Uploaded January 2026 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago

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In this Unreal Engine devlog, I talk through a **major design decision**: removing the traditional open world from my open-world-based game.

Open worlds are incredibly powerful — but they’re also **expensive, time-consuming, and difficult to optimise**, especially for solo and small-team developers. In this video, I explain the problems I was facing, the performance and workload challenges, and why I decided to rethink the structure of my game.

I reference the **Fable series**, which gives the *illusion* of a large open world by using **connected, hand-crafted areas** instead of one massive map — and how that inspired a better solution for my project.

🧠 **What We Cover:**
✅ Why open worlds are so expensive to build
✅ Performance and streaming challenges
✅ Why “bigger” doesn’t always mean “better”
✅ The Fable-style world design approach
✅ Designing smaller, focused levels
✅ Planning the new world structure
✅ One-week progress jump
✅ Cutting ~40% of map workload
✅ How this improves scope, pacing, and polish

This video is about **scope control**, **smart design decisions**, and building games that are actually finishable.

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👉 d3kryptionstudios.com

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