- Joined
- Jul 15, 2022
- Messages
- 1
- Trophies
- 0
Inappropriate advertising / spam
And what of the lessons from Deathloop? What new alterations has Deathloop made to that distinct Arkane DNA?
"'I don't feel any interest in making a completely linear campaign again," says [Deathloop campaign director Dana] Nightingale. "'It's not something I want to do again. I fell in love with the way Deathloop is structured, where the players' goals are their own. The idea of saying, 'Okay, mission one, mission two, mission three...' that feels like a step backwards for me. I feel like I wouldn't necessarily have a job on a game structured like that. I'm sure I'd find a way to make it work, but that really shifted my perspective of what we can do in a game. Like hey, this is actually structured quite similar to an old school RPG – we can do that type of structure in this type of game, and it works. And that's really exciting for me.'"
"'We set out to make a game that would have a lot of flavour,' [Arkane head Dinga] Bakaba adds. "'Polarising' was the word we used quite a few times. We understood that it's not necessarily for everyone, but we wanted to make sure some people would love it – and actually, we had a good surprise and a lot of people loved it. And that was the theme from one of the analysts we worked with. They said it was a polarising game, but that it doesn't have to be. There are a number of ways, more than you probably think, where you can make people like your bullshit. That's the weird thing about Deathloop. It's a very unique game, it's a strange beast. But at the same time it got a lot of mainstream awareness. We struck an interesting balance between mainstream appeal and making something completely weird.'"
"I hope this encourages more people to take some risks, even with big games. When you always give players what they expect, at some point that well runs dry. I think it's important to renew yourself sometimes, and propose something very different. We think there is value in trying something and taking a risk, and if it picks up and picks up, and if it doesn't – well, you go back to doing what you know how to do."
"And now strangely," says Nightingale, "Deathloop is something we know how to do."
www.rockpapershotgun.com
"'I don't feel any interest in making a completely linear campaign again," says [Deathloop campaign director Dana] Nightingale. "'It's not something I want to do again. I fell in love with the way Deathloop is structured, where the players' goals are their own. The idea of saying, 'Okay, mission one, mission two, mission three...' that feels like a step backwards for me. I feel like I wouldn't necessarily have a job on a game structured like that. I'm sure I'd find a way to make it work, but that really shifted my perspective of what we can do in a game. Like hey, this is actually structured quite similar to an old school RPG – we can do that type of structure in this type of game, and it works. And that's really exciting for me.'"
"'We set out to make a game that would have a lot of flavour,' [Arkane head Dinga] Bakaba adds. "'Polarising' was the word we used quite a few times. We understood that it's not necessarily for everyone, but we wanted to make sure some people would love it – and actually, we had a good surprise and a lot of people loved it. And that was the theme from one of the analysts we worked with. They said it was a polarising game, but that it doesn't have to be. There are a number of ways, more than you probably think, where you can make people like your bullshit. That's the weird thing about Deathloop. It's a very unique game, it's a strange beast. But at the same time it got a lot of mainstream awareness. We struck an interesting balance between mainstream appeal and making something completely weird.'"
"I hope this encourages more people to take some risks, even with big games. When you always give players what they expect, at some point that well runs dry. I think it's important to renew yourself sometimes, and propose something very different. We think there is value in trying something and taking a risk, and if it picks up and picks up, and if it doesn't – well, you go back to doing what you know how to do."
"And now strangely," says Nightingale, "Deathloop is something we know how to do."
Deathloop creators may never make a linear campaign like Dishonored again, and that's fine
We talk to Dinga Bakaba and Dana Nightingale about Deathloop, finding their playful side and why their Dishonored days might be over.
www.rockpapershotgun.com
