Developer Diaries: Beholder

Novosibirsk company Alawar told App2Top.ru as during the development of a new game for Steam, its concept has changed beyond recognition.

Any big project starts with a small idea. At the heart of our new Beholder game was a simple idea: surveillance. Every person at least once in their life would like to know a little more about their relatives, friends, neighbors.

Initially, we decided to create a kind of simulator of the life of an ordinary person who has the opportunity to spy on others: collect dirt, write denunciations. Special thanks to Uncle Orwell. His dystopian novel “1984” suggested an ideal game setting: our hero lives in a totalitarian State and manages an apartment building in which various characters rent housing.

We decided to make a narrative adventure game the basis of the game gameplay. By this term, we understood the various twists in the plot of the game that arise as a result of the player’s interaction with the characters and are tied to the decisions that the player makes during the game.

Spying on people, collecting compromising materials, denunciations, getting rid of unwanted tenants – all this perfectly fit into the dystopian setting.

The main place of action, visually designed as a multi–storey house in the section, made it possible to work out in detail the second main component of the game – economic strategy.

Our hero manages an apartment building: he settles the tenants, receives rent from them. He invests his income in improving living conditions – he renews furniture, carries out planned repairs, improves the security of housing. There was even an idea to create a full-fledged “chief of housing and communal services” – full-scale maintenance of the house, laying of heating, supply of cold and hot water, as well as periodic shutdowns and testing of heating networks (how can it be without this in a totalitarian state). A well-thought-out and correct strategy for the development of the house improves the housing rating, the player has grounds for increasing the rent, the cycle closes.

Of course, the espionage component was also developing. Settling in a new tenant, the player could enter the apartment, install bugs, search the premises, find items prohibited by law. He could even throw such objects, getting the opportunity to substitute a lodger. The information received could be used at will – write a denunciation and evict the tenant or blackmail the guests by extorting money.

It should be noted that the economic strategy turned out to be quite good. We have developed a multi-stage system of tasks, balanced the levels, added secondary plot lines, giving the player the opportunity to choose one of the possible strategies for passing.

But as we worked through the gameplay and game mechanics, we realized that the game was beginning to lose its uniqueness. Testing the next version, we caught ourselves thinking that the emotional core had disappeared from the game, moral aspects and problems of choice were blurred and disappeared.

The attachment to money led to the fact that the tenants were considered by the player not as individuals, but as a resource. The pursuit of rent led to the fact that the player was primarily concerned about income, not the tenant. All the game features – surveillance, denunciations, setups – were eventually used to get rid of defaulters and bring rich guests into the house, who could also be thrown out as soon as they stopped paying. Again, the rent from the apartments was tied to a certain time interval – you could just start the game and go about your business, periodically returning and collecting the accumulated income.

This completely devalued the game setting. If we replaced the dystopia with an ordinary modern city, a fairy–tale kingdom, even an intergalactic empire, the essence of the game would remain unchanged. We wanted the setting to be part of the project, adding uniqueness not only at the level of design, but also at the level of idea and gameplay.

Therefore, we decided on a cardinal measure – we abandoned the mechanics of economic strategy. At all.

We have removed the rent. We have removed the mechanics of improvements, upgrades and all related functionality. We have completely redesigned the mechanics of hero interaction and revised all game quests, focusing on the personality of the characters.

Now the main player has to get to know the tenants who have moved into his house more closely. Eavesdropping on conversations, searching apartments and collecting dirt, our hero learns about the experiences of his tenants, comes into contact with their problems, fears, intentions. He builds his own attitude to the characters of the game, begins to feel sympathy or antipathy. The game resource has turned into living people.

But after abandoning the economic component, we faced another problem – a clear lack of game animations. If earlier the actions of the characters related to the economic strategy could be implemented through icons, messages, notifications, then these funds were clearly not enough to reveal the personality of the character. We have come up with and implemented a huge layer of animation inserts, revealing both the features of a single character and various aspects of the characters’ relationships.

The game gradually acquired a finished look. We were able to return to the main idea with which the development of the project began, but now this idea has become overgrown with details and details.

Our hero turned into a functionary of a large totalitarian machine. He is the manager of one of hundreds of apartment buildings. He smiles when he talks to you. He cares about your comfort and well-being. He has his own family, which he loves.

But he is assigned by the State to monitor compliance with the laws. He’s watching you when you don’t see it. He’s going through your stuff. He’s listening to your phones. He knows all your secrets. He is obliged to report a violation of the law. Even when you are just planning to break it.

The game choice has also acquired a moral aspect and an emotional color.

Yes, the player is obliged to inform on the tenant, if there is a reason. But “must do” does not mean “will do”. To hand over to the authorities a doctor who may turn out to be an underground revolutionary? And if only he can get medicines for your child? What should I do? Write a denunciation of a counterfeiter? Or start blackmail, trying to get some money to improve the plight of the family? And if you are being bugged yourself?

Sometimes the game choice is relatively simple. Sometimes you have to choose between two evils. But every decision that the player makes affects the further development of events, launching one or another scenario of the story. And since there are dozens of characters in the game whose destinies are closely intertwined, the consequences of the choice can overtake the player at the most unexpected moment.

What lesson have we learned from this story? From the very beginning to the last stage of work on the project, you should always keep in mind the main idea of the game. Otherwise, there is a danger of unnecessarily delving into secondary elements, behind which the idea itself, the highlight of the project, will be lost.

To be honest, going into the narrative gave more questions than answers. Some artifacts of economic strategy are still present in the game. How necessary are they? Is it worth continuing to try to fit them into the game or abandon them completely? Have we managed to completely transfer the gameplay into the narrative field? How interesting and addictive will it be? It’s up to the players.

You can help us answer these questions by participating in the closed BETA testing, which will begin very soon. You can sign up for the test here.

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If you have a desire to participate yourself – write to press@app2top.ru . We will consider applications, if they are interested, we will definitely respond.