Focus Home Interactive and Dontnod Entertainment released a new video discussing the development for some of the characters and designs in the upcoming action-drama, Vampyr, as well as why they chose to make it an AA title instead of an AAA game, citing choices and narrative branching as the reasons for that decision.
The four and a half minute video is part of a new web series that will chronicle some of the design elements that went into making Vampyr. The first video covers the main protagonist, Dr. Jonathan Reid. Gamers get an idea of what he’s like and what sort of motivations are carved out underneath the surface of his stoic exterior.
You can check scope out the video below.
The video starts with game director, Philippe Moreau, explaining why vampires interest him more than ghouls or werewolves; it boils down to the self-awareness of vampires as a predator and how intelligent they are.
Moreau wanted to bring the vampire’s moral dilemma front and center into the character development of Doctor Jonathan Reid.
This not only plays a part in how Dr. Reid develops over the course of the story, but it also plays a significant role in how players choose to interact and engage with the game’s world and its smorgasbord of characters – many of whom you can befriend, help, and even kill to sate Dr. Reid’s bloodlust.
What’s also fascinating here is that they explain that they not only have the traditional vampires of lore in Vampyr, but also the wide range of vampires, including the bestial kind, the zombies, and the ones who don’t quite look human nor do they look like full monsters.
Near the end of the video they explain that Vampyr is budgeted as an AA game – not quite triple-A and not quite indie.
It fits into the rare game type that we don’t see too often, since most big publishers are always chasing billion-dollar retreads, and most indie studios can’t afford anything beyond pixels. Well, in the case of Vampyr, Dontnod had just enough budget to focus on more than just another linear tale.
As explained in the video, the idea in the game is to give players as much choice as possible, which is usually not something that AAA projects can afford to do, due to cinematic scripting, set-pieces and limited availability of Hollywood talent.
According to Dontnod’s narrative director, Stephane Beauverger, if the game isn’t taking you down a strictly linear path, then the main objective from a designer’s point of view is to give the player as many options and choices as possible within the design scope. Beauverger states…
“In a game, unless it’s strictly linear, you offer players the possibility to directly influence their story, to modify their course of destiny for the characters you control and around you. This is a freedom that just doesn’t exist in other media such as literature or cinema.
“It’s fascinating to create something where the weight of decisions rest with the player.”
We’ll see just how many choices and alternative routes are made available in Vampyr when the game launches this upcoming spring for the Xbox One, PS4 and PC.
You can learn more about the game’s story and characters by visiting the official website.
