Dungeon Design Lessons from Disney World
A week ago I returned from Disney (the World, not the Land). While exploring the park as I have before, I was able to examine it critically. Inspired in part by this GDC panel about video game design using Disney Parks as well as the Keys to the Kingdom tour that I was very fortunate to join this time around, I decided that I had absorbed enough to write about it in terms of D&D level design. In no particular order, here are some lessons we can take away from the amazing parks:
Everything is for the show at Disney. The buildings on Main Street have their second stories scaled down to make Cinderellaâs Castle look taller (itâs really only 198 ft). The bottom floors are at regular scale for functionality but the rest is just for show to enhance the overall experience.
Moreover, structures and foliage in Disney World have been specifically placed to hide certain things and reveal/highlight others. For instance, you canât see Fantasyland while youâre in Tomorrowland. It was designed that way. Areas where the guests arenât supposed to go have been carefully hidden or look uninviting, but everything visible adds to the story. Disney forces the players to view their park from a controlled perspective.
So when building your dungeon, only show what you need for the story. Remember, you are the âImagineerâ for your dungeon. You precisely control the information that you give to the players. Give them enough to understand the story of the dungeon, but add details that hint and inform of a larger world. Video games do this by blocking off passages or adding impassable obstacles; the level looks like itâs much bigger than it actually is. Donât use this for railroading or it will look obvious, but a collapsed hallway is more interesting than, say, a wall. It also informs the players that this is a ruin and is old and might be unstable.
Keep in mind where players will enter a room and what they will see from that vantage when they get there. Write narratives up ahead of time and tailor your descriptions. I often recall the Sphere of Annihilation trap in the Tomb of Horrors being described as âbig enough for a medium creature to crawl through.â This description already implies a mode of action; a sense of forced perspective through your words. You can never control your players, but they can only work with what you give them. If something in the dungeon doesnât really matter, you donât have to show it. On that note:
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