If publishers are to be believed, the gaming community wants more open worlds, more multiplayer modes included in largely single-player games, and connected experiences. At least, that’s the trend we’re seeing in many of the next-generation projects. Titles like Destiny and Titanfall are exploring unique ways to integrate single player and multiplayer modes into one seamless experience. It's a concept the community is eating up, and according to Watch Dogs animation director Colin Graham, people just don’t want to play through basic stories anymore.
Speaking with Polygon, Graham discussed how from the beginning, Ubisoft’s Watch Dogs has been about hacking other, real-life players.
"We've been working on the game for about four and a half years, but from the very beginning we knew the game would be about hacking," he said. "Our first prototypes, our first demos were really about trying to create an experience where players would be hacking each other. We tried to weave that right into the gameplay from the beginning. We figured if that gameplay loop would be fun, we'd have something to base our game on."
It’s a novel concept to begin with, but what really brought it all together was the massive open world. Instead of telling a single, linear story, Ubisoft will give players an entire city to create their own unique adventures in.
"I think moving forward, players are looking for more space to play with, they're looking for more experiences," Graham continued. "They don't just want to play a story, they also want to explore a world. For us building all of Chicago kind of makes sense and it fits in with the type of game Ubisoft wants to build right now.”
The connected, non-linear Watch Dogs will hit both current and next-generation platforms this fall.
