Our Next Studio Series! - We Need Your Questions

Awesome, love that you´re checking out Arkane, Dishonored was one of my very favorite games last-gen, and I love that they´re keeping the immersive-sim dream of Deus Ex and the Shock games alive today. I got a question for them, either in 2-parts or maybe you can squeeze it into one long question somehow, if it makes the cut that is: -As a studio that focuses on free-form simulated worlds where everything fits into a kind of well-oiled clockwork of parts that interact with and effect one another, and the player gets to choose exactly how he does things and might skip large sections, have you ever been tempted to makes things more linear and scripted? Perhaps when designing a boss fight, or some kind of action set-piece moment? I doubt you´ve ever considered going full on Shenmue/Yakuza style in making those sort of one-off scenes or interactions, but have you ever come close to something like that? Or on a more general level, have you as a studio ever thought about making a whole game in a more linear/controlled fashion? I´d like to add I greatly admire you guys for sticking to the immersive sims and really pushing it forward as a genre, I really wish more developers would do the same. So I´m not at all advocating for you to go more linear (please don´t), but merely curious ;)

Darri Skúlason

With respect to the upcoming Deathloop, what is one aspect/example of game design they love from their previous games that they intend to bring forward, and what is one aspect/example of game design that they are hoping to avoid?

Reegan Worobec

Perhaps not as much a question but a observation I did a while back when I first saw this GDC talk about Prey's DLC Mooncrash: https://youtu.be/rXm5zCdiNT0 During it it's mention that the time to complete Mooncrash is perhaps equal to or longer than what it takes to complete the main game as you have to replay the level multiple times. In the questions section (about 53 minutes in) they say that the team size was perhaps half of what the main games team was. They have also talked about the cost of creating events for the main game, that due to the open nature of the game some people would not experience. I strongly think that their upcoming game "Deathloop" is a consequence of this, and will build upon the groundwork set in Prey: Mooncrash. (awesome dlc by the way :))

Morten Elgaard Pedersen

So I played dishorned 1 and played prey. I didn't like dishorned 1 after seen the ending and really not feeling any of my choices did anything. So my question is when do you start looking at multiple ending in the game dev process? It feels in some games that all the choices from the beginning should effect the story but there is only 1 ending. Then there is the other option were at the ending you have a small choice just before the end of the game which games you multiple story endings.

Christophe Fettouhi

Since Dishonored introduced the "blink" ability, the move has been modified and adapted for a variety of genres. Movement systems in Advanced Warfare, Titanfall 2, and even the upcoming DOOM Eternal seem to draw inspiration from the blink maneuver. What was the inspiration for blink and how did it transform the design of Dishonored?

Zachary Snader

I just though of something I'm interested in, not specific to Arkane, but I'd like to know the inner workings of game studios, the structure and different job titles. It's not really something to put in to a doc about a studio perhaps, not much story there, but maybe something for a Patreon exclusive thing, and when you know about a bunch of studios maybe you can make a comparison doc about it. Not sure if this is something you want to do, but it's something I'm curious about. I know Valve has a flat structure and they build a sort of structure around every project and stuff like how they handle overtime and crunch could be part of this as well? We kinda see it in the Hades docs and it comes along in conversations with indie Devs, but not really with big studios, maybe not something they want or can talk about?

Bavo Debraekeleer

Anything and everything about game design and specifically balancing things to be fun vs other goals.

Samir

All of these questions are geared towards the latest Prey title. 1) Did they ever receive much feedback on the subtle differences in audio logs/text in game that are dependent between if you play as male or female Morgan? 2) What are the most unusual and entertaining uses of powers they saw during development, play testing, and from the community? 3) How did the team go about making sure each deceased NPC had a living space, work space, and social life that made sense? Did they keep the documents that kept track of all of this? 4) Was there originally a larger role planned for December? That and a few other areas seemed like they had bigger plans. Deep storage comes to mind as an area that could have had some really interesting stories planned around it. 5) What was the process of taking Prey to VR like? Was it just an experiment to play around with VR game development? What kind of unique challenges did they encounter adapting a completed project to VR? 6) From a game design standpoint how did they plan ahead to make a world that is so open from the get go for a creative player, yet guide people to where they needed to go naturally on a first play through? 7) Lucky number seven here. Is Prey a franchise they would like to continue making games for in the future? I know it would be tough to continue from where the story left off. Also did the game perform as well as they were hoping? It seems like Prey went a little under the radar which is a shame.

it's soooo goooood

Noclip

oh my god this is amazing!

Noclip

I'd like to second the question above. The original Prey 2 trailer was awesome, and Chris Bratt's video on it revealed a cool story in planning. Were Arkane inspired by it?

When they were making their version of Prey, did they take anything from the theoretical ideas of what would have been Prey 2 or did they have their own ideas from the start and just acquired the name? Also, are they the ones doing the Bioshock 4?

Rob Curran

Mooncrash was one of my favourite gaming experiences of the last few years. Do they have any plans to revisit it in the future? Also just getting them talk to about Mooncrash in general would be great.

The Mighty Pipe

It will be interesting to know more about development hell (if it has such) during development of Prey and other games (even Arx Fatalis – it looked pretty complex).

AND you just visited Obsidian? It's like you reached directly into my mind and fished out my favorite games/developers. I'll have to think of some questions for them, dang....

Caitlin Sales

No question. Just here to say I’m happy you’re coming to France :)

Christophe Sauveur

Hmm, the difference in designing for a male and female protagonist in Dishonored 2 perhaps? And where the idea for that world came from? Oh, and something about that you can finish the whole game without killing anyone, why that was important for them and the design difficulties around that? And about the flow of a level, like that part you did on Hitman, how characters move around the level and trigger different events, ask them what their favourite level is to pick an example. Oh boy, I'm so excited for this one!

Bavo Debraekeleer

Hell yeah, Dishonored is one of my favorite games, and inspiration for others. As for questions, It was recently announced that a tabletop version of Dishonored was going to be released later this year. What prompted this project? What aspects have they found hard to translate between formats during development?

Jon LeNeveu

When you said on Gamespot After Dark you were going to France and Austin, I KNEW you would be going to one of my favorite developers! I love Dishonored and Prey was very fun. I don't have any questions, just wanted to show appreciation for this project and now I'm real excited for it!

Brandon K Gann

Q1. What games are they playing? Q2. Is there anything they would do differently if they could turn back time? Q3. Their best learning/advice in one sentence?

Vas G

Maybe ask if they've considered doing official prints of original concept art. I end up spending so much time staring at Piotr Jablonski's art on the walls in Dishonored and Sergey Kolesov's concept work I should really put it on my walls. Dishonored and Prey easily rank up with Half-Life as my all time favorite games. The time invested in characters, story, world building, art work, level dressing and sound track is incredibly appreciated. It is amazing how much just a few items arranged on a desk can add to the depth of a story, tell one of their own or scare the life out of me. Freaking coffee cups...

Brian Doyle

Art direction seems to be a large part of what makes modern Arkane what they are, they have a very unique style, how do they go about deciding what they want the world/people in that world to look like?

I'gor Bogdanoff

Yes sir! This is exciting! They are big on building unique game mechanics - was there ever a mechanic that was great on paper but utterly boring when you actually get to play it.

Tohir Tillyaev

One of my favorite tools in Prey is the crossbow, because it seems completely useless until you realize (through reading emails) that its darts can be used to hit buttons and interact with touch screens. What was the inspiration behind the tool and was there a concern players wouldn't figure out its utility?

Connor McNamara

[Related] For whatever reason, I've really gravitated towards Hugo Martin's repeatedly mentioned concept of pushing the player into the "fun zone". It's such a simple premise, and one that's probably been articulated for a while in other ways, but the way he communicates it really helps get the point across. I'm definitely interested in hearing from other game designers at other studios about what they consider their "fun zone" to be and what techniques they use to nudge players in that direction.

Was Alex Yu based on Gabe Newell?

Thom Blackburn

Softball questions -Explain the "no ladders" philosophy they have at Arkane -How did the idea of the clockwork room in Dishonored 2 come about? Hardball question -Did they feel a bit of trepidation in rebooting the Prey series, knowing there would be expectations from fans of the original series, and amidst Prey 2 being scrapped for this reboot People to Interview/Talk to -Sadie Boyd - She works in the Texas, super sweet gal, she worked initially in QA for a year or two and then became an assets artist there. She did some of the signage and such in Prey and Prey Mooncrash. She's been there for awhile. Easily reached via twitter (@Wonder_Phoenix) -HazelMonforton - She was the narrative lead for Death of the Outsider I believe, she is also easily availabe on twitter, and a fun person to talk to Looking forward to this one a lot, take as much time as you need on this sucker Danny, the more indepth the better ! :)

Nick Grugin

This is awesome! I can't wait. Q1: How did each of these game IPs come to be? Q2: Were any of these properties completely different from in their inception from their final form, and how so? Q3: Prey and Dishonored have lots of very interesting gameplay mechanics that allow you to approach problems in interesting ways. What are some gameplay mechanics that you really thought were interesting that ended up being cut for the final release? You guys are an amazing studio. Keep up the incredible work.

Ray

How do they balance giving players freedom and without giving them overpowered tools that ‘break’ the game? How did they feel about the reception to Prey and the original Prey 2 pitch from Human Head?

Matthew Glenn

\o/ I'd love to know if the leveldesign in returning to Dunwall after being in exile was in Dishonored 2 and if the studio is intentionally revisiting previous leveldesigns for story reasons. What is their philosophy in guiding a player in such a way and what does the studio want to evoke emotionally from this design?

spucktier

Also, I think a segment on the inner-workings of what it took to create the Clockwork Mansion in Dishonored 2 would be great.

Alex Van Aken

This might be the most hyped I’ve been for a Noclip doc. I LOVE Dishonored so much. I’d love to hear Arkane’s thoughts on the players like StealthGamerBR who use the creative tools of Dishonored 2 to complete stylish and trick-filled speed-runs like this https://youtu.be/YU78vHOfe2k

Alex Van Aken

The original Dishonored had a good balance between the stealth and combat play styles, whereas a lot of people felt that Dishonored 2 made it a lot harder to do stealth. Was that intentional, and do they have thoughts about how the games have handled pushing players to one style or another?

Nicholas Sylvain

Don't have a question, this just rules and I'm very excited.

Jack Sibley

Did audio have an effect on design? Any lessons learned through the process of audio integration?

Glenn with the extra n.

Q: for Harvey Smith - is there any interest from their publisher to do another immersive sim? Also, if he could make that type of game with any IP, what one would he choose?

A Dublin meet up would be amazing! In relation to Dishonored I would love to know what their biggest inspirations were for the first game especially in terms if The Heart? Whether that was movies, music or other games. Also, with how well it was received critically and how much praise the world of Dishonored got, was there then noticeable pressure when development began on the sequel?

James O'Donnell

Q for the arkane dudes: How much of your work on Dishonored/Prey and other immersive sim style games was influenced by System Shock/Deus Ex? Was it more of a "We want to make a game in this style" and thats it, or are the influences deeper than that?

Henry F

How fun was it trying out different combinations of powers in Dishonored, and was there any ways that players truly surprised you with their ingenuity in playing out with power combos?

Steve Fiori

This is so incredibly exciting, Arkane Studios really do make some of the most exciting stuff out there. Few Qs: 1) How do they even go about conceptualizing levels when the player has so many verbs at their disposal? Do they have some kind of formula or benchmark for how to give enough opportunity for different builds? 2) When choosing to have two playable protagonists in Dishonored 2 how did they reconcile that many players simply wouldn't see the other half of that content? 3) Actually, in general, how do they reconcile how much content they stuff their worlds with how much the player will see? Are they really banking on the hardcore players, is it for their own creative fulfilment, or do they see the games as incomplete without it? 4) Do the French and American sensibilities ever clash or conflict? Nevermind labor laws and operations which bet are interesting. Sorry for so many questions, got very excited. Have a great trip! I could listen to Harvey Smith dig into their games forever

Ethan Thibault

one of the absolute best parts of both Dishonored and Prey are the atmosphere you feel when playing the game. The level design, sound design, story/lore, and other aspects come together really well to make you feel like you're really in this other world. Not a question, but would be great if you could get the teams to comment on their process in giving those games that great "feel"

Kenzo Yasuda

"Old college" in Ireland = Favorite pub 😀

Simon Oliver

Will your college talk be available?

Fragglerock