Hi everyone,
Welcome back to our devblog series dedicated to GreedFall – the one-of-a-kind RPG developed by Spiders and coming to Playstation 4, Xbox One, and PC on September 10.
We’re taking a look at this new world, specifically created for GreedFall, with Jehanne Rousseau, Lead Writer and CEO at Spiders, as well as Cyril Tahmassebi, Artistic Director.
Building a new world
Teer Fradee is a new place both for the player launching GreedFall for the first time, as well as the colonizers who have just arrived there. The island is a solitary entity, old and full of mysteries, encouraging players delve into its story and unveil its secrets. When building the Island of Teer Fradee as well as the Old Continent, the development team were committed to starting from scratch.
GreedFall isn’t Jehanne’s first time building a universe. While the creative process is complex, she finds it enthralling. Her first step is selecting a time and a place to act as reference. Environment is key, since it almost always dictates how people live and how creatures and plantlife develop. The economy, history, and spirituality underpinning this world must also be thoroughly considered.
Even though the most difficult part of the creative process isn’t populating the world with creatures and plants, it's still the means by which the player discovers the strangeness of the new world. The biggest challenge is consolidating all the creative choices made by the team.
More than an Island: a character
Cyril, Artistic Director at Spiders, explains that even before starting work on new concepts for this mysterious place, he aimed to approach the Island of Teer Fradee as if it was a character. He started by visualizing the Island as a person, imagining what they would physically look like, and what their story might be.
In searching for a visual theme for the emotions they wanted to convey with Teer Fradee, Cyril landed on the season of autumn. For him, autumn was perfect for Teer Fradee and a great choice for the imagery they wanted. With its golden light and dark shadows, autumn’s wilting vegetation is both a memento of the past and a portent of change. Reminiscence and change are inherent to autumn, making it perfect for illustrating what is happening on the island.
Everything serves a purpose on Teer Fradee
History is crucial in GreedFall, and creating a detailed timeline was fundamental to the storytelling. Everything that happened on Teer Fradee prior to the game impacts what the player is going through, and enhances the narrative, visuals, and even gameplay.
Teer Fradee is both a place, a vast space composed of numerous natural landscapes with intermingling towns and villages, and a character, with its own unique identity and wants. Spiders wants to ensure players understand that this entity has a personal history and identity, and that each place on the Island has its own reason to exist; be it cultural, economic, historical, or otherwise. As the player explores the many young colonies and native villages the ancient ruins and the holy sites that hum with magic, the player should get the feeling that everything has a purpose.
Stay tuned for more insights about the development of GreedFall in our next articles! GreedFall releases on September 10 on Playstation 4, Xbox One and PC. http://greedfall.com/
