Creating a replayable game without procedural map generation
For the last 3 months I've been working on a game in a similar vein to Lethal Company, REPO, etc. Basically a 3D co-op horror game where you go into facilities, perform tasks, and try to stay alive while monsters try to kill you, and you get paid for completing the objective(s). Most of the games in this genre rely on procedurally generated maps to create infinite replayability. However, I don't like procedurally generated maps. I hate the feeling of entering a level and just immediately getting lost and having to bumble my way through the dark until I stumble upon the exit. I also think you lose the satisfaction of learning to navigate a map as you play it repeatedly. Because of this, I'm planning on hand-building the maps.
The problem I've been trying to figure out pretty much since day 1 of the project is: how do I make the game highly replayable without doing procedurally generated levels? Do you know of any examples of co-op games that have created a high degree of replayability without procedurally generated levels?
Posted Sep 13, 2025, 10:50 PM UTC