Drew Karpyshyn, known for his work on the Mass Effect series, is currently serving as narrative director on Archetype Entertainment’s sci-fi RPG Exodus. In an interview with GamesRadar, Karpyshyn has spoken about the side content in Exodus, and how it will tie in to the central story and motifs of the game. He discussed how players shouldn’t feel obligated to complete side content in games. Rather, these side quests should be more rewarding and contribute to the story or world-building.
“We don’t want things to feel tacked-on,” he said. “We definitely don’t want you to feel like you’re doing it because you’re obligated, or you just need the experience points. We want side quests to be something you would do even if you weren’t getting a reward. You’re going to get rewards, of course, but we want you to feel like ‘this is something I’m interested in, this is something I want to explore.’ Side content should always feel “tied to the themes of our game, tied to the companions you have, tied into the interesting aspects of our game that maybe don’t get explored as much on the critical path.”
In the same interview, Karpyshyn also spoke about one of the core elements of the Exodus story—Time Dilation. Through this, the RPG will be able to tell a story that spans decades while also ensuring that players’ choices appropriately impact the narrative.
“Time Dilation is one of the defining elements of our story,” says Karpysyhn, “So we want to make sure that we pay it off in ways that players will really, really appreciate.” However, he also noted that the Time Dilation element was quite challenging to work with. “There were times where I was like ‘what the hell did we think we were doing?'”
Generally speaking, Karpyshyn believes that there is an appetite for big sci-fi RPGs like the Mass Effect series that is going largely ignored by the industry. He spoke about how many members of the development teams are fans of the genre, and how this has also meant that Archetype Entertainment is facing quite a bit of pressure to deliver with Exodus.
“We know there’s a hunger out there,” said Karpyshyn. “We’re fans as well. We know the kind of games we like, and we know the audience is waiting for the next big one of these to drop, and that gives us a huge opportunity to fill that need. But it’s an unbelievable amount of pressure, because their expectations are rightfully very high, and we’re working very hard to make sure we meet those expectations.”
“It’s an incredible opportunity,” he continued. “And we just have a very high bar we have to deliver on. That’s one of the reasons making games is so hard, because the bar keeps getting elevated by all the great games that came before. You need to take it to another level.”
Exodus is being developed for PC, PS5 and Xbox Series X/S. While it doesn’t have a precise release date, the studio is aiming for a 2027 launch window.
