Hangar13’s Mafia 3 may not have lived up to expectations commercially or critically, but the studio has since rallied. We already know that they are currently at work on a brand new AAA game, after having opened up a third outfit, this one in the UK- now, they have also confirmed that they will continue to focus on storytelling for their future games.
“It is part of our identity to be a story-telling studio. That can apply to a variety of different genres, game types… there are many ways that can manifest,” said Andrew Wilson, Vice President of Development and Executive Producer at Hangar 13, in an interview with GamesIndustry. “It doesn’t mean we’re going to try and make, necessarily, a point with every game. Even with Mafia III, we weren’t trying to make some kind of big social statement. We just wanted to tell a story that was authentic and represented the situation as it would have been, without trying to gloss over it.
“We build our games from the perspective of who is an interesting character to tell a story about? Do they have a background or history that makes you want to build a narrative around them? And how do they relate to the game we want to build mechanically? That’s our starting point.”
More and more developers are skipping focusing on storytelling in games, instead opting for shared world multiplayer game experiences- there is, of course, nothing wrong with that, multiplayer games are great. But at the same time, it is good to see that even among third parties, there are developers who will continue to focus on storytelling in their games- in spite of setbacks.
Mafia 3 is available now on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC. While it’s not the best game in the world, it’s still something you may want to pick up and look into, if you can get it on the cheap.