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I’m much more excited for Avowed after hearing the team say that what makes RPGs special is “missable content”Chasing waterfalls
Chasing waterfalls
Image credit:Microsoft
Image credit:Microsoft
‘Confident’ game design is one of those slightly fluffy critic words I sometimes find myself reaching for tenuously, knowing that - sigh - I’m going to have to do all sort of detestable nonsense like ‘back up my vague assertion with concrete examples that are useful to the reader’ if I do. Yuck. If there’s one type of design that deserves the accolade, though, it’sRPGs that are assured enough in the richness of their worlds to not feel the need to signpost every discovery.It’s a feedback loop of charitable feelings: the game is saying “we think you’re smart enough to find this stuff on your own”. “You’re right!” you respond. “Iamsmart! And anyone who recognises that must be one smart cookie”. Joy abounds, it rains Tunnock’s Caramel Wafers, hedgehogs jig gracefully in the street, and all is right with the world. So, I must say, I’m quite pleased to hearAvowed’s environment region director Berto Ritger sing the virtues of missable content toGamesRadar.Avowed - Official Pre-Order TrailerWatch on YouTubeThe “core of RPGs that makes them special is missable content, to be honest, and it makes the experience feel so much more personal to how you play the game,” Ritger says. You might find something special, but a mate finds something else instead. “It creates a very interesting dialog about the game,” Ritger says, “and it makes your experience feel more personal to you.“For Avowed specifically, they’re aiming to allow for this with vertical environments. “We want to draw your attention to things we want you to engage with,” says Ritger. “Like the lighthouse is very tall, and so everybody’s going to see a big, tall thing and want to go climb. And so we want to support that as well. And you can do that, and you can jump off into the ocean, if you like. And so we try to draw your attention that way.“The irony of me just now saying that I like games that trust my intelligence, then Ritger saying “gamer brain make want climb big tall thing” is not lost on me. But he’s right, dammit.This approach to design does, of course, raise a bit of a Schrodinger’s Cat: how am I supposed to enjoy content I don’t know is there? But the example I always find myself going back to is theMass Effectrenegade/paragon conundrum. It’s well documented that something like 90% of players chose to play as paragon Shepard, which sounds like an enormous waste of resources on the surface, but it was having the option to deck a reporter that made your restraint feel all the more heroic.On the development side, it’s also a matter of resources - which, as Larian’s Sven Vinckehas pointed out beforetoPC Gamer- can be a hard sell to publishers:If you see it, it’ll scare you, as a shareholder, as a publisher, the very first thing you will try to do is get it under control—you will try to scope it, you will try to box it, you will try to control it, which is exactly the opposite of what we want to do. Because it’s like, why are we spending a million dollars on a dragon, which nobody’s ever going to see, except like five people who made that obscure choice? Because if they see it, they have to be happy too. So that’s why I put the bloody dragon there, because that’s the logical consequence of the things that they’ve done.How well Avowed will actually make good on this promise, and how much of this talk is easy piggybacking on excitement for another game that does wot Baldur’s Gate 3 done, we’ll have to wait and see. It looks like the game might have bigger issues, too. “There’s also a broken-up sluggishness to it all,” is how Edwinfelt about combat. “Animations don’t flow together very charismatically, which lends a curious, stuttery cadence to the ducking and diving.”
‘Confident’ game design is one of those slightly fluffy critic words I sometimes find myself reaching for tenuously, knowing that - sigh - I’m going to have to do all sort of detestable nonsense like ‘back up my vague assertion with concrete examples that are useful to the reader’ if I do. Yuck. If there’s one type of design that deserves the accolade, though, it’sRPGs that are assured enough in the richness of their worlds to not feel the need to signpost every discovery.It’s a feedback loop of charitable feelings: the game is saying “we think you’re smart enough to find this stuff on your own”. “You’re right!” you respond. “Iamsmart! And anyone who recognises that must be one smart cookie”. Joy abounds, it rains Tunnock’s Caramel Wafers, hedgehogs jig gracefully in the street, and all is right with the world. So, I must say, I’m quite pleased to hearAvowed’s environment region director Berto Ritger sing the virtues of missable content toGamesRadar.Avowed - Official Pre-Order TrailerWatch on YouTubeThe “core of RPGs that makes them special is missable content, to be honest, and it makes the experience feel so much more personal to how you play the game,” Ritger says. You might find something special, but a mate finds something else instead. “It creates a very interesting dialog about the game,” Ritger says, “and it makes your experience feel more personal to you.“For Avowed specifically, they’re aiming to allow for this with vertical environments. “We want to draw your attention to things we want you to engage with,” says Ritger. “Like the lighthouse is very tall, and so everybody’s going to see a big, tall thing and want to go climb. And so we want to support that as well. And you can do that, and you can jump off into the ocean, if you like. And so we try to draw your attention that way.“The irony of me just now saying that I like games that trust my intelligence, then Ritger saying “gamer brain make want climb big tall thing” is not lost on me. But he’s right, dammit.This approach to design does, of course, raise a bit of a Schrodinger’s Cat: how am I supposed to enjoy content I don’t know is there? But the example I always find myself going back to is theMass Effectrenegade/paragon conundrum. It’s well documented that something like 90% of players chose to play as paragon Shepard, which sounds like an enormous waste of resources on the surface, but it was having the option to deck a reporter that made your restraint feel all the more heroic.On the development side, it’s also a matter of resources - which, as Larian’s Sven Vinckehas pointed out beforetoPC Gamer- can be a hard sell to publishers:If you see it, it’ll scare you, as a shareholder, as a publisher, the very first thing you will try to do is get it under control—you will try to scope it, you will try to box it, you will try to control it, which is exactly the opposite of what we want to do. Because it’s like, why are we spending a million dollars on a dragon, which nobody’s ever going to see, except like five people who made that obscure choice? Because if they see it, they have to be happy too. So that’s why I put the bloody dragon there, because that’s the logical consequence of the things that they’ve done.How well Avowed will actually make good on this promise, and how much of this talk is easy piggybacking on excitement for another game that does wot Baldur’s Gate 3 done, we’ll have to wait and see. It looks like the game might have bigger issues, too. “There’s also a broken-up sluggishness to it all,” is how Edwinfelt about combat. “Animations don’t flow together very charismatically, which lends a curious, stuttery cadence to the ducking and diving.”
‘Confident’ game design is one of those slightly fluffy critic words I sometimes find myself reaching for tenuously, knowing that - sigh - I’m going to have to do all sort of detestable nonsense like ‘back up my vague assertion with concrete examples that are useful to the reader’ if I do. Yuck. If there’s one type of design that deserves the accolade, though, it’sRPGs that are assured enough in the richness of their worlds to not feel the need to signpost every discovery.
It’s a feedback loop of charitable feelings: the game is saying “we think you’re smart enough to find this stuff on your own”. “You’re right!” you respond. “Iamsmart! And anyone who recognises that must be one smart cookie”. Joy abounds, it rains Tunnock’s Caramel Wafers, hedgehogs jig gracefully in the street, and all is right with the world. So, I must say, I’m quite pleased to hearAvowed’s environment region director Berto Ritger sing the virtues of missable content toGamesRadar.
Avowed - Official Pre-Order TrailerWatch on YouTube
Avowed - Official Pre-Order Trailer
The “core of RPGs that makes them special is missable content, to be honest, and it makes the experience feel so much more personal to how you play the game,” Ritger says. You might find something special, but a mate finds something else instead. “It creates a very interesting dialog about the game,” Ritger says, “and it makes your experience feel more personal to you.”
For Avowed specifically, they’re aiming to allow for this with vertical environments. “We want to draw your attention to things we want you to engage with,” says Ritger. “Like the lighthouse is very tall, and so everybody’s going to see a big, tall thing and want to go climb. And so we want to support that as well. And you can do that, and you can jump off into the ocean, if you like. And so we try to draw your attention that way.”
The irony of me just now saying that I like games that trust my intelligence, then Ritger saying “gamer brain make want climb big tall thing” is not lost on me. But he’s right, dammit.
This approach to design does, of course, raise a bit of a Schrodinger’s Cat: how am I supposed to enjoy content I don’t know is there? But the example I always find myself going back to is theMass Effectrenegade/paragon conundrum. It’s well documented that something like 90% of players chose to play as paragon Shepard, which sounds like an enormous waste of resources on the surface, but it was having the option to deck a reporter that made your restraint feel all the more heroic.
On the development side, it’s also a matter of resources - which, as Larian’s Sven Vinckehas pointed out beforetoPC Gamer- can be a hard sell to publishers:
If you see it, it’ll scare you, as a shareholder, as a publisher, the very first thing you will try to do is get it under control—you will try to scope it, you will try to box it, you will try to control it, which is exactly the opposite of what we want to do. Because it’s like, why are we spending a million dollars on a dragon, which nobody’s ever going to see, except like five people who made that obscure choice? Because if they see it, they have to be happy too. So that’s why I put the bloody dragon there, because that’s the logical consequence of the things that they’ve done.
How well Avowed will actually make good on this promise, and how much of this talk is easy piggybacking on excitement for another game that does wot Baldur’s Gate 3 done, we’ll have to wait and see. It looks like the game might have bigger issues, too. “There’s also a broken-up sluggishness to it all,” is how Edwinfelt about combat. “Animations don’t flow together very charismatically, which lends a curious, stuttery cadence to the ducking and diving.”
