Silverfall Designer Diary #1 - Creating a World

One of the challenges in creating a game set in a fantasy world is trying to make it feel distinct and unique from all the other fantasy-themed games out there. This was certainly one of the first things that the developers at Monte Cristo focused on when coming up with Silverfall, an action role-playing game featuring elves and magic, but also advanced technology. Project manager Jehanne Rosseau explains the process in this designer diary. Silverfall will be published by Atari and will ship this March.

A New World is Born

By Jehanne Rousseau
Project Manager, Monte Cristo

Creating the Silverfall universe required the effort of several people for several months. The original idea flourished with each person's experience and suggestions until, finally, the Nelwë universe developed into what you see now.

We wanted to create a universe in which the players felt at ease, so it was necessary to retain some elements that were familiar to fans of the genre and to draw inspiration from classic fantasy literature. However, we also wanted to freshen up the "same old, same old" and offer a new game experience in a world that would be as immersive and coherent as possible.

While our goal was to make a game, focusing on the gameplay was what served as a basis for the creation of the universe. We wanted to enrich the well-known hack-and-slash formula while giving the player more freedom. This idea of freedom, developed throughout different aspects of the game, appears most importantly in allowing the player the possibility of choosing between two paths and that his or her choice will be decisive both for his or her character and for the surrounding universe. We didn't want to follow in the footsteps of the many games that offer a choice between good and evil partly because we couldn't see what gameplay impact we could offer the player. And it's exactly by thinking about what would be most fun for the gamer that we came up with the idea of opposing nature and technology, pitting werewolves against implants and guns.

We found it very interesting and much more immersive that the entire universe revolves around this confrontation. So the writers and concept designers worked around this idea in order to integrate it on all levels: house architecture, creatures, characters, storylines, and side quests; from the zeppelin city of Cloudworks to the tree houses of Gaian and even the reconstructed and transformed Silverfall. As a result, the player does not make a choice that isolates him or her from the world. On the contrary, it transforms him or her into a real actor and political player in the Nelwë universe.

At its origin, this world was a rather traditional fantasy world dominated by elemental sorcerers who had built enormous cities on power nexuses. But sometime in the past, the goblins and trolls invented the steam engine and gunpowder and built vast industrial kingdoms. They are confronted by people for whom nature is the only true way and who completely reject technology as a destructive force. Little by little, the entire continent has joined one side or the other, with the exception of a few existing sorcerer cities that remain neutral, lost in the memory of their past glory. The player comes from one of them, Silverfall, which will sadly be destroyed in the opening moments of the game. From that moment on, the player must in turn take sides. And Silverfall, which will be rebuilt, will follow his or her choice.

It is therefore a gameplay concept that leads to the main choice concerning the creation of the Silverfall universe: a strong and relatively original confrontation between nature and technology that governs not only the visual aspect of the world, but also the game and story experience. Thus, the mechanical dragons, the flying goblins, the root lions, and the animated hills are all elements that contribute to making a journey into Nelwë unlike anything else.