Prey for the Gods: An Interview With No Matter Games' Brian Parnell
It wasn’t that long ago that a small team banded together to reveal a new and mighty undertaking in the form of Prey for the Gods. No Matter Studios is the humble gathering of industry veterans Brian Parnell, Hung-Chien Liao, and Tim Wiese that pledged to bring players into the open-world journey of a young, unnamed woman tasked with challenging great and terrifying beasts. The videos and screenshots that were offered reminded players immediately of the grand scales of games like Shadow of the Colossus.
Following a successful KickStarter, No Matter Studios has worked tirelessly to bring this project to life and lead us into the wild and wintry adventure that Prey for the Gods promises to deliver. Recently, GameWatcher was able to pull game director Brian Parnell away from the grind to chat in-depth about the latest on the game. Parnell opened up about what we can expect to get into when Prey for the Gods drops, as well as how the formation of No Matter Studios and concept of Prey for the Gods came about, some of the systems at play, what we’ll be doing in the game, and more.
GameWatcher: We’ve seen a lot of crazy things coming into this wild and dangerous world that Prey for the Gods presents. What’s the context here? Who is that girl and why is she facing down these massive giants alone?
Brian Parnell: There’s certainly a lot we want left up to players to figure out once they get in game, but there’s certainly some background to share. For a while now in this game’s land, there’s been a never-ending winter. The snow is not going away. So this group of people have sent travelers to this island to figure out what is going on. A lot of people went and didn’t come back. She is the latest one of these people to be sent following in the tracks of other would-be heroes that came before her and figure out what has happened to them. The game picks up on her arrival at the island.
GameWatcher: When people got their first look at this game, it was easy to call games like Shadow of the Colossus to mind. A bit of the rebooted Tomb Raider might be in there as well, but what inspired you to this idea? How did you nail down the concept that is Prey for the Gods?
Parnell: Chien, Tim, and I worked in jobs with mobile game studios. We were all sort of burned out by it. We wanted to make something people would enjoy without a big red button screaming “buy!” all the time. Don’t get me wrong. There are some mobile games I love to death, but it just wasn’t for us. The three of us went out for coffee one day and discussed what we should do. We wanted to push ourselves artistically and pursue something that would give meaning to why we got into the industry in the first place. I knew I could produce good art, Chien was a great engineer, and Tim had skills with engineering and environmental art, so we figured out that we sort of had a well-rounded group already. For drafting the game itself, it came out of a discussion of what we could accomplish. I remember Chien was interested in making something like Dynasty Warriors, but the idea of creating so many characters sounded like an enormous workload. So as a team of three people, we narrowed it down to this idea that we should make one character in one box with one boss and this intimate battle that matters. For me, I wanted to create this thing where the bosses were huge and epic. Things like Infinity Blade and, yeah, Shadow of the Colossus came to mind, offering this battle and this system where you climb the boss. I always wondered why nobody really went back to that kind of game up to this point and now I know. It’s not easy.
GameWatcher: Thinking about how in a game like Shadow of the Colossus, you’ve got these creatures that have to essentially be bosses, structures, and puzzles all working properly in one package, that does sound like a challenge.
Parnell: Absolutely, and we go about it in a bit of a different way too. You’ve got survival aspects here and the game is non-linear in comparison to Shadow. We just drop the player in and let them go where they want to go and do what they want to do. Meanwhile, we try to give them reasons to move forward such as queues and interactions in the environment or scenery in the distance that draws the player’s eye. Meanwhile, while we’ve got survival aspects here, we don’t want the player to be necessarily shoehorned into sort of chores. We want them to be empowered to pursue a variety of solutions and make it their playthrough that they’ll progress in their own way.
GameWatcher: This game seems very open and it is non-linear as you said. There doesn’t seem to be a lot holding you back from your hunt and whatever you decide to do with it. That said, could you maybe take us through a typical romp and what we can expect when we leave a comfort zone and venture into the wild in Prey for the Gods?
Parnell: So we drop you on the island and just let you go. It won’t bog you down with waypoints and fetch quests. We sort of want you to see what works, maybe fail here and there, and figure it out what fits as you go. Potentially, you might discover a need for a particular obstacle you’re trying to get around. So you search the area and scavenge a bit. There’s these weird murals around and traces of the people that came before you. There’s story there, but it’s also hints at how they had dealt with those same obstacles. It’s very light hand-holding to sort of guide you to solutions outside of the ones you might come up with on your own. Meanwhile, you’ve got weather to deal with. If a storm comes, it’s on you to find warmer clothes to protect yourself or find a cave to take shelter within until the storm dies out. All the while, you just continue to move forward, push through obstacles, observe clues and stories when you can, and eventually make your way to the creatures that will test your resolve while trying to survive every step of the way.
GameWatcher: It’s been mentioned a couple times that there have been other adventurers before you. In fact, there’s a chance to come across their remains. Is there more than that to these previous adventurers? Do we get to see or encounter them in any other capacity?
Parnell: Yeah, absolutely. For one, you’ll find them in certain ways that provide clues as to what not to do. There’s a sense here that when you’re not the first, you get to discover what you should avoid without a cheesy video or cutscene to spell it out for you. So you’ll definitely come across them in different forms.
GameWatcher: When it comes to progression in Prey for the Gods, would you say there’s more of an emphasis on exploration, combat, or are you looking for a solid balance of both?
Parnell: We kind of been refining what we’ve been doing with all of it. It really depends on what we’re working on for a given day. For a while, we working on a balance. Even in the team is a balance. I’m not up for a constant battle. I feel like I’m more interested in exploration and story side of it. On the other side, I feel like Chien is definitely more up for that twitch, combat gauntlet. He loves Dark Souls and Bloodborne and really digs that sort of nerve wracking intensity. Meanwhile, I think Tim is sort of a good middle ground between us. I think a lot of people want to see that balance, but it also depends on the day. Whatever we’ve decided to work on sort of affects that balance. Ultimately, we’re trying to be mindful of pacing and give players the experience of the world we’ve built as much as the combat.
GameWatcher: A game like this, set in a harsh environment lends itself to a great level of creativity when it comes to sustaining your character and fending off foes and the environment. Is there crafting and gathering to be expected in Prey for the Gods and to what degree?
Parnell: We’ve actually just been working on the items for the game recently. Personally, I’ve been pushing towards a consumable-based system, especially with weapons. You’re in this world where you’re dealing with massive bosses. To me, the idea of running up on these beasts and hitting them with a tiny sword sounds stupid. We want the weapons to be balanced and we needed to come up with a system that work around that. To be honest, when Breath of the Wild’s weapon system was announced, we found some level of validity for our own system in observing how that system worked. Just the same, we don’t want the player to run into a situation where they’ve found their goal, they need a weapon, and they’re going to have to harvest all these absurd items to make something they need for the situation. Collecting wood to craft arrows is one thing, but we’re staying away from the idea of taking something like thirteen light sashes to make a great sash. Instead, if you kill a bird and take its feathers, you could probably make better arrows. We don’t want it to be tedious, but if we’re going to do it, we want it to be streamlined and make sense.
GameWatcher: Ultimately much of what we’ve seen takes place in this outdoor, open-world, snowy tundra which plays as much of an adversary as enemy creatures themselves. That said, will we see any variation in seasons or indoor places or abodes in the world of Prey for the Gods?
Parnell: In terms of seasons, it will be cold or colder. As far as the other things, we did hit a stretch goal in our KickStarter for caves, so we’ve worked out some systems and concepts for it. What exactly it will be is still up in the air, but we’re looking at it from a few angles. One idea we had was as a sort of shortcut. Like you can go inside these lairs and use them to travel through to other areas faster, but it might be more dangerous in there. We’ve still got a lot to consider on this one, such as if it will rely on all the same systems or offer a new possibility for the player to interact with. That said, it’s definitely an idea we’re working with.
GameWatcher: When I think of a survival-adventure game, I think of all the possibilities in which the rules could be changes or cool new equipment could be introduced down the line. Do you have any post-release plans for Prey for the Gods?
Parnell: We’ve talked very openly about this one. In one of our KickStarter stretch goals, we talked about working on three additional bosses. We didn’t hit that one, but things like that are still something we think about. Ultimately, it’s up to the audience. If people like what we make, then we’ll keep adding on to it. There’s so many things we’d love to do. We’ve been very mindful of our scope and brutally honest of the workload we can handle, but it doesn’t mean we don’t keep those things in the backlog if Prey for the Gods works out well. If players enjoy it and want more, I have no problems with building onto this world.
GameWatcher: What about mods? Will there be any possibility of creating mod support for modders to bring their own additions to the game?
Parnell: Not at the moment. It would be hard for me to say yea or nay on it from a technical standpoint. There’s the Steam Workshop, but we’re working with Unity. In the past I’ve been with studios where we built our own tech, which inevitably meant building our own editor and we would release those tools when the game would ship. That said, we would need a bigger team to build and offer that tool set for Prey for the Gods. I’m certainly not against it, but it’s something we’d need to reach out and hire more engineers to work with and that would most definitely be a post-release consideration.
Prey for the Gods is slated for release in December 2017. You can check out further information and videos for the game on Steam and the game’s official website.
Want to get the latest news on Prey for the Gods? Check out the game’s official Twitter and Facebook pages.
