Interview outside: discover what you learned about role playing

The first time I left the starting city in the outward roleplaying game, I discovered what looked like a giant chicken. The thing followed me as I tried my first quest: finding mushrooms in a troglodyte cave. It was persistent. It was annoying.

It killed me.

The outside is what happens when you take RPGs from the open world and add survival game elements like Ark: Survival Evolved. It removes the subtleties of the blinking dot on the map to show you where you are. You want labels? You will not find them on the map either. And clutter matters, and you will find yourself struggling with the urge to become a traveling Costco and pick everything up to prepare for your first trip into the wild.

It's fascinating and frustrating. And Guillaume Boucher-Vidal would not have done otherwise.

The creative director, CEO and founder of Nine Dots Studio, I interviewed about Outward, released today on Steam, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. This is the third independent player in the video game company, after his debut with Brand in 2012 and GoD Factory: Wingman in 2014 (Bandai-Namco released it). We talked about Nine Dots' approach to the outdoors and how her world map reflects her approach of leaving solutions in the hands of players.

This is a transcript of our interview.

Survival is difficult

GamesBeat: This RPG looks like Ark: Survival Evolved. But then you die the first time. You go back to your city. Then he starts to look like an RPG. Are you worried that people are getting lost?

Guillaume Boucher-Vidal: To be honest, we had some problems with the expectations of people being everywhere. People who have experience with a game like Skyrim, Fable or Witcher, expect this because they know this experience well. Then you have that other category of players who plays Ark and Rust, and because that 's their base, that' s what they see in Outward. We try to be consistent in saying that Outward is an RPG with elements of survival and not a survival game with RPG elements.

GamesBeat: It seems very clear in the first city. It's your base, right?

Boucher-Vidal: Yeah.

GamesBeat: Is it the only city?

Boucher-Vidal: There are four cities. We have four different regions and they all have different biomes. They all have their own city to visit. I think that's one of the things that will make it clear: it's a role play, the fact that there are merchants, NPCs and quests. People can interact with that and make the world more alive. It's not just a survival experience where you expect to build your own base or something.

GamesBeat: When I was crossing the city, I had already found some quests. Go get mushrooms, but what I already feel in this game is that a simple quest to get mushrooms is not so simple.

Boucher-Vidal: It would be a correct hypothesis, yes.

GamesBeat: It's difficult.

Boucher-Vidal: Well, the only thing that, in my opinion, will be difficult for some and very nice for others is that Outward asks the player to unlearn. This will be the biggest challenge. We played so many games where the contents are spooned. We get our handhelds. We find ourselves in situations always at a time when we can easily handle this situation. We thought that in a game like Outward, we wanted to do a bit more of a simulation, an experiment. We wanted to put ourselves in the shoes of someone who would do something dangerous. What should you do if you are in danger? You must be careful. You should not see two bandits and think, I'll just go and kill them. You have just left the village. You have no experience. Two bandits better equipped than you, more dangerous than you, they can obviously survive and yourself. Why would you run in this without getting ready?

This idea of ​​teaching the player, no, you can not just jump on it, and if something works, fine, do it. If this is not the case, do not go there and expect everything to be fine in the future. We know that some players will come up against a wall, and we agree – we agree with that. We are not sorry. It's not supposed to be a game for everyone. This is a game for people who are specifically looking for this extra challenge.

Lifting heavy loads

GamsBeat: My first wall was carrying things. I like crowded RPGs. I started as D & D player, and in my campaigns, I used the clutter rules. In Outward, it seems very penalizing. Even with the first bag I found, dragging in my house, I was so overweight. I only had a set of padded armor, a hatchet, a pick and food. I'm still quite early, but will you be able to take more?

Boucher-Vidal: The first backpack you find, the bag, is really just a starting point. But in the same way that you can increase your armor and weapons, you can find an upgraded version of a backpack and possibly have more inventory capability.

GamesBeat: Can you make yourself stronger to wear more?

Boucher-Vidal: Some armor also gives you extra capacity. For example, the trader, the caravaneer at the entrance of the city, sells a trader's armor. This increases the storage capacity because it has pockets and everything. It's a way to go about it. The general trader, even in the first village, sells a backpack that is not simply – the bag itself is just a piece of fur that is tied. A backpack of the store will already almost double your inventory space.

GamesBeat: Why make the inventory so binding?

Boucher-Vidal: I know a lot of games that are actually more restrictive than Outward. I'm thinking of State of Decay, for example, or even DayZ. But the main idea was that, in the usual role-playing experience, anything we can think of reminds us that it's a game. We've evaluated whether we want to change it or not. With the inventory, the main example was, I run in Skyrim. I have nothing with me that tells me that I have a lot of inventory space. I see five sets of full plate armor in a stall and I take them all in place and that does not change anything. It's almost unlimited. It reminds you that it's just a game. For some it's great, but for me, at the heart of my experience when I play on a large scale, especially in open world games, I want to feel immersed in this world. I want this world to be real to me. We have tried to be as realistic as possible in terms of inventory capacity.

GamesBeat: As in this picture, what are you trying to avoid?

Boucher-Vidal: Exactly.

GamesBeat: A warrior strolling with a weapons store on his back.

Boucher-Vidal: Yes exactly. I like that. It's a nice photo.