Banjo Dev Diary 4: Building the Hub, Pt. 1
Hello again, Banjo fans.
We have a fantastic treat for you this time—a detailed look into the creation of one of the game’s key elements, and a hallmark of the Banjo series: the hub world. Steve Malpass, one of the main designers on the Banjo team, has lifted the metaphorical garage door of his mind to reveal the genesis of Showdown Town to you, our gentle readers. You may also know Steve from his work in Banjo-Tooie, Perfect Dark, and Grabbed by the Ghoulies (a personal favourite of mine). He was also the voice of Fox McCloud in Star Fox Adventures (which is rather exciting, wouldn’t you say?). But enough from me, I’ll let Steve take the floor...
From very early on, even before the whole vehicle building concept was settled on, we knew the ”hub world” for the latest Banjo-Kazooie game was going to be one big area, most likely a town, as opposed to the modular design from the previous games (Witch’s Lair and Isle O’ Hags). The Xbox 360 would enable this without a great deal of compromise, plus being able to see where features are in relation to others generally makes it easier for players to navigate than a series of disjointed ”rooms."
Almost immediately, the name “Showdown Town“ was coined, as this would be where Banjo would access the worlds/games/challenges/puzzles, or whatever they were to be, although no real work was started on it until the game’s new direction had found its feet. Once the ball had begun rolling, we needed to address how the Game Worlds and the Jiggy Games that take place in them would all hang together via Showdown Town.
As I recall, I think I was tasked with designing Showdown Town because I’d come up with some ideas about how the place could look, what features it would have, etc. I’d also had a fair bit of experience designing levels on Banjo-Tooie, which Gregg Mayles (lead designer) seemed pretty happy with... and putting the Town together was going to be a fairly complicated job.
Firstly, we needed to figure out how the game was to be structured, which Game Worlds were to be accessed when, how they were opened, etc. We decided on restricting the player to the use of just one vehicle (the Trolley) in Showdown Town, so we could more easily control the proceedings. Then, at key moments throughout the game, the Trolley would be upgraded with a new part, which would give it a new ability, enabling it to get somewhere or do something it couldn’t do before. This would pretty much be the foundation for how the Town was to be laid out, with the Trolley being used to access doors to the Game Worlds and also reach Crates containing vehicle parts, but not having all these things accessible from the start. As we would know what the Trolley was capable of at any one time during the game, we could use this to add structure to the Town.
There were originally planned to be six Game Worlds, so it seemed logical to me that the Town should be made up of six corresponding districts or neighbourhoods, with each one containing doors to one Game World. But rather than have six distinctly separate areas connected by roads or corridors in an obviously ”gamey” way, I wanted the borders between them to be a bit hazy and undefined, much like a real town would be. So if you look at the Town now you can make out the different parts easily, e.g. there’s the Town Square, there’s the Seaside, there are the Docks, etc., but they kind of blend haphazardly together, which I like.
The Town was also meant to be ”real”, as opposed to the Game Worlds, which are manufactured by L.O.G. (Lord of Games) and more fantastical. So for inspiration, the coastal towns of Tenby in west Wales, UK and Saint Malo in Brittany, on the north coast of France, were pretty big influences. I’ve wandered round both these places a number of times, and there’s something about their layout and topography that makes you want to explore, such as little winding paths and streets that make you want to see what’s round that next corner. Other than it being a walled town on the coast, you’d be hard-pressed to spot anything specifically from either location in Showdown Town but that’s the sort of feel I was going for.
Elsewhere, the idea of the Theatre came from the historic, open-air Globe Theatre in London, while the idea for the streets around it came from Montmartre, Paris. The idea for the canal, which runs across an aqueduct above the Theatre District, kind of comes from Venice. The Trapdoor Towers were based on an old water tower next to the M40 near Oxford. The Uptown area was loosely based on the Georgian terraces of the Royal Crescent in Bath, here in England, although we made it into a circle. And the pier, well I love old Victorian seaside piers, so there had to be a pier, and preferably part of a seaside resort that’s seen better days.
Sorry to bring you back down to Earth from all this talk of picturesque seaside vistas and cloistered alleys, but I have to call time on this instalment. Join us again next time for the conclusion of Steve’s diary. Until next time, see you on the newly launched Banjo boards!