THE PATHLESS

Taking the road less travelled

“WE ARE MAKING A GIANT, CONTINUOUS AREA FOR PLAYERS TO EXPLORE.”

FORMAT PS4 / PLAYERS 1 / DEV GIANT SQUID STUDIOS

Where Giant Squid’s debut Abzû took us deep under the ocean, The Pathless is a much more land-based affair. As the Hunter – cloaked, robed, and carrying a bow – you arrive on a cursed island covered in woodland and temple ruins. There you find an eagle, your only ally as you trek across the open world island, fighting many-eyed beings.

“The scope of The Pathless is definitely larger than any game I have worked on previously,” creative director Matt Nava tells us. “We are making a giant, continuous area for players to explore without loading screens, and populating it with about a million trees. It’s a tricky balance to tune the speed of the character, the size of the game space, and the density of features in the landscape.”

There’s a reason the game is called The Pathless. The Hunter’s steps won’t just lead from A to B. “The player has many options of where they can go at any time, but as the game progresses, the player will be able to access large new areas,” says Nava. It’s a world filled with things to find. “Backtracking is always allowed and there are many secrets that the player will be able to find. It’s an open world game, which opens up a lot of new opportunities for us as designers.”

Before working on Abzû, Nava was art director on Flower and Journey for thatgamecompany. His distinctive style has transferred from Journey to the similarly enchanting and understated quest in The Pathless, though on a grander scale. “The art direction of The Pathless takes inspiration from many sources, from our own experiences hiking in the forests of the Pacific Northwest to Miyazaki films,” says Nava.

There’s a clear Japanese influence to the game, down to the Hunter’s beautifully fluid animation as they traverse the island, glide with the eagle, and rapid-fire the bow at eye-like targets on enemies and the environment. “We have researched kyudo, the traditional practice of archery in Japan, as well as motifs of Mongolian cultures in our design process. These inspirations give our invented world a grounded sense of reality that enhances immersion. The visual style is also a graphical evolution of the look we created for Abzû in many ways,” Nava explains.

ON TARGET

Teaming up with the eagle gives the Hunter the edge over the environment. You are able to use it to glide, and you can also activate an eagle vision to spot targets better. It’s a symbiotic relationship. “The eagle helps you soar, hunt, battle, and solve puzzles. You will also need to take care of the eagle by petting and cleaning it to keep it in top condition as you explore,” comments Nava.

The Hunter’s motion is always quick, and impressive to look at. Even when you’re using the bow, you barely have to slow down. “Our priorities are fluidity, speed, and accessibility – we want to make it simple for the player to feel like they are a skilled archer just like the Hunter,” Nava explains. “It always breaks the illusion of being a superhero when the player’s ability to execute skilled actions is hampered purely by the difficulty of controlling the game. We’ve built a bow system based on timing rather than conventional aiming that allows you to shoot accurately while moving fast, without resorting to bullet-time slow motion mechanics.”

MANY PATHWAYS

‘The trick with making this scale of indie game is that your audience will compare it to games made by teams of hundreds of people with budgets hundreds of times bigger,” says Nava when we ask about the balance in making indie games. “To achieve that, we have to design our systems and tools smartly to get the highestquality results as efficiently as possible since we have a limited amount of budget and therefore time to create the game. We have to choose the features that make us stand apart – like our unique art direction and unique gameplay – and focus our efforts on them.”

For Nava, indies provide spaces for creating and playing fresh ideas. “[Indie] games often offer unique gameplay, narratives, and perspectives that would be too risky to put in a Triple-A game,” he says. “Overall, Triple-A games and indie games offer different experiences that are both great. Playing games of all sizes can enrich your life in ways that purely playing Triple-A cannot.

“The coming years will likely be very difficult for very small developers,” says Nava on there being more games than ever – it’s important to support smaller indie developers you love. “Larger indie studios like Giant Squid will probably fare well if they can keep making successful titles. But for gamers, the breadth and diversity of gaming experiences will continue to expand in great ways, across the spectrum from indie to Triple-A.”