As if A Plague Tale: Innocence's E3 announcement trailer wasn't terrifying enough, Asobo Studio has revealed more about its horrifying hordes of rats—which players are apparently expected to "play with and against."
I don't think I'm so keen on the former.
See? Who in their right mind would even attempt to side with those little critters? Speaking to GameWatcher at E3, the developer's creative director David Dedeine explored the challenges of presenting quite so many rodents on screen at once, and what he and his team are required to constantly consider from a design perspective.
"We wanted to push the swarm as far as we could, but what you and others have seen isn’t even the full magnitude of what we’ve done with the rats. We’ve aimed much higher and further in some situations," says Dedeine. "One of the challenges has been in pushing the limits in visual threat, but also keeping a level of animation that made it look like there is organic movement and life to them.
"They’re still animals. We want them to look and behave as if each of them was a filthy little individual creature. On top of that, there’s the gameplay to consider and that’s the biggest concern of all of them at the end of the day. You have to play with and against those rats."
Dedeine doesn't go into exactly what partnering with our furry non-friends entails in-game, however does expand on how dynamic he wanted each individual rat's behaviour to be.
"We have so much to consider about what the rats do, at what distance they’ll see you or attack you, how the light repels them, and so forth," Dedeine adds. "Even when they’re held at bay by light, we want them to instill a visceral feeling that they want to attack you while they’re on the outskirts of your light. That animation and behavior combined with keeping the framerate consistent makes the development of the rats very complex."
To echo Fraser's sign off here: welcome to your nightmares.
