You may remember that a few years ago, former BioWare Jennifer Hepler discussed the possibility of a role-playing game that would let players skip past combat so they could experience the story moments more frequently.
While many players and developers expressed frustration at this idea (and then at the harassment Hepler endured afterward), one developer, Wadjet Eye Games’ Dave Gilbert, began thinking “wait, why doesn’t that game exist?”
It turns out, this is part of the origin story behind Unavowed, a new adventure game from Wadjet Eye Games. Forgoing the combat that fills up may BioWare RPGs, Unavowed instead presents the player both with a character who has a customizable backstory, and a selection of supporting characters that can be swapped out from mission to mission.
To learn more about pushing the envelope in the point-and-click adventure game genre, we reached out to Gilbert for a conversation about the making of Unavowed earlier today on the Gamasutra Twitch channel, which you can now watch in the video above. Watch the conversation if you’re a developer working on managing narrative scope, or you want to know how Gilbert takes inspiration from his home town of New York City when making his games.
And while you’re at it, be sure to follow the Gamasutra Twitch channel for more developer interviews, editor roundtables and gameplay commentary.