All adventure games take place somewhere, and the fidelity of this location is often what makes or breaks the game. If the developers fail to convince, it will fall flat because the urge to explore and get to know the world will suffer, while a really interesting game world can in some cases make us excuse mediocre gameplay in order to see more of an exciting and spectacular place.
Exoborne, developed by Swedish company Sharkmob AB, is a tactical extraction shooter with a sci-fi theme set in a future USA ravaged by extreme natural disasters. David Caballero from Gamereactor Spain had the opportunity to talk to lore master Jimmy Wilhelmsson during Gamescom, and he told us about the work involved in creating an engaging world:
“First of all, Exoborne takes place in America, Southeastern America, that is torn apart by extreme forces of nature. So that is really the mission, to build an America that people recognise, but it’s still not our world. It’s an alternate universe.”
He explains the challenges of making it compelling in a live service world, which usually does not have a linear narrative, and says this specific world pretty much relies on you have an exo-rig:
“So the exo-rig is really playing the lead role here. It’s also what you progress in the story. You don’t progress, as in many other games, your character skills, your talents or your character classes. You really progress the exo-rigs themselves. They play the leading role, and that’s also how we use them in the world. So they’re very connected to the world.”
He went on to explain how they work to make this sci-fi world of natural disasters and exo-rigs feel down-to-earth and believable:
“We’ve built a Colton County as a place that you can really feel you’re in Southeastern America and after it’s been torn apart by the collapse. So many of the things like the fast food joints, the fire brigade stations, the police stations, the sheriff’s stations, all of that point to a very cohesive world where you actually feel, yes, I’m in Colton County.
“It could exist. It could have been where somebody I know grew up or whatever. And that cohesive feeling makes it all believable and eventually makes the player fantasy more realistic, I think. It’s more about the environmental little details that players are going to feel and find around rather than something very in your face.”
If you want to check out how Sharkmob AB has succeeded in creating an exciting world, you should take the opportunity to try it out during the Playtest that will run between September 16 and October 7. If you want to participate, head over to Steam and register your interest today.
Check out the full video below.