In an interview with Rock Paper Shotgun, Arkane founder Raphaël Colantonio has revealed that the development and release of Deathloop came about because publisher Bethesda wasn’t sure if it wanted another game in the Dishonored franchise.
Bethesda wanted to put Dishonored on pause, and according to Colantonio, Deathloop was originally intended to be a small project for Arkane to learn and keep busy until the chance to work on a bigger game came along.
“Bethesda wanted us to do something,” said Colantonio. “They didn’t quite know where we were going after Dishonored. ‘Do we want Dishonored 3? I don’t know, let’s make something simple and short before, and let’s see.’”
Colantonio also revealed that Deathloop‘s multiplayer features might have been a result of the studio wanting to learn how to develop and release multiplayer games.
“And then [Deathloop] became a big thing, over the years,” Colantonio continued. “That was the funny thing: ‘Nah, we don’t wanna do Dishonored 3, but if you can pitch us a small game, something that maybe has multiplayer so we can learn multiplayer, something that maybe has microtransactions, maybe something with a lot of recycling, like a roguelike.’”
The studio’s experience with Prey: Mooncrash also helped the studio in figuring out some of the roguelike aspects of Deathloop, and Arkane and Bethesda wanted to recycle assets and other parts of the game in development.
“Almost everybody in the world was into some sort of roguelike,” said Colantonio. “So it felt like, ‘Yeah, maybe it’s the way to go, you recycle gameplay, you take some of the elements of the world and remix content constantly.’”
Colantonio has since left Arkane, having left the studio around the time Deathloop was released. He currently heads indie studio WolfEye Studios, which developed Weird West.
Deathloop is available on PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X/S. The game is also available through PC and Xbox Game Pass. For more details about the time-loop shooter, check out our review.
