Augmenting the Deus Ex: Human Revolution Story Panel Report

After having attended a panel hosted by Eidos Montreal at GDC Online 2011, GameSpot comes back with a write-up on what it entailed, specifically dealing with subjects such as how the developer handled a branching narrative with choices and consequences, how to handle dissonances between gameplay and story and more. Here’s a sampling:

The game’s theme was originally transhumanism, encapsulated by the quote “Nature is what we are put in this world to rise above.” However, DeMarle said one of the first problems she noticed with the game when she came on board was that the gameplay theme (choice and consequence) didn’t match that story theme. Her solution was to change the story theme to examine more closely the question “Why do we do the things that we do?” Every main character has a different desire for control–whether it’s control of the market, society, or their own choices–that was used to examine the question of why people make the choices they do.

That made for a great story, but DeMarle said the narrative still needed to be more deeply connected with the gameplay. During preproduction, the technology, art direction, sound design, and gameplay were all being developed independently. A key part of the blueprint was then forcing those individual pieces to work together.

…

She gave a few examples, such as the anti-augmentation terrorists, which the art department originally had dressed up in medieval-style armor. While the group looked cool, the animators said the design wouldn’t move right in practice, while the writers questioned how the group of impoverished thugs were able to afford the complicated equipment. The artists then came back with another approach that met the concerns of the writers and animators but still kept the medieval theme, albeit with monk-like robes and haircuts.

In the audience Q&A portion of the session, DeMarle was asked about why Human Revolution’s oft-criticized boss battles did not give players the same breadth of choices they have elsewhere in the game. She stressed that the outsourcing studio did a great job doing what they were told to do, but admitted the ambitiousness of the project meant the developers simply didn’t have time to meet all their goals, and the boss battles fell short as a result.