GreedFall: The Dying World is undoubtedly going to be an ambitious game, which prompted developer Spiders to with an Early Access release to iron out its issues. with the RPG’s 1.0 release being just over the horizon, we had quite a few questions for the studio. Thankfully, creative director Jehanne Rousseau, design director Nicolas Ducart, and technical director Wilfried Mallet were kind enough to answer many of our questions, from the game’s writing, to gameplay systems, and even some technical details.
Looking back at the original GreedFall, what were the biggest lessons your team learned during its development that directly influenced how you approached The Dying World?
Jeanne Rousseau: As a writer I would say that I realized the players love to have alternate ways to solve things, combat being only one of them. They liked to have as many choices as possible, and they also enjoyed the factions and companions. So, I really put the emphasis on developing even more the companions, their personal stories and quests to make sure the players would have what they enjoy the most. And we also really tried to bring more diversity to the main path, to avoid repetition as much as possible, adding more alternate and secret solutions to solve these quests, and of course more factions and more varied places to visit.
With the “2” dropped from the title, GreedFall: The Dying World feels more like a standalone entry than a traditional sequel. What does that change represent creatively and gameplay mechanics wise?
Jeanne Rousseau: The Dying World was in fact never thought as a sequel (or a prequel) and always as a new opus set in the same world, like Bioware did for the Dragon Age series for example. But the fact that we had the 2 in the name was bringing confusion to some of the players. That’s why we decided to drop the 2 from the title.
"The Dying World was in fact never thought as a sequel (or a prequel) and always as a new opus set in the same world"
The real-time-with-pause combat system in the original was a defining feature. How has that system evolved in The Dying World in terms of depth, fluidity, and player expression?
Jeanne Rousseau: When we began the development of The Dying World, we took some time to look at the feedback of our players regarding the combat of the first game, and a lot of players wanted to be able to have control over the companions. That’s why we decided to propose a different type of combat, a little more tactical. Of course, during the early access, as it was something new to us, we had to make a lot of adjustments, and we learned a lot from the players feedback. Now you can choose from different playstyles: one more tactical, one very similar to the real time with pause we had in the first game, and one in-between. As we think the players agency is really important, we also added more ways to customize your character with different “profiles” and bigger skill trees to choose from at the creation but also during its progression. We also add more ways to customize difficulty.
Player agency was central to GreedFall’s identity. To what extent does meaningful choice and consequence return in this new installment?
Jeanne Rousseau: It’s something that is even more crucial to me than the combat (I guess it’s because I’m a writer) so we really made sure that all the choices would have consequences. Of course some may seem anecdotal, while others will have a much more dramatic impact. But just as an example, in The Dying World you can lose a lot more companions as in the first opus.
What are some of the biggest gameplay changes happening in the 1.0 release?
Nicolas Ducart: Since the last early access update, we’ve focused on polishing, debugging, adjusting and adding upon the game to prepare for release.
Our final monster and all bosses’ encounters have now been readjusted, added and completed. We also improved the detection system so that reaching an enemy’s back is more challenging, and enemy alert propagation now affects how quickly combat begins – it aims at making this part of the game more engaging and seamless. We added specific camera contexts and refined movement in every stance in combat too. There is no longer a cooldown on posture skills, and we implemented safeguards for “last man standing” situations, for using resurrection on allies. In addition, we carried out extensive balancing work on equipment, crafting, traders, consumable limits, reputation, romances, rewards, and loot. We also polished enemy encounters and their scaling throughout the adventure.
When the game releases, players will be able to experience the whole adventure of GreedFall: The Dying World, and we are eager to see what they think of it.
"Now you can choose from different playstyles: one more tactical, one very similar to the real time with pause we had in the first game, and one in-between."
How long will it take to beat the game?
Nicolas Ducart: It depends on how thorough you want to be, and on one’s playstyle and preferences. We roughly estimate that it will take around 30 hours to reach the end if you play straight through the main quest. However, if you want to do all the content (side quests, exploration, etc.), the game can take more than 50 hours to complete.
What can you tell us about the world size and how seamless it will be?
Nicolas Ducart: The world in the game has a structure like the first GreedFall: it’s semi-open. You can move through a region by traveling from one area to another. The cool twist here is that you get a ship in GreedFall: The Dying World named the Constanzia, so when you need to change regions, you can use it to cross the sea.
Most of the game takes place on the continent of Gacane, where the cities are more diverse than those on the island of Teer Fradee too. Each city has its own culture and architecture, which results in more density and variety in the areas you can discover throughout the adventure. In GreedFall: The Dying World, the world will feel even bigger and more diverse for the players. The entire world has a lot to offer that just asks to be discovered. As you advance in your quest, you’ll be transported into the different regions of Gacane where you’ll meet key characters that will either help you or be your enemies.
On PS5, PS5 Pro, and Xbox Series X, what performance targets are you aiming for in terms of resolution and frame rate? Are there multiple graphics modes planned?
Wilfried Mallet: We offer two graphics modes. A ‘Performance’ mode that prioritizes fluidity with a 60fps framerate, and a ‘Quality’ mode that focuses on visual rendering with enhanced graphics at 30fps.
"Most of the game takes place on the continent of Gacane, where the cities are more diverse than those on the island of Teer Fradee too."
Xbox Series S continues to be an important part of the ecosystem. What were the biggest technical challenges in scaling The Dying World for Series S, and how did the team approach optimization?
Wilfried Mallet: It’s always complex to optimize a game for multiple platforms, and the Xbox Series S naturally received special attention. That said, we had already gained solid experience with this console during the development of Steelrising. So we knew what adjustments to make to offer the best experience for players.
How are you leveraging features like the PS5’s SSD and DualSense, or Xbox’s Velocity Architecture, to enhance immersion and loading performance?
Wilfried Mallet: Yes, we took full advantage of the fast storage architectures, both on the PS5 SSD (with hardware decompression, notably Kraken) and the Velocity Architecture on the Xbox side. This allowed us to stream more data and significantly increase the quality and variety of our textures without impacting loading times.
With next-gen hardware allowing for larger worlds and more systemic complexity, was a version for Switch 2 ever considered? If not, was that primarily due to technical limitations, scope considerations, or platform strategy?
Wilfried Mallet: Although it is technically feasible, we do not have a Switch 2 version planned at this stage. We are currently focusing our efforts on the announced platforms.
