Dishonored’s executive producer Julien Roby disagrees with the sentiment recently expressed by EA Labels president Frank Gibeau that late in the console cycle is a poor time to launch new IPs.
We asked Roby for his thoughts on the matter during a hands-on with the game in Sydney late last week.
“Well, you probably have some insight on that but I think as long as the game is good, whether it’s a new IP or not, if the game is good, it gets a good review and it’s marketed properly people will want to look at it,” said Roby. “Specifically now, because it’s been a few years where we’ve only got sequels of sequels of sequels of sequels. I think people are getting tired of just playing the same thing over and over.”
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I think people are getting tired of just playing the same thing over and over.
“So I hope that they’re going to try Dishonored for the fact that it’s trying to do something a little different that those other games.”
Roby agreed that it’s perhaps telling that two of the most-talked about games of E3 and Gamescom this year were, like Dishonored, both brand new titles: Watch Dogs and Remember Me.
We asked Roby whether he felt gamers are craving something new.
“I think so,” he said. “You look at the line-up for Christmas this year and it’s like something number six, something number five, something number seven. I really think people are starving for something new. Something new in terms of universe. Something new in terms of gameplay. Something new in terms of visuals.”
The level available to playthrough, already detailed in part here, was packed with a glut of ways to complete it. The target building can be entered via several means; teleporting from a higher neighbouring building, possessing a fish and swimming underneath the cellar, or simply finding the right credentials to walk straight through the front door. The target herself, one of three similarly dressed women at a masquerade party, can be identified in a number of different ways and can be taken care of, either lethally or non-lethally, in even more. With the combinations of powers at players’ disposal, and the freedom to complete hits however one sees fit, Roby and the team hope gamers will exchange stories on how they’ve tackled the game’s missions and encourage one another to experiment and re-experiment.
“We really hope players are going to talk together and say, ‘Oh, you did it this way?’ and ‘Oh, you did it this way?’ and realise that they actually created their own little stories in terms of how they did their objectives,” said Roby. “And then they’re going to get back to it and try different things.”
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It’s a lot about experimenting... [G]o through different routes, use different powers, try different things that you didn’t try the first time.
“It’s a lot about experimenting... [G]o through different routes, use different powers, try different things that you didn’t try the first time. It’s not about running through a linear corridor.”
On the topic of multiplayer and forcing it into games that don’t require it, Roby and the Dishonored team are pleased the game is remaining a dedicated, single-player title.
“Bethesda has been very supportive of that since the beginning,” said Roby. “I mean, it doesn’t make any sense to make multiplayer if it’s just to add it on the box. As a checkbox, you know?”
“The idea was to make a great single-player experience, as we did with a lot of player choice, and if we had to lose some time making multiplayer it means we would lose focus on the single-player and spend more time on multiplayer and in the end you just get lower [quality] single-player and crappy multiplayer.”
One of the key pillars of Dishonored is emergent gameplay and the ability to combine powers with unexpected results, results that sometimes surprise even the designers. The tricky thing is balancing the ability to let players circumvent things in ways the designers may not have realised was possible and keeping the game functional.
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If the player thinks about something we want to make sure they can actually do it.
“Well, there is of course the possibility that people will be able to break the game if they really try to insist on wrecking it, but what we wanted to ensure was that the player always feels in power and that we always say yes to the player,” said Roby. “For instance, if the player thinks about something we want to make sure they can actually do it, that there are no stupid rules that prevent them from doing it. So we prefer to overpower the player a little but still let them have fun rather than trying to direct the game so much, and let the player do what they want to do.”
Luke is Games Editor at IGN AU. You can chat to him about Die Hard with a Vengeance, cars and single-player games here or find him and the rest of the Australian team by joining the IGN Australia Facebook community.
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