The Fall developer diary on RPG Vault

[Brother None]

Carsten Strehse is doing a two-part developer diary for SSE's The Fall on RPG Vault. Here's some bits:

<blockquote>Roughly seven years ago, Interplay released a game you 'may' have heard of, Fallout. It was an addicting experience. At around that time, a vague idea was born to develop an RPG set in a post-apocalyptic scenario some day. From that point on, it took almost five years until I got back to that plan and started actually realizing it.</blockquote>

<blockquote>How about the atmosphere of the game? We're trying to give The Fall a serious and mature feel, similar to Gothic or the Fallout games. And like in these titles, you're also going to encounter moments of black humor and absurdity resulting from the almost hopeless situation. We'll elaborate on the way NPC behaviour is modeled in one of the later diary entries, but I can tell you already that there are schedules and sets of potential activities each of them can follow. Characters aren't standing around paralyzed, only waiting for you to talk to them.</blockquote>

Link: The Fall - Last Days of Gaia development diary on RPGVault

Spotted at RPGDot

 

[APTYP]

It's hard to take seriously Bleak Apocalyptic Scenario where people have ridiculous tatoos and sprayed hair because they think it's "scary".

 

[DarkUnderlord]

Characters aren't standing around paralyzed, only waiting for you to talk to them.

No. Instead they walk around randomly and say things like "Today's the same as yesterday". Exciting!!

 

[victor]

Yeah, and all the while adopting hairstyles from the 80's and being made out of one polygon!

 

[Hose]

No. Instead they walk around randomly and say things like "Today's the same as yesterday". Exciting!!

And whats wrong with that? You would prefer them just standing around in one place all the time. Yeah, that would be really exciting.

 

[Revolver]

Funny, I thought that they were on a seven task daily schedule with 29 different possible actions...

 

[Will_c]

That's pretty much what they did. I'm looking forward to that part of it. It makes a change to going to a town and seeing everyone in the exact same spot you seen them 2 days ago.

 

[Pope Viper]

One thing that disturbs me is he throws out the Fallout name.

I'm beginning to wonder if all of his desire to "get" the Fallout license has been nothing but a marketing/promotional ploy.

Maybe I'm just being overly pessimistic and suspicious, but trade on the strengths of your own game, not one that has already proven itself.

 

[DarkUnderlord]

No. Instead they walk around randomly and say things like "Today's the same as yesterday". Exciting!!

And whats wrong with that?

It's about exciting as walking into a town in Arcanum and finding it's night time and everyone is in bed, so you "wait >> until morning" so you can talk to them. There were also the guards that would walk all the way around the city. You could talk to them too!

Funny, I thought that they were on a seven task daily schedule with 29 different possible actions...

... and? NPCs that move around do not an RPG make. Character development, a somewhat personalised adventure and a strong solid storyline (with multiple branches / endings) are all more important than an apparent "new feature" that has actually been around in some form or another for a while now.

For shits and giggles, here are two quotes from Carsten Streshe:

Are children killable?
Weird... People are all the same. 'Had the discussion about killing children just some days ago with the German community.
Our point of view is: Killing children in games isn't necessary and sick. Sorry for that clear words, but from our point of view we have a responsibility to take care of the ethics in our games. And killing children goes too far. Everybody who has fun with killing children in games should run like hell to the next doctor and tell him his problem.

Are important characters killable or invincible? Do they have enough friends to kill you if you try anything?
Well, it's not possible to bring up a deep story with unique characters and at the time give the player the absolute freedom to kill anybody. Just image you play a Lord of the Rings-RPG and you are able to kill Frodo, Bilbo, Gandalf, Aragorn, Legolas and so on. This would make no real sense.

You can't aim at them. The same for children.

What kind of interactive, living world can't handle the death of a major character or even children? Hell, even Fallout and Arcanum could handle that.

What is this 'Living World Architecture' that I keep hearing about?
Simply put, it is the idea that the world around the player will be alive. NPCs will remember you, your reputation will spread through rumors, merchants will remember you, NPCs will have their own daily schedules and interact with each other, and trading and bartering is affected by what is available in the area. As a little example fpr the last bit, suppose that you find water in the desert. You will be able to trade for more goods if the town you are in is suffering a drought, while a town that has wells in every garden won't give you as much for your water. Overall, the gameworld should seem more alive than most other RPGs, since your actions affect the world and the world reacts realistically to your actions.

Again, the factions / bartering / rumours / reputations and so on that've been mentioned in this "Living World Architecture" have all been seen before in games like Fallout and Arcanum. It sure is new and exciting stuff!!

So far for the Fall I've heard:

1. Hype
2. Mentions of Fallout

Yet so far, the game can't even do things that Fallout let you do.

 

[Revolver]

... and? NPCs that move around do not an RPG make. Character development, a somewhat personalised adventure and a strong solid storyline (with multiple branches / endings) are all more important than an apparent "new feature" that has actually been around in some form or another for a while now.

I completely agree that those elements are more important. These are all things that they have said they would focus on- whether they pull it off is something we would have to wait for the release to find out. The restriction on killing is an unfortunate compromise, but tolerable if they get the other parts right. As for the "Living World Architecture," the part that I'm most interested is that it's not the standard reputation meter effects you find in most RPGs. You can assault a village and leave no witnesses and no one would know- but if someone escapes, he/she will make the actual physical action of running to the next town and spread the word about you. The same goes for within community crimes. Also, after a battle, noncombatants won't stand there impassively or force you to do a FO style village massacre - they'll either run away or scramble for the dropped items. These are features that give the game at least the potential to be very good.

 

[Brother None]

What kind of interactive, living world can't handle the death of a major character or even children? Hell, even Fallout and Arcanum could handle that.

The children is a legal matter, it's illegal to make a game in which children can be killed in Germany.