A Plague Taleseries director Kevin Choteau has revealed that the first game had a very troubled development at the beginning. WhileA Plague Tale: Innocencehad a bit of a cult following at first, the game would explode in popularity that led to a sequel, withreviews forA Plague Tale: Requiemreflecting how much the franchise has grown. Praise from critics and fans noteA Plague Tale’s harrowing atmosphere, dark story, and stealth gameplay make an emotional experience that is filled with gut-punch after gut-punch. Before the game’s popularity, however, there was a real chance it could have all been canceled altogether.
This story was shared by Choteau in a retrospective interview with Eurogamer. He noted that the first game,A Plague Tale: Innocence, had its humble beginnings stemming from theMicrosoft Hololensof all things. Choteau noted that after developing a game known asFragmentsfor the device, the team wanted to work on something unique that wasn’t tied to promote a different product.The Last of Uswas also a big impact, as its focus on character maturity, tone, and morality resonated with the team, laying the foundation for the game.
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This then resulted in the team drafting up story ideas, the dynamic of games likeICOandBrothers: A Tale of Two Sonsbeing reflected withHugo and Amicia, and how rats became the plague spreader. There were, however, external reviewers that were brought in to look over the game during development, with much of the feedback being particularly harsh. Choteau notes that many of these critiques essentially told them that nothing was holding together, even stating that the game would get only a 55-60 percent score.
Choteau recalled this being a big blow to the team’s morale, especially after two years of development. This resulted in the director making a drastic decision, asking the entire team to replay the game and essentially redo most of the work. This included rewriting dialogue, plot developments, and reworking gameplay, all wishing to make the best possible product. This resulted in an additional nine months of dev time being granted beforeA Plague Tale: Innocence’s release in 2019.
This meant thatInnocencewould not be granted another internal review, meaning that the first external feedback would be from reviews a month of so before release. There was cautious optimism about the game up until its final release, where many were shocked that it managed to score so high in the end. This resulted in newfound motivation to makeA Plague Tale:Requiembetter thanInnocence, taking every piece negative feedback that the team had received and fixing what didn’t work.
A Plague Tale: Innocenceis available now on PC, PS4, PS5, Nintendo Switch, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
