A game from a small French studio dominated Thursday night. 鈥淐lair Obscur: Expedition 33鈥� won not only Best Independent Game, but Best Debut Indie Game, Best Game Direction, Best Narrative, Best Art Direction, Best Score, Best Performance, Best RPG, and, of course, the night鈥檚 highest honor 鈥� Game of the Year.
I鈥檓 happy for 鈥淐lair Obscur,鈥� which charmed the crowd as each developer ascended the main stage to accept awards in uniform red berets. But despite having a hand in the game鈥檚 nomination to so many categories 鈥� NPR is among the over 150 international publications the Game Awards polls to form its shortlist 鈥� I wish other indies had their own moments to shine, from visual memoirs like 鈥淐onsume Me鈥� to innovative puzzlers like 鈥淏lue Prince.鈥�
As I sat in the theater, watching 鈥淐lair Obscur鈥� , I became less interested in the awards themselves and more intrigued by the other half of this media spectacle: the previews. As creator and host Geoff Keighley told me in an interview conducted a week before the show, the ceremony exists to 鈥渃elebrate the best and see what鈥檚 next.鈥� I can鈥檛 cover every 鈥渆xclusive world premiere鈥� in this article, but I鈥檒l highlight a few that I can provide additional context for.
One of two games partnering with Wizards of the Coast, the owner of 鈥淒ungeons & Dragons,鈥� 鈥淲arlock鈥� translates the roleplaying game鈥檚 turn-based combat into open-world, spellslinging action. I spoke with Jeff Hattem, vice president of Invoke Studios, about why the team, which previously made the 鈥淒ungeons & Dragons: Dark Alliance,鈥� was drawn to this iconic eldritch character class.
鈥淲arlocks, they rank very highly in terms of classes that players like to play,鈥� said Hattem.
鈥淭hey use charisma to deal damage. That always struck me as interesting. How does that translate to magic? The kind of person that would walk into a room and everyone would just stop talking, there would be a hush. Warlocks, they gain their magical abilities by convincing some of the most powerful beings in the universe of Dungeons and Dragons to bestow magical powers on them. What kind of person can actually do that?鈥�
Hattem wouldn鈥檛 answer my pestering attempts to get him to divulge which particular 鈥淒&D鈥� setting the game might be based in, but given its gothic atmosphere, I wouldn鈥檛 be surprised if it鈥檚 related to Ravenloft, a plane ruled by an elder vampire.
The other game under the Wizards of the Coast brand, the Austin-based studio behind 鈥淓xodus,鈥� made waves by conscripting another Austinian, Matthew McConaughey, to voice a key character. But the choice wasn鈥檛 just about star power.
鈥溾�楨xodus鈥� is a third-person action adventure, role-playing game built in a brand new science-fiction universe that we created,鈥� said game writer Drew Karpyshyn, who also wrote for Mass Effect, a sci-fi series that 鈥淓xodus鈥� is often compared to.
鈥淲e have a hard science-fiction basis where nothing can travel faster than the speed of light. The faster you travel, the closer you get to the speed of light, the slower time goes for you. But for everybody else, time continues at a normal rate.
鈥淪o you go on a journey, it might seem like five days. Ten days have passed, but years could have passed back home. So when you return, you find things are very different. This is a very powerful theme that鈥檚 explored in [the film] 鈥業nterstellar,鈥� and that鈥檚 one of Matthew McConaughey鈥檚 movies. So when we had a chance to work with Matthew, we presented to him our universe, our story, and he instantly understood this core element and the impact it could have on the kinds of stories we could tell.鈥�
鈥淓xodus鈥� developers told me that this concept could lead to far-reaching changes between playthroughs, as the main character, Jun Aslan (yes, like the Narnian lion, I confirmed), goes on various journeys that result in generational changes for the surviving human populace.
But the one thing I may be most excited about? The 鈥渁wakened鈥� animal characters, which I鈥檓 told include a superintelligent octopus and at least one punchable bear in space armor (which the 鈥淓xodus鈥� developers implied was a knowing homage to one of the ,鈥� a game that Wizards of the Coast also owns).
From Jonathan Blow, an indie auteur famous for introspective puzzle games 鈥淏raid鈥� and 鈥淭he Witness,鈥� 鈥淥rder of the Sinking Star鈥� is the culmination of a decade of work.
鈥淚n terms of some kind of objective measure of 鈥榟ow good is the puzzle design,鈥� this is the best thing I鈥檝e ever worked on by a significant margin,鈥� Blow said.
The game, which superficially resembles block-pushing 鈥渟okoban鈥� games, boasts at least 1,000 discrete puzzles, all part of a mysterious story that Blow says would take hundreds of hours to fully unravel.
But Blow doesn鈥檛 see the game as a pure mechanical challenge. Rather, he hopes it can get players to engage with philosophical questions.
鈥淚f there鈥檚 a neat mechanic, is it just a gimmick, or are we undertaking some exploration about why that mechanic is interesting and how it鈥檚 surprising and how it could be beautiful?,鈥� asked Blow. 鈥淚s there a way that you could understand our universe by playing around with the possible universes that you could have in games?鈥�
I鈥檓 not sure that I have the intelligence or persistence to ace 鈥淥rder of the Sinking Star,鈥� but I admire Blow鈥檚 ambition and will certainly give it a try. While he鈥檚 enlisted other designers to help, his vision remains singularly unique in the games industry.
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produced and edited this interview for broadcast with . Perkins Mastromarino also produced it for the web.
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