This devlog will come in two parts, look for part 2 later this week.

Introduction

Factions are an interesting subject, they are a way to presents ideals to the Player in a way that can display the particular groups goals, sustainability, repercussions, and so on. One of the things I have spent the most time on when designing the world of Deadwind was the factions, I think that having these groups, with realistic ideals, that they are attempting to carry out in realistic ways are important for immersing a player in a world that they can believe in. In this devlog I will be explaining my theory on how we can make a strong introduction to a faction, as well as how to construct realistic conflicts between them.

First Impressions

When a player encounters a faction, I believe it is important to present their goals almost immediately, whether that be through dialogue, set pieces, quests, etc. this can be done subtly, or in a more apparent way, but in either case it is a good introduction,and in most cases the player will begin forming an opinion almost immediately. If you played Fallout: New Vegas, think of how you felt the first time you saw Nipton, depending on the character you were playing, you either condemned the legion for destroying the settlement, or praised them for eliminating the New Vegas equivalent of Sodom and Gomorrah. You as a player saw both their judgment, and their capabilities in a single instance, and the opinion you formed on them was more than likely carried for a large portion of the game. I hope to create these sort of impressions with Deadwind. And in the demo I have attempted to create one of these instances with the Elysure Dominion  (more on them in part two). When we give the player something to hold on to from the very start, we can then change and manipulate their opinions on the group in much more interesting ways, and in cases such as Bioshock, or even Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, shock the player with actions that will change their opinions quickly, and dramatically.

Realistic Conflicts

If a faction is working under their ideals, there will naturally be those who oppose it. If we have created one faction, that is more than enough of a basis to create a second. 

These factions should not exist solely to oppose each other, without an actual difference in ideals, immersion would suffer greatly. In life, large groups have reasons for their actions, whether these reasons have merit, or are true in the first place, hardly seems to matter. Either way, it is important that a faction would have a realistic reason to dislike another faction, and since we are designing these factions with ideals in mind, it turns out to be pretty simple.

For example, say Faction A assumes a totalitarian government, while some citizens from Faction B, a democratic group  are still living within Faction A’s land. A conflict will arise not because of Faction B’s inherit hate for Faction A, but because they do not want their citizens living under a totalitarian system. depending on the actions the two factions take from here, we could see many outcomes, even war.

Obviously this a simplification of faction conflicts, but imagine that Faction A simply didn't like Faction B, wheres the story there? When we write simple “good” or “evil” groups, we inhibit the stories that can rise out of their conflicts immensely. 

Conclusion

Thanks for reading, part 2 is almost ready to go, and it should be out by Sunday. I thank all of you for reading. As I don't really have a hand in any of the programming or art, these posts do usually come out more tell than show, but I do hope that these posts raise some thoughts, and maybe some discussion.

Until next time,

Andrew Martello