Aaryn Flynn, a former veteran BioWare developer who served as studio general manager, played a major role in the development of classic RPGs such as Emerald Empire, Dragon Age: Origins, and Mass Effect, reminiscent of BioWare's "Golden Age."
In the summer of 2017, Fei Lin left BioWare during the development of Anthem, when many players were both concerned about the subsequent development of Anthem and curious about his new project. At last year's TGA awards, Fei lin unveiled his debut film, Nightingale, which he is working on at his new studio, Inflexion.
This is a survival RPG that encourages players to cooperate, and it has the typical characteristics of BioWare in terms of character building and world view construction, and the response on the Internet seems to be good.
Aaron Ferring spent 17 years at BioWare
"We had the idea of adopting a contemporary fantasy backdrop for a long time." "Unlike other games we've developed in the past, we wanted to provide players with something that was easy to understand and resonated with," Feilin said. At the same time, it also gives us the freedom to move in a wonderful and unique direction. ”
Fei Lin stressed that Nightingale wants to take advantage of alternate history: players in the game will encounter some familiar characters and events, but also contact with many unfamiliar concepts, or fantasy creatures that have never been seen before. Players assume the role of a Realm Walker who can explore different real worlds, battle monsters, and propel the human world forward through exciting new discoveries.
"It's a magical city and the center of all magical research in the Western world." Fei lin explains, "In the early 19th century, a natural disaster caused the network of portals involved in the construction to collapse, and many people were trapped in the field and lost their way and had to struggle to survive... This is the setting, and as you explore, the mystery behind the story will gradually emerge. ”
Nightingale is in development
Inflexion plans to launch an Early Access version of Nightingale, and then gradually refine the story and mechanics based on player feedback. Many similar survival games have taken the form of Early Access, but narratives that focus on story and characters are rarely released in this way. Fei Lin was reluctant to elaborate on the details, but according to him, the development team will continue to add more narrative elements while building the game.
"A former colleague at BioWare told me that great stories always start with great characters. I like to integrate characters into the world we're building while asking questions from all angles to make them seem more flesh-and-blood and three-dimensional. For example, what is their motivation? What is the background? What are they doing and why are they doing that? ”
"Character building is an important part of building a worldview, but it also takes a lot of time to make sure the game world is easy to understand, emotionally resonates with players, and wins appreciation." "I think the Mass Effect and Dragon Age teams do a very good job of building the worldview because they get noticed and tell a lot of stories over and over again," Feirin said. I hope that Nightingale will also be a first-class level in this regard, which will attract players to the in-depth experience. ”
It's hard to say whether Nightingale can feel as deep a character relationship as Mass Effect or Dragon Age. However, Fei Lin revealed that in the follow-up update, players can reach Nightingale City. It is a sprawling central area with plenty of makeshift communities and survival shelters. In addition, players will be able to create their own characters.
It is also evident as a feature of online RPGs
"The game allows the player to choose and customize the character, and you can decide what type of realm rover you want to be. In addition, you can change different costumes during the game. We want players to know that everyone has the opportunity to express themselves, to be unique and to play in their preferred way. ”
"We encourage players to get together and build communities so they can collaborate and achieve more." Fei Lin explains, "We intend to let players know the basic rules first, while making sure the game is open." The progress of the game is driven by choices made by the player community, and whatever they want to do, they are free to try. ”
In Nightingale, players build bases that not only have to look cool, but also need to be able to defend against enemy attacks and provide each player with a space of their own. According to Feilin, if you are not careful enough, others can steal items from your game.
Fei Lin talked about the future of the survival category and how it can be integrated with RPGs. "In the game industry, developers are free to express their ideas, and players are referees. We want to come up with our best work and get fair judgment from our players. In terms of survival categories, I think the gameplay of these types of games is great and very interesting, and there will be more and more studios trying to combine first-class narrative, worldview construction and character building with it in the future. ”
For now, the most attractive thing about Nightingale is the backstory, but in terms of gameplay, how to combine online and RPG under the survival category, there are still many questions, and BioWare's products in the latest years can not give players more confidence - can players still trust BioWare-born developers?
This article is compiled from: thegamer.com
原文标题：《Nightingale Interview: Aaryn Flynn On Early Access, BioWare, And Building An RPG Survival Experience》
Original author: JADE KING