After postingmy glowingDishonoredpreviewlast week, I received some comments saying my post was overflowing with hyperbole – they must not be familiar with the track record of Arkane Studios’ Harvey Smith and Raphael “Raf” Colantonio.
Arkane been keeping immersive, original first-person games alive with titles such asArx Fatalis,Dark Messiah of Might and Magicand the level design ofBioshock 2.
During QuakeCon, I got to sit down with the two Austinites and discussThe Crossing’s current status, the fate of dungeon crawlers and what games inspiredDishonored’s development.
After things falling through withThe Crossing, it must have been a big relief to have ZeniMax help you with this new project. Do you feel like it’s a new era for Arkane?
Raf: As an indie developer, you go through a series of good things and bad things. From 2007 to 2009, we had a lot of really hard things to deal with, so when ZeniMax showed up and proposed for us to work onDishonored— which was about a year before they acquired us — it was fantastic. Every hardship we went through, even though we were slapped over again by bad luck or whatever, paid off.
All of a sudden those near successes had an influence, and they made sense to the entire team. Whenever you get a game that is canceled or shelved or you don’t have enough money to go on or whatever, the people that stay in your company show their passion and you know why they are there.
IsThe Crossingcanceled for good?
Have some elements ofThe Crossingcarried on intoDishonored?
Harvey: Well, our collaboration with Viktor [Viktor Antonov, art director onHalf-Life 2]has continued.
Raf: Even if you look at it from a team perspective, we learned so much fromThe Crossing– it was the first game Viktor worked with us on. He trained our artists so well. You look at Dishonored’s design, and everyone has been so fast and efficient to do things.
Viktor told me he traveled across Europe to do research for this game. Not too many companies do that sort of thing (maybe Valve and Irrational Games). Why was this an important investment for you guys?
Harvey: Those guys just wanted to go to Edinburgh and London to take lots of photos for architecture and the faces — to get the faces right of very British people, the way they carry themselves and look. Of course, you’re able to’t generalize too much. They went to construction crews and took some photos of some hardened guys – that’s why our guards in the game look so pissed off.
You guys are culling a lot of elements fromDeus Ex,ThiefandSystem Shock. What elements of those games do you think can live on in modern games, while keeping the game marketable?
Harvey: I am drawn to that type of game. Raf and I are the biggestUltima Underworldfans, period. We’ll fight anyone else in a pile of Jell-O to claim that. We are both drawn toSystem Shock. [Raf] was working in Europe and I was working at Origin, and we were both testingSystem Shock.
We are already drawn to these guys making these games. As soon as he got a chance he createdArx Fatalis, and as soon as I got a chance I worked with Warren Spector onDeus Ex.
If you look at the Xbox 360 and PS3 audience, you’re able to’t easily throwDeus Exat them…
Harvey: Well, if you look at the evolution of those games — we loveThief, we loveBioshockand we loveFar Cry 2. If you look atBioshockit’s a good game, period. Whether you play it on the PC or on console. That’s our goal.
Raf: The values don’t change, only the implementation of how deep you go with them in the execution. The values in games likeThief,Deus Ex, andUltimate Underworld. If you compare their values to those inDishonored, you’ll find at a high difficulty level they are the same.
Of course, you cannot give a playerUltimate Underworldnow. It will freak them out, now-in-days, due to the controls and all of that. It’s all about how you present it.
Harvey: I think Raf is trying to talk about accessibility. The depth is there inBioshock, but it’s presented with accessibility. Every now and then, I go back and try to replay a game likeSystem Shockand I forget it didn’t have mouselook. And, it blows my mind! I played hundreds of fucking hours on that game – I tested it for ten months: On the floppy then on the CD. I put in hundred hour weeks during that period.
Anyway, some people would play with a Gravis controller and a joystick [at the same time]. You just can’t do that today. So, now you have a controller and some saving conventions. We allow save anywhere, actually. I would say on the depth-side we try to be hardcore, and on the accessibility side we try to appeal to everyone.
That’s cool that you have save anywhere. I wish every game had that option. I’m sick of these obligatory checkpoints every five minutes in recent games.
Raf: A checkpoint every five minutes wouldn’t even work in the type of game we are making, because you might want to go back. Maybe you didn’t want to do that.
Harvey: I totally agree with him. The other thing is that in this type of game you want to experiment. You want to load up a save and try something out. There are five guys over there: I’m going to use the rats to do “blah,” then I’m going to bounce a grenade and then I’m going to posses this guy and do “blah.” Oh, wait. That didn’t work. Let me back up. And, you did it four or five times and you have a blast experimenting. It’s like alchemy.
It seems likeArx Fatalismight be the last dungeon crawler made by a studio. Does that make you sad or proud?
Raf: I don’t know. I think there may be more.
Harvey: Every now and then we talk about making some sort of self-contained environment where you need to scrounge up food or even make your own food.
Raf: We will do a game like that one day that is super deep and hardcore, but once again it’s all about presentation and the context. Will we ever do another medieval fantasy setting likeArx? Maybe and maybe not, but the format is something both of us really like.
Do you two like the direction that modern first-person shooters have gone?
Harvey: There is a lot that we love. I’m a big fan ofLeft 4 Dead,Mirror’s Edgeand we both lovedBioshock.
Raf: At the end of the day, we are fans of variety. The worst thing for me is if every game mimicked this one game that made so much money — so now we are all going to do this one type of game. There is more space for games than that. That’s what matters to us.
Is this the first game you are making with consoles in mind?
Raf: Individually, probably not, but as a company – well, no, we worked onBioshock 2before this so that was our first contact with making a game for consoles.
Harvey: We actually picked up a couple level designers fromBioshock 2andDeus Ex[designers], along with some members of the modding community ofThief.
Would you say to aThieffan thatDishonoredis its spiritual successor?
Raf: [laughs]
Harvey: No, we wouldn’t say it in those words but we would definitely say thatThiefis one of our big influences right now.
Raf: I would say if you likedThief, there is a big chance that you’ll like what we are making right now. You’ll find a lot of things in common, but then there are a lot of other layers involved. There are someDeus Exthings, the combat is more likeDark Messiah– it’s a mix of everything that we like.
Harvey: We always use the term “immersive simulation.” It’s that school of thought that it’s a first-person game, but it’s not a shooter. It’s a first-person game with depth and world cohesion.
