Editorial Warhorse's Daniel Vávra on Overkill Design

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Tags: Dan Vávra; Warhorse Studios

Daniel Vávra, Creative Director at Warhorse Studios, wrote a blog entry called Overkill Design.

It starts off like this:

I’m an eternal malcontent, hater and troll. When I look at something, I immediately know that, if I’d done it, I would have done it differently and naturally better. I take to few things that I would not tinker with and simply enjoy them for what they are. Many people have a problem with that and I’m not even very surprised by it. Not everyone has a need to consider things in such detail; most are content to enjoy by their reaction and grouches like me pointing out the errors only spoil their enjoyment. Who does it bother that half-naked barbarian women are running around in three feet of snow in their favorite RPG? Maybe only miserable female cosplayers who decide to have their picture taken for real in a fur bikini in a snowdrift and discover that at -20 degrees it’s good to be wearing more than a thong, tassels over your nipples and a helmet and that their sword has frozen to their hand.

Without discontent, there is no progress. If everyone were reconciled with how things work, they would have no motivation to improve them and create something new. Therefore, every poorly executed thing carries a germ of an idea how to do it differently, more logically and better – a challenge, inspiration and interesting puzzle to solve.

Most games can be criticized easily. They’re very poorly thought out and with many of them it’s easy to think of ways to improve their playing mechanics or level design. A paradise for a discontented troll like me. Or is it the naïve view of an arrogant simpleton, who has no idea why things are the way they are and who is going to burn his fingers badly when he tries to design them differently? Are game designers stupid and don’t know how to do things differently or cannot do things better, because it would be too expensive or demanding on the hardware?

He then goes on and talks about game design tropes and clichés, among other things. In case you forgot, Dan Vávra is one of the dudes behind Mafia 1 & 2, who decided it would be cool to make an open world RPG packed with detail. There's no news on the game yet.

Click here for the blog.

Wait a minute, doesn't Dan have an account on the Codex?

Yep http://www.rpgcodex.net/forums/index.php?members/daniel-vavra.14946/

And while we're at it, how was it that Mafia 1 was so much better than Mafia 2?

Yes he have.
http://www.rpgcodex.net/forums/index.php?threads/warhorse-working-on-rpg-with-cryengine-3.69258/

Dan's blog is nearly as awesome as Lar's, although he doesn't seem to update as frequently. Interesting insights and valid criticisms of existing paradigms. We'll see how their game turns out, but i have high hopes for a hiking simulator, that gives 2 Worlds, Skyrim and Gothic 3 a run for their money.

Overkill is a nice band, probably the only original US first wave thrash band, who hasn't managed to record a shitty album or make a "reunion" after a butthurt drama yet.

Good article.

This is why you have to design games which have limitations in gameplay built inherently into the setting. In a generic high fantasy culture where you have civilized humans living together, do things like "nobody notices a body sitting in the street" matter? Absolutely - it breaks immersion and makes players feel cheated when they might have expected an outcome. But what if you take the same game and put it in, say, a medieval town beset by Black Death? Suddenly, finding corpses in the street isn't such a problem because it fits in with the setting; the lack of a reaction on the game's part is believable to the player.

Yet we insist on the same old settings over and over again, because that's what's conventional. Just once I'd like to see a game defy all expectations and mask its limitations by, say, taking place in a floating kingdom of non-corporeal solar entities or whatever. A setting doesn't really even have to be extremely different, it just has to be unfamiliar enough that we can accept the rules of its world rather than imposing the rules of our own on it.

OK.

Daniel.Vavra

Huh, I thought he was behind Arma and OFP, not the Mafia games.

So if he swings by here, maybe he can tell us why Mafia 2 sucked balls too?

Wasn't it pretty obvious that Mafia 2 was the victim of consolization?

And we know his next game won't be because...?

That's an interesting question.

Because they are self-publishing, if I've understood correctly.

Some interesting stuff. He reminds me a bit of myself. I think there is a big risk he will squander what resources he has if he runs head first into this as quickly as he seems to want to though. He appears to have good instincts but is a little bit behind where he should be at the (as I understand it) early production and late pre-production stage.

Complex designs like these need to be methodically matured and refined, and that takes a very long time. Not ideal when you are already in the hiring process.

You don't say?

You'd be surprised how long it takes 'niz

Bump. I've been going over my "tbd later" links, threads and stuff, and must say that this article has rubbed me in all the right ways.

It rubbed me pretty well too. I'm tried to reach them for an interview or something but I guess they're busy as bees.