', this serves as an example of what happens when you take the Metroidvania mechanics out of a Metroidvania, rather than add them to a game where they don't fit.

* ''VideoGame/MetroidOtherM'' -- Its main failing (as far as gameplay is concerned) was moving too far towards a narrative structure, breaking the rule mentioned above; never let the story interfere with gameplay. Half of the areas are designed to be traversed in one direction, specifically the way the player goes when following the story.[[note]]Sectors 2 and 3 suffer the most from this, as both are two loops that have a couple of interconnecting areas.[[note]] The game frequently [[{{Broken Bridge}} locks doors behind the player]], sometimes just to prevent the player from even thinking about doing any side exploration at that point in the story.[[note]]For example, after defeating Ridley and returning to the Hub, the door to Sector 3 locks behind Samus. And the doors to Sectors 2 and the Main Sector are both locked. Because Samus must follow The Deleter into Sector 1 right now.[[/note]] Movement and ability upgrades (as opposed to collectables like missile expansions) are in all but two cases dispensed at times dictated directly by an in-story entity. Samus (and by extension, the player) has them, but can only use them when she is explicitly told to do so by a CO (who also tells them where to go), robbing the player of their exploration. In contrast to ''Simon's Quest'', this serves as an example of what happens when you take the Metroidvania mechanics out of a Metroidvania, rather than add them to a game where they don't fit.

* Enemy Evolution: One problem that forced backtracking causes is that many enemy challenges in an area will no longer be challenging the second time the player enters the area. If the main sequence of play sends a player through old terrain, it may be important for the player to still be challenged through combat. So you should find a way to spawn different enemies in that area.[[labelnote:example]]Metroid: Fusion did this excellently in your second trip to Sector 2: TRO. In the first trip, you run across some worm enemies, who's only real power is absorbing a lot of damage before dying. Once you beat a boss, they turn into cocoons (which also block your access to certain areas the game doesn't want you to access yet). Later on, the cocoons hatch, and turn into very dangerous enemies that deal 50 damage per-hit (without the Gravity Suit).[[/labelnote]]
** Do be aware that this is not ''necessarily'' a good idea. Or at least, not for everywhere, all the time. When the player starts getting up to late-game exploration, you want them to be able to navigate most old terrain quickly and effectively. And this means letting the player bypass enemies much more easily than before.[[labelnote:example]]This is the purpose of the screw attack in most 2D Metroid games. They make killing (most) enemies effortless, and allow you to do so while on the move.[[/labelnote]]

* Terrain Evolution: Make changes to the terrain. This should be justified by the story in some way; perhaps the actions of the antagonist are causing this.
** Note that you should make sure that, when modifying terrain in a way that changes what you can and cannot reach (for example, a wall collapses and covers an exit), the map should be updated accordingly.[[labelnote:example]]Metroid: Fusion did not do this, which made the end-game scavenger hunt somewhat annoying. Particularly in Sector 2, where a passage looked passable on the map but was not, forcing a long detour.[[/labelnote]]

* SuspiciousVideogameGenerosity: This trope exists partly because it's logical to give the players extra resources before challenging them. Why not allow them to bypass the resources for extra rewards after the fight. Or just give them stuff for free just to make them jumpy. Inverting it, by having the boss consume potential resources before the player got there, is another possibility

* DoorToBefore: One of the more common complaints about backtracking comes from having to constantly retread old ground; forcing the player to "travel" gets old fast. If the player's already been through an area and there's nothing else there (bonuses aside), give them a shortcut. This is usually as simple as having a shorter route which requires whatever skill the player picks up at the end of the area in question.

* ''Franchise/SuperMarioBros'' -- While lacking in most metroidvania mechanics, the ''Super Mario Bros'' series is a masterclass in JumpPhysics. Pay close attention to the way the jumps in all but the earliest games take into account the player's momentum and allow them to control how they fall in the air. See [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z2oV2DQ2dEA this video]] for a bit of detailed analysis.

* ''VideoGame/MetroidOtherM'' -- Its main failing (as far as gameplay is concerned) was moving too far towards a narrative structure, breaking the rule mentioned above; never let the story interfere with gameplay. Half of the areas are designed to be traversed in one direction, specifically the way the player goes when following the story.[[labelnote:note]]Sectors 2 and 3 suffer the most from this, as both are basically two loops that have a couple of interconnecting areas.[[labelnote]] The game frequently [[{{Broken Bridge}} locks doors behind the player]], sometimes just to prevent the player from even thinking about doing any side exploration at that point in the story.[[labelnote:note]]For example, after defeating Ridley and returning to the Hub, the door to Sector 3 locks behind Samus. And the doors to Sectors 2 and the Main Sector are both locked. Because Samus must follow The Deleter into Sector 1 right now.[[/labelnote]] Movement and ability upgrades (as opposed to collectables like missile expansions) are in all but two cases dispensed at times dictated directly by an in-story entity. Samus (and by extension, the player) had them, but could only use them when explicitly told to do so by a CO (who also told them where to go), robbing the player of their exploration. In contrast to ''Simon's Quest'', this serves as an example of what happens when you take the Metroidvania mechanics out of a Metroidvania, rather than add them to a game where they don't quite fit.

* ''VideoGame/MetroidOtherM'' -- Its main failing (as far as gameplay is concerned) was moving too far towards a narrative structure, breaking the rule mentioned above; never let the story interfere with gameplay. Rather than finding her upgrades, Samus (and by extension, the player) had them, but was prevented from using them by a CO (who also told them where to go), robbing the player of their exploration. In contrast to ''Simon's Quest'', this serves as an example of what happens when you take the Metroidvania mechanics out of a Metroidvania, rather than add them to a game where they don't quite fit.

# '''Plan everything''': As with any game, make sure you're written the story (or at least a synopsis) and sketched out the levels (including any {{Event Flag}}s and puzzles) before anything else. Not only will it make it easier to put together, but it'll give you (and anyone else working on the game) an easy-to-use source.