Dinga Bakaba, director of Arkane Lyon, has received the BIG Conference 2023 Honorary Award for his video game career. Designer of Dishonored and director of Dishonored 2 and Deathloop, Bakaba chatted with Antonio Santo, director of the festival, about three games vital to understanding the French studio’s popularity.
Bakaba recalled the “strange design” of the Dishonored’s world. Playing an assassin with powers determined the framework in which players could move. Ultimately, the design relied less on a designer’s decision than on the world where the game took place.
The sequel to Dishonored allowed Bakaba to take the reins of the franchise. Like any good sequel, one of his goals was adding new features to justify that second installment: “The goal was to make the best Dishonored possible. But making it too complicated meant it wouldn’t be the best possible version in every aspect.”
The studio found the solution by creating two characters, each with a different skill set, so that each delivered a fresh experience. “We only let you use all the skills when you play a New Game +, which is when you master all the skills, and not at the beginning of the game,” he explained.
Deathloop, a murder and time-traveling game, has again placed the studio as a global industry phenomenon. In the game, death is part of the process, so the studio was clear from the beginning that death could not be a game over like in any other title: “We needed each death to have a narrative meaning because every time you die, you get a little closer to the final goal.”
Finally, Bakaba emphasized that Arkane’s games have a diversity component that comes organically from within the studio and not from a previous debate: “Deathloop is about Emily, not about what it means to be a woman. Industry representation is improving, but we still have a problem if we keep asking these questions.”
The man behind Dishonored 2 and Deathloop received the BIG Conference 2023 Honorary Award this evening during the Titanium Awards gala.
