Importance Score: 25 / 100 🔵
Exploring Every Corner of Avowed: Rewarding Player Curiosity
During a recent discussion with Berto Ritger, the region director for the highly anticipated RPG Avowed, the focus was clear: the game’s dedication to rewarding player exploration. Ritger emphasized how meticulously crafted the game world is, ensuring that every location, from hidden alcoves to rooftops and even seemingly insignificant ponds, contains secrets and discoveries worth the player’s time. Even finding simple vendor trash or upgrade materials in unexpected places was designed as a deliberate nod to curious players, acknowledging their thoroughness.
While the environments of the Living Lands might not strive for the hyper-realistic simulation found in games like Deus Ex or The Elder Scrolls, Avowed instead aims for a more distinctly “game-like” satisfaction. The consistent rewards for venturing off the beaten path provide a different kind of engaging experience, constantly encouraging players to look closer and explore further.
Area Design and the Philosophy of Reward
Ritger described his role as overseeing the cohesive design of Avowed’s regions, encompassing area layout, environmental artistry, and narrative integration. His responsibilities included ensuring that all elements harmonized with the unique identity of each zone. He also contributed directly to design aspects when needed, showcasing his hands-on approach to development.
Specifically, Ritger directly supervised the creation of Dawnshore and The Garden areas, as well as the Emerald Stair region for a portion of its development. He also guided the game’s concluding sequence. His direct design influence is particularly evident in the prologue island and the memorable opening of the “Dawntreader” questline – renowned for its magic crystal mech and enigmatic golden priest character.
Parkour and the Birth of Hidden Secrets
According to Ritger, a key factor in Avowed’s abundance of hidden rewards stems from its incorporated parkour system. This system, present from the early stages of Avowed’s development and surviving a significant reboot in 2021, necessitates levels designed with verticality to support climbing, clambering, and jumping mechanics. Interestingly, this robust movement system inadvertently encouraged playtesters to push boundaries, accessing areas not initially intended by the designers.
Hey, player, we see you. You came up here, and we put a little bird’s nest, a little coin in it.
Rather than restricting player freedom with invisible walls or unclimbable surfaces, Ritger explained that the development team embraced this player behavior. He stated, “People are going to figure out a way to get up on the roofs. Let’s just lean into that and commit to rewarding that exploration, because it is so fun to just clamber on all this stuff.”
Expanding on this philosophy, Ritger clarified that rewards didn’t need to be grand or game-altering. Instead, the focus was on subtle acknowledgements, stating, “but more of that little acknowledgement of, ‘Hey, player, we see you. You came up here, and we put a little bird’s nest, a little coin in it.’ And that’s going to make you feel good, because I know as a player, that feels good for me, and that’ll just keep encouraging [exploration] throughout the game.”
Ritger further detailed the iterative design process, explaining, “Then as people were building things, people on the team would play test, and they’d climb up to something, or they’d go around the corner that you wouldn’t expect them necessarily to, and [we’d] try to fill the dead ends with stuff or cut off the dead ends so you don’t think, ‘Oh, this is going to lead somewhere, right?’ And then you end up like, ‘Oh, it’s just a wall, whoops.’ We tried to make sure all those felt as intentional as possible.”
Unveiling Hidden Content: Notable Examples
Avowed’s hidden secrets extend beyond minor collectibles, with some offering substantial rewards. Ritger highlighted a personal favorite: a concealed sewer or cistern system located beneath the starting docks. Players who stumble upon this area will face challenging Specter enemies in confined spaces, ultimately rewarded with a potent and unique item.
Non-player characters (NPCs) in the vicinity subtly hint at the presence of something below through ambient dialogue about unusual noises. Crucially, the game intentionally omits any explicit journal entries, quests, or direct conversations that guide players to this location, enhancing the sense of discovery and making it feel truly hidden. Ritger specifically credited Obsidian area designer Ryan Torres for creating this memorable secret area.
Ritger also shared another intriguing example, recalling, “There is a chest in Shatterscarp, it’s near the Leviathan hollow, and it’s a little lock box with a bunch of severed hands grabbing towards it. If you interact and you loot all of it, it sinks into the ground, and all that stuff just disappears. That was [Bre Seale], the designer who placed that really awesome little moment.”
Additionally, Ritger mentioned an amusing encounter with an Orlan poet (a Hobbit-like character) found hidden behind a waterfall in one of Avowed’s regions. This character, featuring dialogue written by Obsidian narrative designer Katie Tenney, offers an unmarked quest where players assist in refining his poetry to help him win back a love interest in town.
The Importance of Rewarding Exploration in RPGs
“Around every corner there’s a little something that somebody hand placed for everyone,” Ritger stated, emphasizing the team’s commitment to rewarding player curiosity. He argued that this design philosophy is crucial for maintaining player engagement in expansive RPG worlds, especially over long playtime durations.
He elaborated on the negative impact of unrewarding exploration: “If you have a lot of dead ends that lead nowhere, you learn the lesson as a player: This game doesn’t have much to offer me, there’s going to be a lot of things that just kind of lead nowhere, and I’m not going to bother looking at them,” he explained. “I’m just going to go through whatever looks like the main path.”
Ritger contrasted this with his own playstyle as an RPG enthusiast, a tendency shared by many players: prioritizing the main quest initially, then dedicating time to thorough side exploration. To accommodate this, the Avowed team aimed to clearly indicate the main storyline path in dungeons and zones, while simultaneously promising worthwhile discoveries along branching side paths.
“We try to have them lead you to something or give you something, so that every time you try that you’re going to feel like, ‘Okay, that was worth it. I’m going to keep doing that,” Ritger concluded. “And every environment I go through, I’m going to stop and pause and look around and then kind of put off the main part for a second while I poke around.'”
This design philosophy clearly resonated in the Avowed experience, positioning it as a strong contender for game of the year considerations. While project lead Carrie Patel has hinted at potential DLC in the future, fans can also anticipate the release of The Outer Worlds 2 from Obsidian, scheduled for launch before the end of 2025.