“All this enabled us to build an immersive world that the player could lose himself in, even in fantastical places that only existed in these stories.”
When creating Rise of the Argonauts, one thing stood out in the minds of development team members like game designer Andrew Rubino: immersion. “Probably our biggest goal with Rise of the Argonauts was that the player can fully immerse himself in the world and not just feel like he’s playing a video game,” said Rubino. “But when we looked at a lot of RPG conventions, we found many elements that interrupted the player’s experience. We want players running through Greece, making important decisions and battling fierce enemies, not spending 10 minutes navigating through menus screens. So we streamlined the RPG elements, keeping the depth while removing the complexity.
“For example, we don’t have any arbitrary stats: items and upgrades all give Jason a unique, tangible ability, not something vague like “Int +1.” Instead, Jason gets weapons like the Fist of Ares, which causes shields to explode, ripping apart nearby enemies with shrapnel. Anybody can read that description and immediately understand how that weapon works and why it’s useful. In this way, player customization makes a huge difference on how the game plays, but it’s a much faster experience.”
Stats aren’t the only thing that have been streamlined. Regarding the dialogue trees, Rubino says, “We’ve made all of Jason’s choices significant because every dialogue choice in the game is aligned with one of Jason’s patron gods: Ares, Athena, Apollo, and Hermes. A choice aligned with a god will reflect what that god is all about. Ares choices are very direct and aggressive; Apollo choices are more compassionate, and so on. This gives players more flexibility to personalize Jason. Is your Jason a clever trickster in the spirit of Odysseus? Then you’ll probably lean towards Hermes choices. The decision is yours.
“As you know, the gods are always watching in mythological Greece, so when you make a choice aligned with a particular god, that god is pleased with Jason and his favor increases. Gaining favor with a god grants Jason new abilities, which means that every time a player makes a choice, he is leveling his character.”
