By opting out of an open world for Avowed, Obsidian says it can give players more interesting choices to make: 'Pacing is really tough in open world games'
Earlier today, Xbox Wire published a lengthy interview with Obsidian, in which the studio laid out its philosophy for storytelling, narrative design, and handling player choice in Avowed. Given that it's a Microsoft-published story about a Microsoft-published game, it's a bit fawning, but it's worth a read to see Obsidian explaining how it works to make player decisions both satisfying and believable. And, as it turns out, doing that is a lot easier when you're not working with an open world.
According to narrative designer Kate Dollarhyde, Obsidian's not content with storytelling that culminates in decision points where players either opt for the Good Choice that makes everyone happy or the Bad Choice that makes everyone sad. Avowed is less interested in slamming fantasy character archetypes together to make the plot proceed than it is in how context influences outcomes, even in settings with lizardmen and magical plagues.
«The material reality of the people living in the setting informs the actual stories being told. What does it look like when a colonial empire comes to your backwater island and says, 'Hi, we’re here and this is ours?'» Dollarhyde said. «When we’re designing characters, quests, and content, we’re not looking at them and saying, 'What type of character is this?’ or ‘What’s this person’s trope?' It’s more about what they believe in.»
As a result, Obsidian isn't only invested in how the player's decisions affect the major plot beats. «For us, choice and consequence are not about every single thing you do affecting the heat death of the universe; it’s about everything being believably built to,» game director Carrie Patel said. «It’s that variety in terms of the magnitude of your consequences and the time horizon on which you see those consequences.»
Giving players the ability to make interesting decisions with equally interesting outcomes, Obsidian says, is a simpler problem to solve without all the complications that an open world produces. Think
Read more on pcgamer.com
