BROKEN ROADS

The post-apocalypse is returning to Australia

- Phil Savage

Broken Roads’ creative lead, Colin McComb, has a long history with CRPGs. He previously worked on Fallout 2, Planescape: Torment, and Wasteland 2. More recently he was creative lead on Planescape’s spiritual successor, Torment: Tides of Numenera. McComb is now taking a chance on Drop Bear Bytes, a new studio working on a debut project.

“Craig Ritchie called me up in 2020,” says McComb. “He’s the game director. He said, ‘We’d like to get you on board with this game,’ and I was like, ‘Sell me on it.’ He said, ‘Post-apocalyptic.’ I was like, ‘Done three of them.’ He said, ‘Philosophical.’ I was like, ‘OK, sounds good.’ He said, ‘Set in Australia.’ I’m like, ‘Intriguing.’ And then he said, ‘It gets weird.’” Convinced, McComb joined the team.

I ask McComb what sets Broken Roads apart from the other RPGs he’s worked on. “One of the big things is that the morality system in this game is not just good versus evil, not just law versus chaos, light versus dark, whatever. What we’ve got is what’s called the Moral Compass.” This system maps the actions you take along four philosophical quadrants: utilitarian, Machiavellian, nihilist and humanist. “The important thing is we aren’t going to judge people based on what they choose.”

CHOOSEY