Outward Interview

Guillaume Boucher-Vidal, the creative lead on Nine Dots Studio’s upcoming fantasy RPG Outward that sets itself apart by combining open-world exploration, a high degree of challenge and lots of survival elements, recently had a chat with TheXboxHub. The resulting interview highlights Outward’s focus on challenging its players, mentions the game’s three mutually exclusive main quests, describes its magic system, and more.

Here’s a couple of sample questions:

So, sell it to us… why should gamers spend time with Outward?

Outward is very different in its approach, and I don’t think that it will be a fit for every gamer out there. Our intent is to make a game for a specific type of hardcore gamer who draws satisfaction from earning their victories and also who like to explore things on their own. They should try out Outward if they are tired of games holding their hands. I feel like RPGs especially are too scared of challenging the players’ intelligence. They often have lots of cool options, but those options rarely matter because everything is so easy you don’t need to exploit its mechanics to gain the upper hand. When a game is more difficult, when the easy solution doesn’t apply, that’s when you get the pleasure to get creative.

How do you plan to keep players coming back for more once they’ve got to grips with the basic mechanics of survival?

Outward is an RPG first and foremost, and the survival mechanics are a supplement to that experience to make it more down to earth and immersive. As such, the motivation to play could be to explore more ways to build your character, or wanting to finish the questlines for all three factions, or try and check out all the optional dungeons, etc. Moreover, each region has a different set of obstacles. You might be getting used to winter in the Chersonese, but it doesn’t mean you are well prepared to face off ghosts and beast golems in the Enmerkar Forest, or that you understand fully how to handle the heat of Abrassar, or the poison of the Hallowed Marsh. Every time the player switches to a new region, there is a bit of renewal and adaptation keeping things fresh.