DREGS is a co-op horror game, not a traditional metroidvania, metroidvania design had a major influence on how we built levels. Particularly the idea that exploring a map should be about more than moving from one room to the next. We wanted every map in DREGS to be something players gradually learn, unlock, and eventually master.
The term “metroidvania” comes from Metroid and Castlevania, two series closely associated with interconnected worlds that open gradually as players acquire new abilities, items, or knowledge. In a traditional metroidvania, players regularly encounter places they cannot yet reach: a passage that is too high, a barrier they cannot break, or a door that requires a particular power. Finding the appropriate ability allows them to return and discover that an apparently familiar area now contains an entirely new path.
The defining idea is not simply that the map contains locked doors. It is that the map itself becomes a puzzle. Progress changes how players understand the space. Routes connect in unexpected ways, inaccessible areas become reachable, and returning to a familiar location can reveal something completely new. Over time, players stop feeling like visitors and begin to feel like experts.
That feeling of spatial mastery was something we wanted to bring into DREGS.
Each level in DREGS is built around a large set-piece puzzle that gives the location its mechanical identity.
Kronos, for example, is a derelict prison ship. At the center of the level is a hub room we call the “laser maze.” Its alternating security lasers once prevented prisoners from escaping from the ship’s holding wing. Now, the same system stands between your crew and the most valuable parts of the abandoned vessel. This set piece is not separate from the environment or included simply to provide a puzzle room. It is part of the history and function of the location. Kronos was a prison, so its central challenge is about defeating the systems that once controlled movement through the facility.
Kronos “laser maze” room.
Completing a level’s set-piece puzzle provides two major benefits: First, it immediately grants access to additional loot. Second, it opens full access to the remainder of the level. We also wanted progress to matter before the entire puzzle was solved. On Kronos, players recover power cells and deliver them to their receptacles. Each installed cell unlocks another wing of the prison that would otherwise remain inaccessible.
A crew may not complete the entire sequence during its first visit, but even partial success creates new opportunities and increases the player’s map knowledge. Each step expands the explorable space, reveals more loot, and helps the crew understand how the level fits together.
The central set-piece is only one layer of a DREGS level.
Throughout each location, players will also encounter rooms, corridors, and sometimes entire sections that are gated by different kinds of locks. The “key” may be a color-coded keycard, a power cell that restores electricity to a door, or a switch that lowers a drawbridge elsewhere in the facility. These gates serve several purposes.
First, they give exploration direction. Finding a locked blue door creates a question: where is the blue keycard, and what might be waiting on the other side? Discovering a power cell creates a decision: which system should receive it, and is there enough time to reach that system and benefit from it?
Second, they create reasons to move through the level with intention. The value of an item depends on whether the crew remembers where it can be used. A key found on one side of the map may unlock a shortcut, loot room, or unexplored section somewhere else.
Finally, they prevent the level from revealing everything at once. On an early visit, a location may appear to have a clear boundary. Once the crew understands its locks and systems, that same boundary gets unlocked, creating a much larger space to explore that may provide additional locked areas with new puzzles to figure out.
The time limit is an important part of this design.
We do not expect players to thoroughly explore every corridor, solve every puzzle, collect every piece of salvage, and escape safely on their first visit. There is simply not enough time, and that is intentional.
Your first expedition may be reconnaissance. You learn where the laser maze is, discover a locked wing, and figure out where the power-cell receptacle is located before being forced to leave. On a later run, your crew arrives with a plan. Two players start with the power cells, while two others loot the cargo room behind the dual scanner door, and the last crew member is on corps duty to replenish the biomass when others inevitably die. The map has not changed, but your relationship with it has.
That is the part of metroidvania design that most influenced DREGS. Progress does not exist only in an inventory or on a character sheet. It also exists in the player’s memory. You remember where the valuable rooms are. You recognize which corridors lead to dead ends. You know what a particular key can unlock and whether retrieving it is worth the remaining time. Eventually, routes that once felt confusing become deliberate.
Of course, DREGS is a co-op game, which means that knowledge must also be communicated. A player who recognizes a keycard may remember the corresponding door while the rest of the crew has already scattered across the ship. A carefully planned route can become a panicked argument over proximity chat. The better your crew understands the level, the more efficiently you can operate. At least until something goes horribly wrong.
Our goal is for each DREGS level to feel less like a disposable sequence of rooms and more like a place with systems, history, and secrets. The set-piece puzzle gives each location its identity. Smaller locks and keys create layers of discovery throughout the environment. The time limit ensures that players must make choices rather than exhaust every possibility in a single visit.
Together, those ideas create levels that are meant to be revisited. Each expedition should teach you something. Each discovery should suggest another route or unanswered question. With enough experience, your crew can turn that knowledge into faster decisions, better hauls, and access to places that once seemed unreachable.
You may never have enough time to do everything, but once you know the map, you can decide what matters most.
And then, naturally, one of your crewmates will get curious and press the button that kills everyone…
-The DREGS team