 Sacha A.
Howells CheckOut.com Los Angeles,
CA
“We tried to capture
that same sense of surreal, otherworldly environments and
architecture” |
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Who is the "Exile" of the game's title? The term
"Exile" can be interpreted in a number of different ways, and
doesn't necessarily refer to just a person. It can also be thought
of as a mood or condition, or possibly a state of mind resulting
from how one perceives reality. The story incorporates these
different concepts of "Exile" on a number of levels, and the
decision to call the game "Exile" is meant to reflect these
potential interpretations.
Although details are still hard to come by, we have learned
that Exile is divided into five Ages, each of which is under
the direction of an individual designer. Can you tell us what sets
your Age apart from the others? How do they all fit together -- does
the game progress linearly from one Age to the next, or are players
given more freedom in how they approach the game? I can't
give too much away at this point in terms of how each Age differs
from the others, but I can talk sort of generally about what I tried
to accomplish design-wise. We were definitely trying to create a
unique aesthetic and mood for each Age. In order to pull that off,
we assigned each Age to an individual conceptual designer based on
his particular skills, background and aesthetic sense. My background
is in architecture. For this game, in terms of design I basically
tried to do everything I never had the opportunity to do in my
architecture career. In addition, for me a big part of playing
Myst and Riven was seeing these incredible, surreal
images that seemed so real and yet were things you'd never see in
real life. We tried to capture that same sense of surreal,
otherworldly environments and architecture. Hopefully, while each
Age has a definite identity and aesthetic sense, they will each play
a part in the story and contribute to the work as a whole.
The Ages are not linear in nature. The player will be able to
explore the Ages in any order, to any degree and will be able to
travel freely from one Age to another.
Next page: Hardcore gamers and Cyan’s guiding
hand
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