The World Design of Banjo-Kazooie

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As the other designer of Banjo-Tooie, I salute anyone that persevered to finish it. It was always intended to be more of an adventure game than a platform game (hence everything being interconnected), thanks in part to Ocarina of Time, which influenced us a lot. Grunty Industries was the first level I ever designed and it was an exercise in proving myself (though it was refined and approved by Gregg). What made sense on paper in the literal form of a map was much more difficult to navigate in-game and in-head. I'd like to say 20+ years of hindsight have highlighted how over-complicated and user-unfriendly Banjo-Tooie is at time but the truth is we knew almost immediately, before the game launched, but by then it was too late to do much about it, which leads me to: FUN FACT: the warp pads were added right at the end to aid navigation after all the other paths and connections were designed. Thanks to GMTK for this great analysis and to everyone else for playing.

Despite some of their ambitions not fully coming to fruition, it's absolutely mindblowing that all of this was done on an N64. Wizards, those lads are

I always loved how Banjo-Kazooie had a sort of "swimming difficulty curve", introducing more and more perilous water for each level. (Basically every level has at least one underwater section). You go from the tiny river in Mumbo's Mountain to the beach with a shark-imposed time limit in Treasure Trove Cove before you get an actual water level where oxygen is a factor, and later on you get polluted and chilly water with special effects.

The fact that Banjo-Tooie shipped with all of these new worlds, their interconnections, and new moves in two years with virtually no bugs that you would ever encounter on a casual playthrough is a monumental achievement. It is well-deserving of the video on this channel dedicated to its legacy, even if not everything said was positive. I still find it a total masterpiece.

19:32 Unintuitively, the opposite can also happen, where you get a new ability and forget about an old one. In Ori 1, I've seen quite a few people completely forget that Ori can drop through soft platforms (by pressing Down+Jump) after they get the Stomp ability (which requires pressing Down while airborne).

The interconnectivity of everything is what made me love this game. I was a kid when this released so I had nothing but time, and time I definitely took. This is one of my favorite adventure/platformer games I've ever played

I don't care what anyone says, I liked Banjo-Tooie a lot. I loved the interconnected world. It felt like a real place and that was just so cool to me.

having studied these levels a lot for my own development, i really appreciate seeing you identify concepts like "zones" and "central landmarks" in Banjo-Kazooie's levels - they're so important for navigation and memorable design!

Personally I love the complexity of the puzzles in Banjo Tooie, it's easily one of my favourite games.

Banjo Tooie is a game that shapped probably my entire childhood. I think its the first game I played to completion, and something I spent countless hours in as a kid wandering and just hanging out in worlds. I cannot emphasize how goddamn ecstatic I am not only to see a Boss Keys on this series, but on one that focuses on Tooie specifcally, a game people in digital spaces largely lament for not holding up to its predecesor, or other 3-D platformers of that era. This is maybe the most excited ive been to see a video in my subscriptions in a long while. Thank you.

Click Clock Wood is my favorite video game level of all time. So, you know, it’s not a mistake. It’s just very much itself and commits to its idea really hard, which I love.

I can absolutely see the critique you could aim at Tooie and in what ways the first game was better in terms of world design, but to my child mind at the time Banjo-Tooie was an amazing upgrade. It might have been a lot to juggle mentally, but there was also so much to explore, and most transformations were a delight. There was just a sense of wonder and inspiration from how they all connected, even if they weren't problems you consciously thought about but were just "doing stuff" to see what would work. Simply seeing something happen in a different world because you hit a button because why wouldn't you, still came with a satisfying feeling that you just discovered something neat.

I’ve always loved the level design of Banjo-Tooie. Having a lot of levels interconnected is such a neat idea.

Let's go! What a delightful surprise to have a Boss Keys for this series.

One additional system change in Tooie that I just want to highlight for being very smartly handled IMO is the change to the note system. In Kazooie, the levels were small enough that notes could be individually dotted around the level as a breadcrumb trail. With the levels in Tooie becoming bigger, the developers could have easily decided to stuff the levels with more notes, but instead they went the opposite route, compressing the individual notes into stacks and placing them around points of interest, allowing the player to focus on the expanded objectives without worrying about missing a single note somewhere. To see an example of this in action, take a look at Yooka-Laylee, which did stuff individual low tier collectibles into levels the size of Tooie's.

As divisive as Click Clock Wood can be, I've always loved how it handles the Witch Switch Jiggy. You hit the Witch Switch in Winter, the final season, but in order to get the Jiggy from it, you need the Bee transformation, which you can only get in the first season, Spring. So assuming you're playing all 4 seasons in order, you see the wood grow quieter over the year, only to see it burst into life again during your final visit in Spring, before you leave for good. I thought it was a nice touch 🙂

World game design is simply mind-blowing! The way game developers create entire universes and immerse us in breathtaking landscapes and stories is truly an art form. It's not just about the graphics and gameplay, it's about crafting a whole new world with its own rules and logic.

boss keys is easily my fav series of yours, im so glad you're finally doing banjo

One thing that I don't think you mentioned that ties into how Banjo-Tooie seems connected is how the beginning area of the game in the sequel is the same as it is in the original. You can still enter the carving of Grunty's face on the mountain, even if the path to the worlds in the original game is blocked. The sequel takes place by traveling in a different direction from the start of Spiral Mountain. I don't think a game had ever done that before and I thought it was so cool.