Fatherdale: The Guardians of Asgard is an intricate RPG/Adventure for the PC where the battle between the Gods and their eternal enemy unfolds in the true medieval world of AD 1072. As one of the few immortal Heroes who protect the ancient artifacts of knowledge, you take on the reins of a warlord in a secluded northern valley of Fatherdale just days before it becomes the Battlefield of Fate to experience a story-driven multi-genre gameplay focused around RPG, RTS and Adventure. With over hundred and fifty unique characters, thrice that much in hand-crafted inventory items, more than sixty locations in steppes, woods and swamps, on plains, river banks and even inside the wooden Keeps of the Guardians, you have a whole world to explore, protect and die for -- and seven full-fledged Episodes to play through a number of styles and genres before you face your real Enemy.

Sergei Klimov, lead designer for Fatherdale gives us his views on things with this series of development diaries. This time he tackles the problem of how much freedom a player should have.

"The Freedom of Choice"

• This old guy at the lake, he kind of hints at the quest but never quite reveals the details until you agree.
• And what if there's a first-time player and she misses this? I mean, what is she doesn't see the consequences of the choice clearly...
• Well, we can't keep, can we?
  

(one of the eternal topics of
Fatherdale's design team)

Today this is the question, ladies and gentlemen - how much freedom of choice do we give to the players, and does this freedom creates the corresponding responsibility?

Players on our forum often appeal to Fallout. They want to choose the answers, they want to choose whom to slay and whom to save, they want to be able to have everything - and to be everything. To put it in a few words, this is not going to happen. In Fatherdale, the storyline is the king, the game is not about the world (though it has a detailed and well-functioning one) - the game is about the situations, and while you role-play all the way through, you role-play for a certain hero, Reinar, who will not torture women, enroll with vermin or trade his Raven Sword for a few gallons of mead.

Once this concept was declared clearly and the players went to the game's site to read the biographies of the characters and description of inventory items, most agreed it was still an interesting game. The storyline didn't substitute the development of the world, there was lots to explore, and the non-linear nature of the situations gave a good number of ways to play through. You can choose whom to take into your party, you can choose whom to believe and whom not to, and you can grant mercy or death when the situation invites a fair judgment.

The next logical question was, so how is the available freedom communicated to the players? Early in Episode I, a traveler tells Reinar a story about a magic stone, what is known in the game's world as the Legend of Skeivar. Reinar then has two ways to respond, one is to say "I can believe it" and another is "I don't believe it". In the immediate scene, this will lead to no visible consequences - in the first case the traveler will add that it's hard not to, since the stone is only a short distance away and all willing can go and see for themselves. In the second case, he will simply say that it's up to everybody to choose what to believe and what not to.

However, later in the game, if Reinar said he doesn't believe in the legend in that first scene, a healer who's very much into thinking of the world as of a one full of magic, will refuse to talk with Reinar. "You don't believe in Skeivar? Go on, deny the undeniable. But one day you'll come back with the questions your warrior friends can not answer." On the other hand, a ranger will gladly align with Reinar's party and give information about the road ahead ("That Skeivar was a great warrior, I believe. But this legend of the stone that bleeds, this is for kid's in the darker winter nights in the village"). And the other way around - if Reinar believes, the healer will give more information about the background of that story, while ranger will shrug and leave for a more reasonable company.

Which is where we come to the question above: how much responsibility do we demand of the player? Is that all right that one answer, which allows you to role-play (for example, right now I'm in the no-magic mood, but later in the night I might easily play for Reinar as a faithful believer in the strange and wonderful happenings), brings such heavy consequences?

On one side of this question lies the "Windows RPG", as we call it. "Are you sure you want to say you believe in the legend?", it will ask. ""Please confirm that you really believe!", it will demand. And at any time along the "believer" thread of the storyline, Reinar would have a dialogue "Hmmm… On the other hand, I think I don't really believe in this thing now", which would transport him back to the stage where choice is still possible.

On the other, there's a dangerous world where you have to value each and every word, and where "Cancel" is not an option. The vermin won't ask you twice if you really want to fight, they'll just send you a couple of lovely arrows. And the villagers won't let you in after you misbehaved, even if you play the sorry dialogue ten times before their elder - what is done is in the river of time already, life is hard and dire circumstances call for outstanding solutions.

At the moment, we're still tuning the episodes and there's no clear answer on which way we'd go. Personally, I think we'd venture on the dangerous road but will always give player one chance to return - just like in Herbert's Dune the face-dancers always left one escape route, no matter what a trap.

In case of the legend in the example above, just this morning I wrote a part where another character on the way to the healer and ranger starts a dialogue about Skeivar and Reinar can give his opinion on that - again. After that, there's no way back. But if at first somebody pushed "I believe" and then thought it's not quite the way he'd behave as Reinar given the circumstances, there's that one chance to correct what has happened. I think this is the balance for us, the demand that the player be responsible for whatever choice he or she makes - this is an RPG, by Odin! - and just about enough freedom to take that little pause before making the decision...

Best,
S.

Sergei Klimov
Lead Designer Fatherdale
Snowball Interactive