Arkane Studios, the development team best known for its work on the Dishonored series and 2017's Prey, is no doubt having a busy 2021. With the studio's newest game Deathloop set to release in September of 2021, the studio is likely hard at work putting the finishing touches on the unique action-adventure title.
However, the folks at Arkane also lent some of their time to be a part of a recent documentary surrounding the Dishonored series. The documentary released on the Noclip YouTube channel, and focuses on various aspects of the Dishonored series, such as its origins, design philosophies, story, and development cycle.
For those who may be unfamiliar with Noclip, it is a channel that produces crowdfunded documentaries surrounding the larger video game industry. Noclip has produced documentaries surrounding developers such as Double Fine, Supergiant Games, Obsidian, and many more. Now, the channel's latest release is all about Arkane Studios' and the team's two Dishonored titles. The documentary itself is an hour long and is, filled with developer interviews and behind the scenes information about Arkane Studios itself and both Dishonored games.
The first major segment of the document talks about the origins of the concept of what Dishonored would eventually become. Members of Arkane discuss initial pitches of the game, mentioning the desire to make a game similar to Thief series, but set in medieval Japan. Insisting that the team would too unfamiliar with the setting, Arkane opted to focus on a European setting instead, finally choosing a location influenced by London. This decision was the basis for what the dingy, run-down city of Dunwall would slowly evolve from.
Another interesting segment of the documentaries covers how the team at Arkane Studios designed the vast levels found throughout Dishonored. As Dishonored is famous for its open level design, the team spoke a lot about how they came up with the concept for the levels themselves, as well as figuring out how to balance each and every action a player could take in a given level. Additionally, Arkane's philosophy on letting the player author their own experience through choice and gameplay is expounded on a bit, really highlighting what the team find special about video games and game design.
The entire documentary itself is well worth a watch, going in depth into Dishonored, Dishonored 2, and even giving a deep dive into the infamous Clockwork Mansion level from Dishonored 2. All in all, Noclip has made an exceedingly impressive documentary with Arkane, that really gives fans a deep dive into the studio's process. Naturally, fans of the Dishonored series will undoubtedly find a lot to love in this hour long video, but even those who are simply interested in video game development or the overall industry can take away some interesting things. If one things for sure, this documentary really highlights just how special the Dishonored series is to video games.