While still remaining a ”fairly linear storyline”, giving players a few choices along the way doesn’t hurt, Plourde feels. Will being a princess turn off gamers? It shouldn’t matter.
Plourde fires off a few ‘humanity comes first sound bites of feel goodery. He believes Child of Light should be judged by the quality of the journey above all.
“I want to take some chances with this game. The idea is simple; what if, when we offer the main character a choice, we let the player decide? Not to say that the game is completely open ended – it is still a fairly linear storyline – but by giving the player the choice to help somebody or not, or by being able to take the villain’s offer or refusing it and have a different outcome, the experience becomes better,” Plourde mused with OXM.
This kind of thinking had an impact in Far Cry 3 where there were a few moments that we could exercise a choice. All that floppy hair, crown and wearing a dress won’t put off the male demographic much, if the experience is a quality one. That’s what matters most, at least to Plourde.
“In my mind we are all human beings first, whether we are gamers or not. I believe that we all respond positively to emotions that are true. If you make something true and original, people from different backgrounds and with different interests can and will want to experience it,” he said, while hugging puppies presumably.
“Miyazaki movies are a great reference for me because they primarily have female main characters, and at the same time, I feel they are loved by gamers. You can watch Iron Man and My Neighbor Totoro in the same weekend and it’s not considered weird. In fact, you would be considered a film aficionado.”
”So why wouldn’t a gamer, somebody that likes games, be interested in playing different experiences? One type of experience doesn’t replace another, they complete each other. We will see if Child of Light will be well received, and I hope it will be, but in the end its success will be riding on the quality of the experience and not its subject matter.”
If there’s one engine out there that could deliver a pretty dazzlingly fantasy story it’s the new UbiArt Framework powering the recent Rayman Origins. Child of Light releases on PC, Xbox 360, PS3, Wii U, Xbox One and PS4 in 2014.