Zombra
An iron rock in the river of blood and evil
Every 2 months like clockwork so far. Looking forward to full release in November (?).
Sylvain Sechi: The Council ‘IP is Broad and We Have Many Things to Tell’
Big Bad Wolf has had a busy 2018 putting its full attention and resources into The Council. The episodic RPG title arrived on the market with Episode 1: The Mad Ones back in March, following up with the release of Episode 2: Hide and Seek in May. The Council, which consists of five episodes, has reached both high and low points with fans and critics, as well as drawing comparisons with titles from Telltale Games and Dontnod Entertainment for how Big Bad’s handled the episodic format.
Unlike other episodic titles, The Council puts equal focus on its interactive storytelling and gameplay experience. From the opening moments of The Mad Ones, the title’s RPG mechanics kick into full effect as players pick one of three classes — Diplomat, Occultist or Detective — that will both support and impact their progression in different ways. It only continues to build in the second episode when players level up protagonist Louis de Richet, as well as improving and unlocking abilities in his skill tree.
Even when players explore the world around them, they are invested in the story of The Council and waiting for one of the many twists and turns to take place in an episode. Each passing moment only builds suspense in the story, as the mysteries surrounding different characters and subplots begin to thicken. With Big Bad announcing that the third episode, called ‘Ripples,’ would be coming this month, it does put some pressure on the French studio to really hit its stride going into The Council’s mid-season episode.
Hardcore Gamer recently caught up with The Council director Sylvain Sechi for an interview. We spoke to Mr. Sechi about The Council’s RPG mechanics, the historical setting and characters, whether the studio is considering a Nintendo Switch or mobile port and his thoughts about doing a sequel to the title.
[Hardcore Gamer] Episodic gaming has always placed more of an emphasis on the interactive storytelling over gameplay. With The Council, however, it threw that rulebook out of the window with Big Bad’s implementation of RPG mechanics. Considering how fans and critics have praised the gameplay features of The Council, tell us more about the studio’s decision to integrate RPG mechanics into the title and were you surprised with how well it has been received?
Our vision for this game has always been to craft a narrative RPG. Because of this, we started thinking about our entire gameplay loop through the lens of the narrative. What is a narrative character sheet? What is narrative combat? We’re extremely happy that what we made appeals to players.
Did the studio take any inspiration from other episodic titles during the development of The Council?
Our biggest inspiration was not episodic games, though we are fans of games like The Wolf Among Us or Life Is Strange. But rather we were inspired mostly by movies and TV shows like And Then There Were None and Shutter Island, as well as games like Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines and Heavy Rain.
On more than one occasion, Big Bad will tap into its historical backdrop for The Council. Historical events, of course, have played a role in all of the episodes so far, whether it’s directly related to the main story or one of the branching subplots. Was history always a central theme that the studio wanted to utilize in The Council?
We decided early on that we wanted to create a political thriller set during the time of the French Revolution. We wished to explore the ‘behind the scenes’ of major historical events that took place during this defining century.
On the point of history, The Council has an excellent mixture of real-life historical figures with those that the studio has created itself for the title. What was the research process like behind the different historical characters we’ve seen in The Council?
Our idea was to create an uchronia, a ‘what-if’ scenario. But we wanted it to be grounded within the historical events and figures of the time. In order to do that, we spent lots of time researching historical figures and crafting our characters to ensure a good mix of real and fictional characters that fit within the time frame and could plausibly have existed in real life.
Compared with other episodic titles on the market, The Council is able to outperform many of them with its branching choice system in each episode. How important was it to have The Council put a focus on choices having an impact on a certain quest or the overall story?
This was a major focus for us. Our vision for this was that ‘we make a game of consequences, not a game of choices.’ We absolutely wanted to deliver on that, and a good part of the design was to craft choices that created tangible consequences for the player without breaking the overall coherence.
Confrontations have been a fantastic introduction to The Council, with many people seeing them as mini-verbal boss fights. Would you agree with people describing Confrontations in that way? And where did the idea for this feature come from?
That’s exactly right. This was our starting point when designing this new feature. What is a narrative combat? We looked at common combat gameplay, broke it down into components and then reassembled them within a narrative context.
The Council has taken a fair bit of criticism across the first two episodes, from technical issues to dialogue and voice acting. Is the studio aware of the criticism and has it used any of the feedback it has received in the development of new episodes?
We’re listening to feedback from players and we’re fixing issues at the release of each new episode, in addition to adding some global features (more on that soon). We’re also working hard to improve the quality of dialogue and voice acting for [the] coming episodes.
With other episodic series, most people usually know the title of each episode in advance. How come the studio has kept a lid on revealing the name of each episode until a week or two before its release?
We wrote the names, then buried them on a remote island and only gave the location to marketing teams two weeks before release.
Are there any plans for getting The Council released on Nintendo Switch or iOS and Android devices?
No plans for a Switch or mobile port so far.
We know that you’ve currently ruled out a physical release for The Council, but do you think there might be any chance that could change in the long run?
There is always a chance.
It’s early days, but would the studio consider a sequel to The Council?
It’s too early to say, but we would love that. The IP is broad and we have many things to tell.
Studios such as Dontnod and Telltale have found major success with episodic gaming and continue to tap into that format going forward. Considering Big Bad’s early success with The Council, will the studio revisit episodic gaming in the future, whether it’s for a sequel or a new IP?
It will definitely depend on the next game. If it fits the format, we may [use it], but it needs to have meaning. We don’t want to make episodic games for the sake of it.
This is good information. When I finally play, I'll be sure to specialize to ensure I can't faceroll all challenges.The way skills work is certainly underdeveloped. As of the first part of the game it is better to spread wide and try to develop first level on all skills instead of specializing on your chosen "class". The amount of consumables and boosts in the game guaranteed I had all choices available as soon as I reached first level on all skills and could use them without concerns for going out of effort points. Felt cheap.
This is good information. When I finally play, I'll be sure to specialize to ensure I can't faceroll all challenges.
How does it compare to Unavowed, difficulty-wise?
Well, from what you've written further in the post, it's really not . Unavowed plays itself, and this one sounds like it doesn't. Or did I get a wrong impression?Hard to say
Is it worse than in your typical RPG or about the same?As mentioned before, there is an overabundance of consumables and as of the 3rd chapter you can pretty much have every choice at your disposal if you spread your skills wide.
Well, from what you've written further in the post, it's really not . Unavowed plays itself, and this one sounds like it doesn't. Or did I get a wrong impression?Hard to say
Is it worse than in your typical RPG or about the same?As mentioned before, there is an overabundance of consumables and as of the 3rd chapter you can pretty much have every choice at your disposal if you spread your skills wide.
UW is muuuuuuuch easier than other WE games. Yes, it turns out, it's possible.I have not played unavowed yet but I am familiar with wadjet eye games.
Ah, that's a pity.Yes. Even in popamole console rpgs I recently played(Witcher 3 and Vampyr) I would regularly run out of consumables and have to harvest them/hoard them. In the third chapter of the council I regularly had every consummable hoarded to the limit(you can only carry 5 of each of the 4 consummables), so much that I was using them somewhat needlessly just so I could pick up ones I found laying around.
So is this actually good? From the replies here seems people are enjoying it. I dont mind te format or even interactive movie genre. I loved walking dead season 1 and wolf among us, then telltale went downhill after that hard.
Up to now eps have released on a 2-3 month schedule ... I'm expecting to be playing this by Christmas.well thanks, i will try it when all episodes are out. the end of the year maybe?
So is this actually good? From the replies here seems people are enjoying it. I dont mind te format or even interactive movie genre. I loved walking dead season 1 and wolf among us, then telltale went downhill after that hard.