Dishonored - Harvey Smith on Breaking the Game
Joystiq has some comments from Arkane's Harvey Smith about letting players break Dishonored:
"It's so much easier to make a game where you unlock things at the right time," he says. If, for example, a certain power is unlocked in the third mission, you know that players won't be able to use it in the second mission. You can "bullet-proof" against any game-breaking issues that way, he says. Creating this sort of closed, curated experience is simpler from a design perspective, and allows developers to spend "many many more hours polishing, making it more cinematic-like" says Smith.
On the other hand, with all the systems at play in Dishonored – stealth, a variety of powers, multiple entrances, numerous weapons, variable A.I. – it's a much greater development challenge to ensure that everything comes together. "You have fewer hours to polish, so games like this are inherently less cinematic in a way. They're inherently more player-driven. They're inherently harder to make, but, at the end of the day, the experience is something that you can play improvisationally," he says. "We're very passionate about that goal."
Information about
DishonoredSP/MP: Single-player
Setting: Technofantasy
Genre: Shooter-RPG
Platform: PC, Xbox 360, PS3
Release: Released