Rock Paper Shotgun has highlighted Shrinko, a concept that treats scale as the core of open-world design. The piece frames the idea as a playful cure for two common complaints: worlds that drag on for dozens of hours, and worlds so compact they feel insubstantial.

The article opens with a comic scene in Dr Shrinko's office, where an assortment of open-world detractors arrive in oversized licensed apparel, lamenting the length or narrowness of contemporary AAA maps. In response, Dr Shrinko offers a blunt remedy: “Solution is simple,” he trills. “Make Yasuke 40-100 times larger.”

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Shrinko's premise is rooted in scale manipulation. Making the player character dramatically larger shortens traversal times and reduces the sense of endlessness in sprawling maps. Making the character tiny, by contrast, amplifies environmental detail and restores a sense of wonder to smaller or more tightly packed worlds.

The concept operates as both practical design experiment and satire. It reframes an often technical debate about map size and pacing into an immediately tangible mechanic, one that changes how space, travel and discovery register for the player without altering the underlying geography.

Rock Paper Shotgun's coverage treats Shrinko as a cheeky thought experiment rather than a fully detailed release announcement. The write-up leans on tone and illustration to make the point that scale can be an elegant tool to address divergent player expectations about open-world scope.

Full coverage and the original feature are available at Rock Paper Shotgun: https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/if-you-think-open-worlds-are-too-big-play-shrinko-if-you-think-open-worlds-are-too-small-play-shrinko