In March, technicalrobo’s Fraser Brown wrote an editorial titled “The cinematic BioWare-style RPG is useless, it simply does not realize it but,” evaluating the likes of Dragon Age and Cyberpunk 2077 to the extra novel experiences of latest RPGs Disco Elysium and Citizen Sleeper.
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RPG Roundtable
Our interviewees, from left to proper:
Mike Laidlaw: Chief artistic officer at Yellow Brick Video games. Recognized for: Jade Empire, Mass Impact, Dragon Age sequence.
Paweł Sasko: Quest director at CD Projekt Pink. Recognized for: The Witcher 3, Cyberpunk 2077.
Strix Beltran: Narrative director on D&D sport, Hidden Path Leisure. Recognized for: Blubeard’s Bride, Past Blue, State of Decay 2.
Lis Moberly: Narrative designer at Obsidian. Recognized for: Cursed to Golf, We Went Again, Singularity.
Josh Sawyer: Studio design director at Obsidian. Recognized for: Pillars of Eternity, Fallout: New Vegas, Pentiment.
Only a few weeks later, on the 2023 Recreation Builders Convention, I assembled a bunch of 5 RPG designers with many years of expertise between them—together with Dragon Age lead Mike Laidlaw and Cyberpunk 2077 lead Paweł Sasko, whose video games closely featured in that editorial—and lobbed the headline out like a reside grenade to begin the dialog.
Fortunately nobody caught any shrapnel.
“I do know this text very properly, as a result of we have been discussing it at [CD Projekt Red] fairly a bit,” Sasko stated, leaping in first. “We principally agree, really. Not less than relating to triple-A, we’re working at a fucking wall, and we’re gonna crash on that wall actually quickly.” You’ll be able to learn extra from that little bit of the dialog proper right here (opens in new tab).
From there we roleplayed sensible conversationalists for greater than an hour, pertaining to:
- How video games are on the cusp of a procedural narrative breakthrough
- What gamers count on from RPGs in the present day
- How their private experiences enjoying RPGs have knowledgeable their video games
- Writing characters that actually resonate with gamers
We additionally talked in regards to the making of The Witcher 3’s Bloody Baron quest, nice tabletop methods that videogames ought to poach concepts from, and the impression of Elden Ring.
You’ll be able to hearken to the total 80 minute dialog above (or discover it on the technicalrobo Chat Log podcast feed in your podcast app of alternative) and skim highlights of the dialog right here on the location.
