Dustborn might have quickly caught your attention from the aesthetic visuals alone. But if that wasn’t enough, the narrative journey the game hopes to take you along might convince you to pick up the game upon release. This title throws players into a different America. One that has been divided and controlled with an iron fist. Add in the fact that you have various individuals with unique powers; you have quite a thrilling tale to explore.
I was allowed to check out a media preview build of the game in preparation for this interview. While refraining from saying too much here, I’ll give you the basics. In this game, we follow a ragtag crew seeking to break free from the American Republic. Each with their own unique set of powers, the group takes on a dangerous job that might give them the freedom they desire.
Taking the helm of the creative vision for Dustborn is none other than the game director Ragnar Tørnquist. Within this game you’ll be tasked in delivering a mysterious package across a divided America, which is a journey that is far from straightforward. Your decisions when faced with various conflicts will shape the game. But who better to help explain more about this title and the experience you’ll endure than Ragnar Tørnquist himself?
We had the privilege to interview Ragnar about the upcoming game and give you more insight into what you could expect when Dustborn drops into the marketplace. Best of all, we’ll share how you can try the game out right now after the interview section of this article.
Gameranx: How would you describe Dustborn?
Ragnar: Dustborn is a (deep breath) comic-book action-adventure road-trip across North America, featuring a diverse crew of characters on the run from the authorities in a retro-inspired tour bus, pretending to be a punk rock band touring the Republic!
It’s a game that mixes adventure, exploration and puzzles, dialogues and mini-games, real-time combat, strong emotions and relationship drama. It’s unique and unlike anything else out there, I think!
For anyone confused by that, I recommend taking the Steam demo for a spin: it’s available for a limited time and features a bunch of fun scenes from the early hours of the game. I promise it’s worth the download! And you’ll definitely know if this is the sort of game you’re interested in playing. We hope it is!
Gameranx: What were some of the inspirations that went into this game?
Ragnar: Oh, there are so many! Games: the Yakuza/Like a Dragon series, Shenmue, Final Fantasy XV, Life is Strange… Dreamfall Chapters, of course! Our creative brief was to make an interactive comic book, so we’ve drawn inspiration from comics and graphic novels — American, French, Japanese. There are traces of Preacher, Transmetropolitan, Hellblazer, The Boys, Watchmen, The Invisibles in the narrative. Movies and TV shows? Logan, The Handmaid’s Tale… Zombieland, National Lampoon’s Vacation — road trips in general! I could go on and on. This is a game that pulls from a lot of pop culture across all media, but it’s also a very personal story about people we don’t usually see in video games, told from the perspective of a global team of writers, artists, animators, and developers.
Gameranx: Has any feedback resulted in making adjustments to Dustborn since it was first unveiled in 2020?
Ragnar: Oh, lots! So much! We work iteratively. The entire team contributes to the constant evolution of the narrative, the mechanics, the content. The story wasn’t locked down until quite late in development, and dialogue was recorded as late as possible to facilitate for last minute edits — we only wrapped with our voice actors a few weeks ago. We’ve made a ton of changes since 2020, and at this stage, near the end of production, we’re still changing and tweaking things, based on feedback from the team, from players, focus testers, and from our publisher, Quantic Dream, who have been an active sparring partner during the development of the game.
We prefer to get our games in front of “real players” as early as possible, so we started conducting playtests as far back as the autumn of 2020, to get initial feedback on the systems and controls, story, characters and dialogue — pretty much anything we could test on people, we did test on people. Of course, when you start testing that early, you’re also going to get a lot of (valid!) criticism…but that’s fine. Great, actually! It’s important to challenge the decisions you make and listen to people who have no vested interest in what we’re making.
On a regular basis we also ask the whole team to play through the game and post their feedback on Slack. That takes time out of people’s busy schedules, of course, but it’s super valuable. Our “first line of defense” is always the team: we make games that we enjoy, and if we can succeed with that…hopefully it means there’s a larger audience who’ll feel the same way!
Gameranx: Could you elaborate on the story and our protagonist, Pax?
Ragnar: Sure! The story is simple: Pax, our protagonist, has been hired to “acquire” and transport an important item across North America. To help her out, she’s recruited her best friends, Sai and Noam. They’re joined by Theo, the man who signed them up for the mission. And…that’s it, basically! This core group of four people board a tour bus in Pacifica (the country that used to be the state of California) and set course for Nova Scotia, on the far side of the continent.
It quickly gets more complicated, once you start digging deeper. Pax and her crew travel undercover as a punk rock band, called The Dust Born. They’re chased by the dangerous people Pax “acquired” (read: stole) the cargo from, and they’re driving across an alternate future American Republic controlled by a militant homeland security force called Justice.
To make matters even MORE complicated: Pax and her friends are “Anomals”. Anomals have the power to use language to affect people — like silencing them, triggering them, tricking them into believing lies. Anomals are illegal in the Republic, hunted by Justice, so you’ll need to stay under the radar…which quickly becomes very difficult, especially when the crew grows from four people, to five, six, seven, eight…each of them Anomals who bring new powers (and emotional issues, fresh conflicts) to the crew.
The story is also about the origins of language and consciousness, about how Anomals and their linguistic powers came to be. But I won’t get into any of that, since it’s both MUCH more complicated…and I don’t want to spoil all our secrets!
But really, at heart, this is a simple story about a group of friends who must deal with their emotional conflicts and feelings on a road trip across America. That’s really all you need to know!
Pax is an interesting character, I think. She’s a refugee, stuck in Pacifica without papers or a steady job. She works short-term gigs; she’s always broke and generally unhappy with her life. Now she’s pregnant and she wants to get away from it all — so she accepts the mission, recruits her best friends, and sets out on the long journey from west to east, hoping there’s a better life waiting for her on the other side. But before you get there, Pax must figure out what she wants to do, where she wants to go, who she wants to be — and be with. It’s complicated, but so’s life!
Gameranx: I understand that branching dialogues and choices play a role in relationships. Does this also mean we’ll see multiple endings to the storyline based on players’ choices?
Ragnar: Yes! Dustborn is a linear game in terms of the road taken and locations visited, but it branches emotionally. Every major character gets what we call a “Coda”: a unique ending shaped by the choices made along the way. You decide how to talk to and interact with people, how to deal with their problems, their feelings, and the crew responds to that.
This also affects how certain challenges and obstacles are handled. The crew’s emotional state can open new paths, close others. You can’t really know how people will react to your words, or what this will lead to, and there’s no wrong way to play the game. You can’t get stuck by being an insensitive jerk, for example! But it does change your experience. And there are definitely reasons to replay the game to see where different choices can lead you and the crew.
Gameranx: Dialogue seems to be a rather important component of this game. From my understanding, players can interrupt characters in conversation or miss an opportunity to trigger a dialogue option. Are there points in the game where you could actually miss crucial information affecting the overall storyline?
Ragnar: You can miss out on information — by skipping dialogues or choosing different branches. Whether or not you call it “crucial” is up to each player. You won’t miss out on information required to understand the plot, or figure where you’re going next or why, but you can “miss out” on a lot of the backstory and the personal stories of your crew. You can probably get through the game having heard only 20-25% of the dialogue…but we hope players will take the time to listen and learn about the world and their traveling companions. You’ll still only get 40-50% of the dialogue in a single play-through — maybe less — but you’ll know a lot more about the world and the people in it.
We’re very proud of the dialogue system, which was designed to feel as realistic as possible. You can interrupt people, affect their moods, gift items…or just listen. A lot of the time, you don’t even have to pick a response. It’s okay to be the passive observant, if you choose that path.
Gameranx: Are we strictly only playing as Pax? If I understand correctly, there is a party of characters we’ll meet. Will they also aid in battles?
Ragnar: You always play as Pax, and experience the story from her perspective — but that doesn’t mean adult Pax is the only playable character!
Many of the characters you meet along the way will help you in combat and elsewhere. You can call on them and their skills to solve challenges and progress in the story. In many ways it’s like having multiple playable characters — although they may not always do your bidding! They have their own personalities and moods, shaped by your choices, and the crew must be in the right mindset to do certain tasks. But there’s always an alternate solution to every problem, so you’ll never get stuck because of something you said or a choice you made. We encourage experimentation and role-playing, and we don’t punish players, even when they’re treating their friends badly!
Gameranx: Could you update us on where we are in the development process?
Ragnar: Production has wrapped. The team’s currently working on the day one patch to add polish, tweak features, balance combat, and, of course, fix bugs. The whole team’s taking July off — a well-deserved summer holiday! — which means we’re very, very close to the end. Of course, even after release we will continue to work on Dustborn, and we hope to add extra content over time…but nothing’s set in stone yet!
As mentioned earlier, there is a way to try out the game right now. Players can download a free Steam demo right now, which will be available until June 30, 2024. So, that gives you a chance to try the gameplay experience before it officially drops.
With that said, Dustborn is set to launch on August 20, 2024. When the game is released, you’ll find it available on the PC, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S platforms.
