Il capo designer Ben Fisher ci guida all'interno del mondo di Atomfall.
Questo video game post-apocalittico esce il 27 marzo 2025.
Questo video game post-apocalittico esce il 27 marzo 2025.
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00:00Hi, I'm Ben Fisher, Head of Design at Rebellion, and I'm here to talk to you about Atomfall.
00:19Atomfall is a survival action game set in a 1950s quarantine in the north of England,
00:24after a nuclear disaster had an unusual fallout.
00:28The player wakes up in this environment and has to uncover what's happened and how they factor into it.
00:37So, there are a lot of games based in post-apocalyptic quarantine zones,
00:41but one of the founders of Rebellion, Jason Kingsley, noticed that there wasn't one based around the Windscale fire,
00:46which is one of the world's first major nuclear disasters.
00:49So he asked the question, what would it look like if you made a kind of Rebellion-style game in that kind of environment?
00:54So that was our start point, and the development process of Atomfall was finding the answer to that question.
00:59So part of the creative process of designing the atmosphere and environment of the game
01:04was looking at 1950s-1960s England and using that real-world reference to build our kind of heightened fictional environment.
01:11So we looked at the environment around the real Sellafield disaster, the real Windscale fire,
01:16and that gave us real reference points for rural England and small villages you might visit.
01:23Those kind of very British touch points, like red phone boxes and details like that.
01:28What we found was we didn't have to invent very much to get the ball rolling.
01:31We already had a rich and interesting location in the real world that we could use as a start point.
01:35So one of the creative challenges in Atomfall was blending the natural beauty of the north of England
01:41with the horrors you might see in a nuclear disaster zone.
01:44The way that we tackled this was, we considered the way that people would really try and deal with that sort of situation
01:51in a very English way, a very 50s-60s English way.
01:54A kind of keep calm and carry on, stiff upper lip.
01:56These people have just come out of World War II and they know how to survive in difficult circumstances.
02:01So that was our start point, is treating these survivors like real people in a real situation.
02:06The next stage was taking that setup and adding layers and details that gave it a kind of atmosphere
02:12you might expect of 1950s-1960s British speculative fiction.
02:17There's a great history of things like Doctor Who or the Quatermass experiment.
02:21Very early sci-fi and fantasy before those genres had established themselves.
02:26So we could look at the elements that made up this kind of storytelling style
02:30and use them to heighten the environment the game was in.
02:35What this means is that people are trying to live a normal life and trying to survive in their normal village
02:40but that normal village has been occupied by a military force that's there to try and keep the peace
02:45and when you push into those dark and mysterious locations that explain how this disaster happened
02:50that's where the horror comes out, that's where these darker elements emerge.
02:58So this means that the gameplay tone of the game, pushing into darkness and uncovering uncomfortable mysteries
03:05reflects the visual style of the game.
03:07So we just made sure that we aligned these two and used them to build on top of each other.
03:16So early in the development of Atomfall some of the team went to the north of England
03:20to look at the sort of areas that are very similar to the locations around the Windskill plant itself.
03:27You know, the wider surrounding area so that we could pick and choose details
03:30that seemed to tell the story that we wanted to tell.
03:33One of the things that we found quite interesting and surprising is that
03:36there are members of the team that are from the UK and members that aren't.
03:39There are special details in the environment that we're very, very used to because we grew up here
03:44and it was really helpful to have people from other parts of the world to point out
03:47this is weird and special and you don't get this anywhere else.
03:50That gave us an inspiration to then really drill into our kind of built-in cultural knowledge
03:56of what feels authentic and realistic in that kind of location.
03:59So you've got pubs that feel like real old-fashioned pubs that were once a converted farmhouse
04:05and they're always placed near the church because that's always what happened
04:08and they were always uphill because that kept the rain away.
04:11Part of the creative process was kind of drilling down into this knowledge
04:15that we almost didn't know we had.
04:17So one of the goals we set ourselves for the storytelling strategy in the game
04:21was to make it kind of uniquely British.
04:23I would say that the characters that are in there and the storytelling style
04:26isn't something you would see in a game set in another location.
04:32The characters that you meet in the game are often kind of heightened,
04:37stylised versions of old-fashioned British archetypal characters.
04:41So it's refreshing to see them because you don't see them very often in many games.
04:44The traditional style of British sci-fi speculative fiction storytelling
04:49heavily informed the structure of the game and the sort of exploration that you do there.
04:54So much of the game world is morally grey and ambiguous.
04:58It's a difficult situation. There's no clear right and wrong answers.
05:01You're just uncovering this tangled situation and deciding how you respond to it.
05:06Two of the major influences on that were folk horror storytelling,
05:10which is often based around the idea of a conflict between tradition and modernity,
05:16of folk religion against organised religion and these kind of clashes.
05:30And then the other major influence on the storytelling was Cold War fiction,
05:33which does the same sort of thing but on a cultural level between East and West.
05:37What we found is that there were themes that were reflected in both of these different storytelling styles
05:42and we could build a world that explored all of them from different angles.
05:45Both of these storytelling styles are morally grey, morally ambiguous
05:49and don't present right and wrong answers.
05:51This gave us an excellent opportunity to put that in the player's hands,
05:54to let the player choose what they think is the right answer.
06:04So we used the storytelling style of British literature to help us build this game world.
06:09That allowed us to look very directly at points of reference from earlier British culture.
06:14So we're talking like The Wicker Man, we're talking Doctor Who, early Doctor Who,
06:19things like The Prisoner, lots of different kinds of folk horror as well
06:23because the early folk horror all had a kind of very British influence to it, you could argue.
06:27So not only could we use this as the bedrock for our storytelling style,
06:31but also it was great inspiration for easter eggs throughout the game environment.
06:35We tried to make sure that those were placed in locations that wouldn't distract the player from their investigation
06:39but would catch their eye and maybe make them laugh when they see them.
06:43So one of the first things the player will see as they start the game is a ringing phone box.
06:47As they make their way across the environment they can choose to answer it or they can ignore it entirely.
06:54This sets up an air of mystery, of tension, that the player doesn't know who the voice is, what they want
07:00but it gives them a clue, it gives them a lead that helps them explore the world and understand how it fits together.
07:12This moment was inspired by an anecdote by Jason Kingsley, one of the founders of Rebellion.
07:17He was out hiking somewhere and walked past a red phone box and it started ringing
07:21and he stopped and thought, why is that phone box ringing?
07:24He didn't answer it, it's probably just as well because a mysterious handler might have sent him on a quest.
07:28We took that moment and thought this could be a very interesting way for the player to feel observed
07:33to make them feel like they're part of a bigger picture they don't fully understand.
07:41So the ringing phone box is the first example of how the player will explore the game world and understand what to do.
07:47They find a lead, they're not told what to do, they're just told information about the game world.
07:51They could completely ignore it if they want, they could answer it and track that lead
07:55and follow what it understands in the world, go and ask other characters about it, that sort of thing.
07:59Of all the characters that you meet in the game world, they're all entirely optional
08:03and it's up to you if you trust them, if you listen to what they've got to say.
08:06It's up to you if you follow their instructions, they might offer to help you if you do certain things for them
08:11and it's all left entirely up to the player.
08:13We avoided having a quest system because for the game that we were making that felt quite leading
08:18and over time we discovered this new mechanic where all of the information in the game world is interconnected as the player uncovers it.
08:26And they have to decide for themselves what's true and not true.
08:29To the extent that the player can kill any character in the game
08:34and still find a conclusion, find an exit, in fact there are some routes through the game that will require you to kill a certain character to progress.
08:41The player's identity is the same sort of thing.
08:43You wake up in this quarantine, you don't have a specified age, race or gender,
08:47you don't have a character that you can see in the game world and nobody knows you
08:52and there are characters very early on that pose the question to the player.
09:02It's up to you to decide what sort of person you want to be.
09:06As you make your way through the game world there are people who might trust you because you're somebody new,
09:11they might be suspicious of you because you're somebody new,
09:13but that means that you're in a situation to kind of destabilise the world that you're in.
09:17You operate like a detective in that you push your face in places it's unwelcome and you uncover mysteries,
09:22understand the world as a result but maybe make things sometimes better, sometimes worse by doing so.
09:31And there are clues in the game of who you could be, but we make it intentionally ambiguous
09:35so it's up to the player to decide what they think is right.
09:37So part of our planning and creative process was to look at other apocalyptic survival action games
09:42and decide what seemed like a good fit for Atomfall.
09:45What we decided to do, to approach it in quite a unique way,
09:48was to look at it through the lens of being specifically British style gameplay, British style storytelling,
09:52but also leading into the things that Rebellion specialises in.
10:03So, the world of Atomfall is a dense, concentrated sandbox.
10:07There's a series of locations you can travel between and unlock slowly over time
10:11and the player uncovers information about the world and what to do in that world.
10:15But it's all interconnected.
10:16That inspired us to make the length of the game something that was easily digestible,
10:21so it feels like a TV miniseries or something like that.
10:24It's one extended story with lots of branching elements that come off it,
10:28but it means that it's all interconnected in a dense and textural way.
10:32This matches traditional British storytelling style.
10:34We also looked at the gameplay of the game.
10:37It didn't seem like a natural fit for the game to be a full run-and-gun extravaganza
10:41if it's set in rural north of England.
10:43So we balanced the game around feeling more like a blend, almost like a pub brawl.
10:47So there's lots of punching, kicking, throwing weapons at people
10:51to just make do with what's around you.
10:53There are some guns, but it's more like the sort of thing that you might find a farmer's got,
10:57so a farmer's shotgun.
10:59There's an occupying military force and they're armoured,
11:01but they've all been locked in this location for five years,
11:04so they don't have much in the way of resources by this point.
11:06So the player's really kind of making do with what they can find.
11:09They're not pushed heroically into every conflict situation.
11:13They can decide to back off.
11:16They can decide to de-escalate conflict.
11:19This gave it a very, very different tone, a very personal tone,
11:22and it just seemed like such a natural fit for the world that we were building around the story.
11:26Player choice was central to the creative process of deciding the shape of Atomfall
11:30and what sort of game it was.
11:32In fact, there was a version of Atomfall earlier in development
11:35that was more like a Metroidvania game,
11:37so a sequence of locations you were sent through in a more guided structure.
11:41You gradually unfurled this game world
11:43and by the end you would have a broad understanding of what had happened.
11:46It felt too guided.
11:47It felt like the other characters were having the adventure
11:49and that you were kind of picking up the pieces after the fact.
11:52So we took a good look at the game and we opened all the doors.
11:54We made it as non-linear as possible.
11:56The player can go anywhere in the game world right from the start.
11:59Some places are much more dangerous than others,
12:01but if the player's observant and they choose their moment carefully,
12:04they might survive, they might uncover something
12:06that helps them understand the game world.
12:08The other major influence in making this game open sandbox structure
12:12was making every character optional to interact with.
12:16Stay safe out there.
12:18So there are many different interpretations of what's happened
12:21and many different interpretations of how to escape,
12:23how to resolve the situation.
12:25There's no main answer.
12:27There's no good and bad ending.
12:29There's just lots of complex murkiness
12:31and it's up to the player which route they take.
12:33It extends to the strategy that the player deploys
12:35as they're making their way through the game.
12:37There's lots of slightly randomised loot for the player to uncover.
12:40Enemy placements are long wandering paths,
12:43but also slightly randomised.
12:45So it's not like you can learn a perfect strategy
12:47and play through the game in one go.
12:49You really have to observe, you really have to engage
12:51with the situation you find yourself in
12:53and then do the best you can.
12:55You'll never be working with perfect knowledge,
12:57but that's part of the fun and part of the texture of the game.
13:00So the story in Atomfall is structured like an interconnected web
13:04of situations, not one guided path.
13:07As a result of this, there are many different ways
13:09that the story can unfold.
13:10And then it's up to the player which way it resolves.
13:12They can make choices that make one character live or die.
13:15You're not going to try and kill me, are you?
13:17They can find different exits from this quarantine situation
13:19they find themselves in.
13:20And they'll have to make difficult choices
13:22on who to trust, who to betray
13:24and what resources they want to find
13:26as they explore through this game world.
13:28It means that no two playthroughs are alike.
13:30And when we've been playtesting the game,
13:32even people in the team who understand how it's structured
13:34are playing in very, very different styles.
13:36So on a first playthrough of Atomfall,
13:38we want players to feel like they are the star
13:41of a dense, concentrated story.
13:43They've uncovered a mystery
13:44and then resolved it one way or another.
13:46But the player can't see everything in one playthrough.
13:48They'll make choices that, you know,
13:49when they open one door, they close another.
13:51And as the game progresses, there will be routes
13:53that just aren't available to them
13:55based on choices they've made earlier.
13:56So I'd really hope that players play through again
13:58and get a very different experience
14:00and a different story,
14:01but still one that feels like they are the hero.
14:08If I had to survive the Atomfall apocalypse
14:10with one item from the game,
14:12I would choose the metal detector.
14:13The reason I would choose that
14:14is it lets you uncover resources
14:16that are hidden under the ground.
14:17So you might find a lunchbox cache
14:19which is full of loot.
14:21Food, might be some weaponry there.
14:23Or a lead that helps you understand
14:24where to go in the world.
14:25That would be your skeleton key to survival
14:27because that would let you find anything that you want.
14:29We've also got characters that you can barter with
14:31to trade items.
14:32If they've got something that's more valuable
14:33than what you've got,
14:34you can give them what you've got.
14:36So, metal detector's where I would start.
14:38If I had to choose a character from Atomfall
14:40to have a cup of tea or a pint with,
14:42it's a difficult question
14:43because they're all a little bit likable,
14:44a little bit unlikable.
14:46And you've got to decide, like,
14:47you know, who's the friendliest.
14:48I would probably go for Gnat.
14:50You maybe meet him very early on.
14:51He's a chatterbox.
14:52He's very friendly.
14:56He has been kicked out of the village,
14:57so he probably wouldn't be allowed in the pub.
14:59So I'd have to find a quiet hut somewhere
15:01to have a cup of tea.
15:02We hope you enjoy the world of Atomfall
15:04as much as we've enjoyed creating it.
15:05We can't wait for you to visit.
15:06Game launches March 27th.