064
INDIE GAMES
The Pathless
W
here Giant Squid’s debut
Abzû took us deep under
the ocean, The Pathless
is a much more land-based affair.
As the Hunter – cloaked, robed,
and carrying a bow – you arrive
on a cursed island covered in
woodland and temple ruins.
There you find an eagle, your
only ally as you trek across the
open world island, fighting
many-eyed beings.
“The scope of The Pathless is
definitely larger than any game I
have worked on previously,” creative
director Matt Nava tells us. “Weare making a giant, continuous area
for players to explore without
loading screens, and populating it
with about a million trees. It’s a
tricky balance to tune the speed of
the character, the size of the game
space, and the density of features
in the landscape.”
There’s a reason the game is
called The Pathless. The Hunter’s
steps won’t just lead from A to B.
“The player has many options of
where they can go at any time, but
as the game progresses, the player
will be able to access large new
areas,” says Nava. It’s a world filled
with things to find. “Backtracking
is always allowed and there are
many secrets that the player will
be able to find. It’s an open world
game, which opens up a lot of new
opportunities for us as designers.”
Before working on Abzû, Nava
was art director on Flower and
Journey for thatgamecompany. His
distinctive style has transferred
from Journey to the similarly
enchanting and understated quest
in The Pathless, though on agrander scale. “The art direction of
The Pathless takes inspiration from
many sources, from our own
experiences hiking in the forests of
the Pacific Northwest to Miyazaki
films,” says Nava.
There’s a clear Japanese influence
to the game, down to the Hunter’s
beautifully fluid animation as they
traverse the island, glide with the
eagle, and rapid-fire the bow at
eye-like targets on enemies and the
environment. “We have researched
kyudo, the traditional practice of
archery in Japan, as well as motifs
of Mongolian cultures in our
design process. These inspirations
give our invented world a grounded
sense of reality that enhances
immersion. The visual style is also
a graphical evolution of the look we
created for Abzû in many ways,”
Nava explains.ON TARGET
Teaming up with the eagle gives
the Hunter the edge over the
environment. You are able to use it
to glide, and you can also activate
an eagle vision to spot targets
better. It’s a symbiotic relationship.
“The eagle helps you soar, hunt,
battle, and solve puzzles. You will
also need to take care of the eagle
by petting and cleaning it to keep
it in top condition as you explore,”
comments Nava.
The Hunter’s motion is always
quick, and impressive to look at.
Even when you’re using the bow,
you barely have to slow down. “Our
priorities are fluidity, speed, and
accessibility – we want to make it
simple for the player to feel like
they are a skilled archer just like
the Hunter,” Nava explains. “It
always breaks the illusion of being
a superhero when the player’s
ability to execute skilled actions is
hampered purely by the difficulty
of controlling the game. We’ve
built a bow system based on
timing rather than conventional
aiming that allows you to shoot
accurately while moving fast,without resorting to bullet-time
slow motion mechanics.”MANY PATHWAYS
‘The trick with making this
scale of indie game is that your
audience will compare it to games
made by teams of hundreds of
people with budgets hundreds of
times bigger,” says Nava when we
ask about the balance in making
indie games. “To achieve that, we
have to design our systems and
tools smartly to get the highest-
quality results as efficiently as
possible since we have a limited
amount of budget and therefore
time to create the game. We have
to choose the features that make
us stand apart – like our unique
art direction and unique gameplay- and focus our efforts on them.”
For Nava, indies provide spaces
for creating and playing fresh ideas.
“[Indie] games often offer unique
gameplay, narratives, and
perspectives that would be too
risky to put in a Triple-A game,”
he says. “Overall, Triple-A games
and indie games offer different
experiences that are both great.
Playing games of all sizes
can enrich your life in
ways that purely playing
Triple-A cannot.
“The coming years
will likely be very
difficult for very small
developers,” says Nava on
there being more games
than ever – it’s important
to support smaller indie
developers you love.
“Larger indie studios
like Giant Squid will
probably fare well if
they can keep making
successful titles. But
for gamers, the breadth
and diversity of gaming
experiences will
continue to expand in
great ways, across the
spectrum from indie
to Triple-A.”
FORMATPS4/PLAYERS 1 /DEV GIANTSQUID STUDIOSTaking the road less travelled
“WE ARE MAKING A
GIANT, CONTINUOUS
AREA FOR PLAYERS
TO EXPLORE.”