Sometimes, you gotta go fast.


Always quick with the helpful wisdom

Unfortunately, due to a technological hiccup, I basically ran out of time to do much of anything of merit, in terms of an excellently crafted idea in regards to a much longer article. Instead, I thought I would comment on some quotes from a recent developer interview involving Expedition 33’s excellent success, and what led it to winning game of the year award.

In a recent interview with game director  Guillaume Broche, he made some comments about some of the things he loves about JRPGs, and elements he borrowed from them to make Expedition 33 what it is today:

“In Western games, you don’t often see an obviously overpowered boss placed early on. One of the reasons I love JRPGs is precisely this experience of challenging something and eventually overcoming it. Even if I’m told it’s impossible, I want to keep trying, even if it takes me three days. And when I finally win, I become overwhelmingly stronger. That feeling is irresistible.” 

Being mindful about where the team put the difficulty and when was important for creating the right balance and flow. He extrapolated further:

“The reason why dying feels frustrating in typical turn-based RPGs is because luck is often involved. For example, the boss might just attack the wrong character and there’s nothing the player can do, or the boss has a random behavior pattern that’s impossible to counter. Deaths like these lead to dissatisfaction among players.” 

In attempting to craft a game that would both appeal to newbie players and vets alike, the E33 devs were careful in how they made the inner workings of the design tick.

“Traditional turn-based RPGs feature a plethora of mechanics, such as status effects, buffs, and debuffs. During the design phase, we first considered, ‘Can a boss using this mechanic be defeated without taking any damage?’ If the answer was no, we didn’t use that mechanic in the first place.” 

Some of these insights and more are clear and away the reason Expedition 33 resonated with so many people, and the community is still discussing many elements of the title, including the conversation about the games recent win of game of the year awards. No doubt more to come from Sandfall Interactive.

~Pashford