Emberfall, our autumn-biome region, went through four full redesigns before it felt right.
Too empty, then too busy
Our first pass was a plain orange forest — pretty, but lifeless. The second pass overcorrected: fifteen interactive objects per screen, which made it exhausting rather than inviting.
Finding the rhythm
The version shipping now spaces landmarks roughly ninety seconds of walking apart, each with one clear thing to do — a shrine to repair, a fox to befriend, a recipe scroll to find.