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GameInformer: What can you tell me about Human Element?
Robert Bowling: The whole universe first, experience second, gameplay mechanics last, that whole philosophy on how we plan to design games just sets up the back end of this universe that we’re currently creating.
That universe is set on this whole premise of, “What is the greatest threat in a zombie apocalypse?” If you’re conditioned with the entire zombie culture it’s the infection, it’s the zombies. But in reality, they’re the walking dead. They’re weak. They’re really not a physical threat to you in a lot of ways. Their greatest strength is the fear that they instill in us, the survivors. They lead us to do unreasonable things to survive. By that logic, the greatest strength in a zombie apocalypse is the human element. The other survivors who are smart enough to kill you and take what they want and to threaten you and to do things like that.
Think of this as a zombie game that isn’t about zombies. This is 35 years after the event has taken place. What the event was is fairly irrelevant, but we’re living in this world now and we need to deal with it and we need to survive. It’s much more about that human element than the reason how we got here.
Jim Reilly wrote:Building Character
Bowling says Human Element contains three main attributes players will choose from when creating their character: class, identity, and persona.
Players can choose from class types including action, intelligence, and stealth, with each offering a number of different abilities. For example, action-based players focus on fighting and physical attacks, while intelligence players can do things like barter, build more complex fortifications, and create alliances. The stealth class provides new quest options and allows you to evade basic defenses.
When selecting your identity, you choose from a solo adult, partnered adult, or adult with child. This acts the same as selecting a difficulty at the start of the game. “We don’t want to scale AI intelligence or damage or health," Bowling says. "That’s not how we want to scale difficulty. We want your identity, your specific scenarios determine the difficulty you’re going to have surviving purely out of responsibilities.”
Lastly, Bowling says persona determines a player’s sex and race. “How you choose to start in the world will determine how you can engage and impact in the scenarios you will be presented with on a physical and moral level that you approach this world.”
GameInformer: What platforms are you aiming for your new universe?
Robert Bowling: Next-gen consoles, PC, mobile, and tablets.
GameInformer:When are you expecting to ship the game?
Robert Bowling: Right now we’re aiming for Q3 2015.