Metrics - Engagement, emotional response, intended behaviour
Lock and key - Any obstacle and method to surpass it, door and key, door and switch, wall and bomb, gap and double jump, boss and strength
Evolving the world - backtracking, shortcuts, events, “state” (the options to the player for progressing)
Evolving the player - abilities, tools, strength, knowledge, confidence
Evolving the narrative?
Techniques for enhancing the tropes of lock and key exploration
Subjects:
Defining gated non linear exploration and lock & key
Types of locks & keys - literal lock and keys, abilities and obstacles, bosses and strength, knowledge
Re-exploration/backtracking - redefined with a new key (super metroid bomb, resident evil sword/armour key) or a change in the environment itself (enemies appearing after super metroid bomb, sekiro castle night), or alternatively limiting options when you need to maintain momentum (tunic endgame night) or avoid overwhelming the player early on (trapping the player in lower brinstar in super metroid)
Shortcuts - a physical fast travel that maintains the sense of the world as a tangible space, supports the players mental mapping, and maintains the impact of distance. Also provides a cool moment of realisation
Playing with emotions - discomfort of straying further from safety, relief of reaching safety or a shortcut, linear sections that create a sense of forward momentum, using vertical direction of travel to create feelings of buried history or rising action, scatter small rewards to maintain motivation when search for the next major path discovery
Behind the Lock and Key - Understanding the Contextual Impact of Design Staples Within Gated Exploration Video Games
One possible reason for REs lower significance in the modern state of gated exploration games is its shift towards action and more linear design in later games that defined quite a different major genre of its own
Argue why its inclusion in modern discussion would be beneficial to the design of gated exploration