Fun Metroidvania Panel at PAX East: A Platform for Adventure
Metroidvania games have massive potential for deep, immersive experiences. At PAX East, the panel “A Platform for Adventure: Metroidvania Game Makers Round Table” talks about this dynamic genre and the different stories it can tell.
What Is a Metroidvania?
In general terms, a metroidvania is a 2-D adventure game where certain areas are blocked off until the player obtains items, skills, or equipment to unlock them. This encourages exploration and backtracking. The name comes from a combination of Metroid and Castlevania, two series that popularized this format.
The Panelists
The panel was moderated by Jeremy Parish, a media curator for Limited Run Games. Other participants include Seigo Aizawa, a producer for Bandai Namco Entertainment who produced Shadow Labyrinth, James Montagna, a director for WayForward who worked on Yars Rising, and James Petruzzi, the president of Bit Kid, Inc., who directed and wrote Wolfhound.
Aizawa said he finds it “really cool” that Metroidvanias require backtracking because it’s “satisfying” to overcome an obstacle you couldn’t overcome before. Montagna joked that the term is “problematic” because of how it combines the names of two copyrighted franchises. Petruzzi said that a metroidvania was “basically a maze game,” where you run through a maze of a world and have to unlock barriers in the maze.
Can a Metroidvania be 3-D?
Most of this genre is played in a 2-D world. Parish asked the panelists if they could be 3-D, and the panelists all agreed that while the genre could be 3-D, the genre is generally defined as 2-D. They cited reasons such as how it’s easier to navigate a 2-D world and how the formula of a metroidvania feels made for 2-D games.
Metroidvanias Come and Go and Come Again
The panel discussed how metroidvanias virtually disappeared from the gaming world during the 2000s, and then made a reappearance as the 2010’s began. They discussed how the genre might have vanished because of how 3-D overtook the gaming industry, but then as gamers began to appreciate 2-D again, the genre was able to make a return.
Conclusion
The panelists also discussed their upcoming games. Shadow Labyrinth is described as “a dark Pac-Man.” Yars Rising is an adventure inspired by the classic Atari 2600 game Yar’s Revenge. Wolfhound is a procedurally generated World War 2- style shooter. All these games demonstrate how versatile the genre is. The panel demonstrated a complete love for the genre and all the potential it demonstrates.
