The Division: Massive Entertainment Developer Interview Video

Ubisoft Massive Entertainment has released an interview video with the developers of Tom Clancy’s The Division.

Featuring Mathias Karlson, Lead Game Designer, and Axel Rydby, Design Director of Massive Entertainment were featured.

Rydby said,

“Consider that our game is a lot about the fall of society, and things that we take for granted in our everyday life such as clean water and food, they suddenly become scarce resources in the game.”

“Not only do you actually have to go out and look for food and water, but [they] become very valuable and rare resources that can be used to trade and stuff like that. But when it comes to having to drink water and eat food to be able to survive, that’s not really what we want from it. Food and water will be a very important part of the game, but players will not need to eat and drink to stay alive.”

You can view The Division interview video below:

When it comes to player communication, Karlson said,

“Communication between group members is of course at the very core of our game. We’re designing the game from the bottom up to be an online experience together with friends in co-op. Being able to communicate within your group is very important, so you will be able to see where everyone is and then give hints and direction to points of interest.

“I also think when it comes to the map and showing things in the world, we’re trying to find that perfect balance between not showing too much and giving you enough information to make informed decisions about where to go. But exploration in an open-world game is very important and important for the immersion as well.”

To which Rydby added,

“The fact that we’re pushing online quite hard in the game, we’re going to be an always online game. It’s one of those things where exploration in co-op can be inherently difficult because you might want to go in different directions, so it’s really important that you can be clear with where you can go and what you want to see.”

The two talked about the daylight cycle,

“A day/night cycle yes. When it comes to the season, we’re extremely aware of that in an open-world game with exploration and all of that, contrast is very important and if you think about New York City, it’s a very contrasting place in itself.

“There are a lot of different cultures and visuals in the city. We’re also looking at some fun ways of making sure that there will be variety in the world as you progress through it.” Karlson said.

Rydby added,

“The immersion and fidelity of the world is very core to our philosophy, so with weather changing and day/night changing dynamically, those are going to be very big parts to the game.”

You can also view The Division video that was premiered at the VGX 2013 Awards.

What did you think?

(Thanks, Examiner)