Jeff Gardiner has a storied historical past of engaged on video games like The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, Skyrim, and Fallout 76, and he’s now arduous at work on his subsequent grand RPG. After leaving Bethesda Game Studios final yr, Gardiner shaped a brand new studio with Obsidian Entertainment designer Charles Staples referred to as Something Wicked Games. After securing $13.2 million in funding from NetEase in April, Gardiner revealed the studio’s first undertaking at Gamescom Opening Night Live. That sport known as Wyrdsong, and it’s a preternatural open-world RPG concerning the Knight’s Templar set in medieval Portugal.
Gardiner tells Digital Trends that he thinks Something Wicked Games could make this Unreal Engine 5 RPG an attractive center floor between Bethesda and Obsidian’s formulation. “People create this rivalry between Bethesda and Obsidian because we’ve both worked on RPGs, but I really admire a lot of the Obsidian folks,” Gardiner explains. “I’m super excited at the idea that we’re going to bring these two ideas on what makes great RPGs together and make the best version of that.”
While Wyrdsong remains to be within the pre-alpha section of growth, I spoke with Gardiner forward of its reveal. I discovered extra about what this occult fantasy RPG center floor between Bethesda and Obsidian will appear like and why Something Wicked Games desires to make gamers query actuality in the identical means that Robert Egger’s The Witch does.
What is Wyrdsong?
“No surprise, it’s a big open-world RPG!” Gardiner defined when requested to explain Wyrdsong. “It’s a preternatural, occult historical fantasy RPG set in Middle Ages Portugal because we want vast landscapes and unique architecture. As you saw in the trailer, we really want to get into the mythological history of the Knight’s Templar and the idea that they had all these weird rituals. They’re basically the basis for a lot of the secret societies that exist today.”
Gardiner first fell in love with this matter and subject material when touring to Portugal simply earlier than the COVID-19 pandemic hit. He learn a e-book referred to as First Templar Nation that exposed lots of the eccentricities of that order. He thought it will act as an intriguing backdrop to a sport the place gamers always query what they expertise. Unlike most open-world RPGs, Wrydsong will persistently have a psychological horror tinge to it.
Gardiner immediately in contrast Wyrdsong to the likes of The Witch and Westworld and defined that he desires to couple participant selection with mechanics and a storyline that can always have gamers questioning their actuality. Mix in some Shakespearean influences as effectively, and Wyrdsong is shaping as much as be a mind-bending fantasy journey.
“We want to explore not only a big open-world game set in this time period, but also the idea that the brain is not a passive receptor of information,” Gardiner defined. “Your subconscious has a huge role in the way the waking world appears to you. We want to explore that space of unreliable narrators and things that are not as they seem. Wyrd is an old English word for fate or karma, so we’re really going to dig into choice and consequence and see how far we can push that envelope in an RPG.”
No shock, it’s an enormous open-world RPG!
Gardiner went into much more particular gameplay element with Digital Trends, providing up some unique tidbits. He confirmed that gamers can select their gender identification in the beginning of the sport and that the Knight’s Templar is only one of a number of factions that gamers will have the ability to be part of. While he desires Wyrdsong to face out throughout the open-world style, he additionally desires it to be an approachable sport that’s not too reliant on historic information.
“I’m a big believer in making games sort of familiar enough to where you don’t have to learn a lot of backstory and lore and all the things that sort of can bog an RPG down, but different enough to where you want to explore the corners and see the exciting things and learn new stuff,” he stated.
It’s a captivating fantasy RPG pitch, and the teaser trailer definitely establishes Wyrdsong’s grand however weary tone. Still, the undertaking is kind of early in growth, so Gardiner isn’t able to reveal extra gameplay specifics as a result of he desires builders who come onto the staff to have the prospect to influence and mould the sport.
“The core team now is about a dozen people building the game, and I’m really focused on giving people that come in the autonomy to make these decisions,” Gardiner stated. “While we’re making a big RPG, we want to keep the studio around 70 people total because we want people to come in and have creative autonomy. We’ll set the goals and let them figure it out, come in, and tell us what they think would be awesome.”
Best of each RPG worlds
Establishing a studio in the course of the COVID-19 pandemic is a tall activity, particularly contemplating that Gardiner has by no means finished this earlier than. Gardiner’s feedback present that he’s desperate to convey different folks in and create one thing particular. Because of the expertise and experiences of the primary dozen Something Wicked Games builders, there was little doubt in Gardiner’s thoughts that Something Wicked Games’ first title can be an RPG that mixes the very best of what Bethesda and Obsidian have to supply.
Gardiner believes the RPG video games from Bethesda and Obsidian are endearing and endure the check of time as a result of they’re rewarding for each the gamers that sink a lot of time into the sport and the builders who work on them.
“The real inspiration behind my RPGs has been that players will be able to go into a world and affect the outcomes of the people that live there, experiment with things and see what happens, and feel like ‘I am part of a great story,’” Gardiner says. “I think that’s why RPGs win so many Game of the Year awards: they capture people’s hearts in ways that other games don’t … I want to help other developers experience the same things I’ve experienced: being able to put games out in the world that really affect people who play for hundreds, if not thousands of hours and make unbelievable memories.”
It is all about constructing a sport that folks need to be part of.
Wyrdsong’s growth is full velocity forward. There’s no launch window as Something Wicked Games is planning to maintain staffing up by means of 2024, revisit Portugal for future analysis, and resolve how Wyrdsong will play throughout its pre-alpha section. Even after it’s out, Gardiner hinted that Wyrdsong is a sport that Something Wicked want to help. And as somebody who was at floor zero of Fallout 76’s launch and restoration and the notorious Oblivion Horse Armor scandal, Gardiner desires to make Wyrdsong one thing that resonates and lasts. And by combining the strengths of Bethesda and Obsidian, Gardiner thinks he can.
“It is all about building a game that people want to be a part of, that they want to see succeed,” he asserts. “I personally am more than happy to support games that I feel have a long trajectory and ones where the devs are making changes to fix issues and building upon it. The most important thing to me is to make sure it’s a great game that people are having fun in. The rest of that stuff sorts itself out. With Wyrdsong, we just want to put out an awesome game that we can continue to support for years while also finding ways to keep Something Wicked’s lights on.”
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