Importance Score: 25 / 100 🔵
Avowed’s Early Stages: From Linear Docks to Exploding Mages – A Design Evolution
During a recent discussion with Berto Ritger, Obsidian’s regional director, the focus was primarily on the impressive level design and world exploration features in Avowed, the highly anticipated action RPG. However, Ritger also disclosed intriguing details regarding significant transformations in Avowed’s game development, particularly its initial phases. While these alterations were ultimately beneficial, it involved refining, and in some ways, initially enhancing an amusing Elder Scrolls reference within Avowed.
Early Linear Start and the Need for an Engaging Prologue
“Originally,” Ritger explained, “we omitted the prologue. Players began directly at the Dawnshore docks.” This initial approach, he noted, proved somewhat restrictive. “It felt a bit too linear, and our aim was to create a more expansive opening. Crucially, it wasn’t effectively introducing players to the game world and combat mechanics swiftly enough. The tutorials for various mechanics weren’t unfolding in that rapid, predictable manner essential for a compelling early game experience.”
Crafting a Prologue Island: Enhancing the Player Introduction
This assessment led to the conception of Avowed’s prologue island, a design element Ritger significantly contributed to. In the earliest iteration of Avowed’s beginning, vital tutorial components were dispersed across the western segment of Dawnshore—a contained, yet considerably open region.
The Explosive Introduction to Magic: An Evolving Tutorial
“The very first version of the Grimoire tutorial, the introduction to magic, involved a character who self-detonated on a cliff,” Ritger recalled. “I was responsible for implementing that, and I found it to be a genuinely fun little addition that I was pleased to include.”
The Charred Wizard and the Grimoire: A Point of Interest
Ritger is alluding to an intriguing spot found early in western Dawnshore: a crater marking the remains of a wizard, reduced to ashes. In the finalized Avowed version, this unfortunate pyromancer carries a unique spellcasting grimoire. Players can also discover his notes, detailing an ambitious experiment that clearly went awry.
Witnessing the Explosion: An Initial Design Idea
When Dawnshore functioned as Avowed’s tutorial space, players were intended to observe the explosion from a distance. The pyromancer’s remains were to serve as the source of the first grimoire, triggering the spellcasting tutorial for Avowed.
Drawing Player Attention: The Genesis of an Explosive Idea
“We needed a way to attract player attention to this tutorial,” Ritger elaborated. “In such a vast, sprawling environment, what better way than to have a figure on the road spontaneously combust? That’s certainly going to grab attention!” This explosive event, he clarified, would ensure players acquired a Grimoire and initiated their magical education.
Humor in Game Design: A Laugh Confirms the Concept
“I knew this concept resonated positively,” Ritger continued, “when I shared a video of it with Carrie Patel, the Avowed project lead. I could hear her laughter echoing down the hallway – confirming it was a keeper.”
An Ode to Morrowind: The Tarhiel Inspiration
Intrigued, the interviewer inquired if this explosive wizard was an inside joke, referencing the iconic scene from The Elder Scrolls 3: Morrowind, where Tarhiel, a wood elf in a peculiar hat, plummets from the sky to his demise near Seyda Neen, Morrowind’s starting village, a memorable moment in RPGs.
Tarhiel’s Legacy: Magic Mishaps as Tutorial
Tarhiel’s journal humorously reveals his creation of “Icarian Flight,” a spell designed to launch the user skyward, albeit without guaranteed safe landing. Beyond its slapstick nature, it serves as an early introduction to Morrowind’s open and potentially hazardous magic and spellcrafting system. Ritger validated the interviewer’s hunch, confirming Tarhiel was “precisely the inspiration” for Avowed’s doomed pyromancer.
Balancing Open World Exploration with Clear Tutorials
Despite the comedic appeal, playtesting indicated that this explosive introduction, and the initial Dawnshore opening as a whole, proved too unreliable for effectively conveying Avowed’s core mechanics. Players could too easily stray and overlook essential tutorials. As Ritger pointed out, there’s a reason many open-world games commence with a somewhat linear segment. While the full spectacle of the pyromancer’s unfortunate experiment might not have made the final cut, its aftermath remains as a delightful discovery in a game brimming with them.