Destiny 1 was legendary under-explained. What does it look like in Destiny 2?
Mark Noseworthy is Canadian, a comic fan, and the executive producer of Destiny 2. Has he ever dreamed of giving an interview to the rock magazine Rolling Stone? Either way, he did it as part of a promotional tour. Bungie wants to present Destiny 2 in a big way, and this includes talking to “non-gaming” magazines.
Noseworthy explains: His job at Bungie is to implement the creative director Luke Smith’s vision.
Every day he asks himself questions like
- Okay, this is our vision: How do we really get this into the game?
- How do we incorporate these ideas?
- How do we keep the team implementing the ideas happy and motivated?
For the time after the release of Destiny 2, Noseworthy has already requested vacation. He wants to grab his family, go on a trip, and play a lot of Destiny 2. Because it’s just fun: “We’ve created a game that we want to play ourselves.”
Destiny 2 becomes more generous and clearer, because Noseworthy has no time for explanations
With Destiny 2, they want to do things differently. Noseworthy admits where the weaknesses of Destiny 1 were: The game was too complex and under-explained.
Noseworthy says: “Destiny was a game that was hard to recommend. My brother-in-law once asked me if he should play this Destiny game. And my first instinct was to tell him: Hmm, I don’t know if I have time to explain everything you want to know at the beginning.”
Noseworthy had … no time for explanations.
Therefore, the big goal in Destiny 2 is to make everything feel rewarding and interesting for the players: You slay a monster from the depths of space, and the game rewards you with loot. This is meant to reward the player and satisfy him.
Noseworthy: “We’re trying to make the game more generous and that it clearly states what cause and effect is.”
Ghaul threatened to become too likable
Noseworthy continues to explain that they want to pay more attention to the story in Destiny 2.
With Ghaul and the Cabal, they have clear, interesting villains and a common thread.
But Ghaul also posed a challenge for the team. They often asked themselves during development: “Are we making Ghaul too likable? Will players eventually start to side with him? At some point, every player knows they will have to confront Ghaul. And then they should also want to win.”
More about the story of Destiny can be found here:
The story of Destiny – Everything that happened before the release of Destiny 2
