ΤΗΕ MAKING ΟF DEATHLOOP

How the time-loop shooter won over Bethesda, players – and its own developers

- Alex Spencer

Everything started with a party. Before Colt and Julianna, before multiplayer, before even the concept of a time loop, game director Dinga Bakaba tells us, the initial seed of Deathloop was simply this: “The northern setting – you know, this small, isolated island, with harsh nature – and the contrast with this big, lawless party. That was there from the start. This big, lawless party, everyone’s wearing masks, and it’s sinister. Everyone’s having fun, but you’re not. You’re the butt of the joke.” It sounds like the stuff of nightmares from which you can’t wait to awaken, and it doesn’t exactly suggest the game Deathloop would become. Things start to become a little clearer, though, as Bakaba recalls other aspects that arrived in time for the initial proposal. “Making it somehow connected to Dishonored – that was already part of it,” he says – a connection that is buried deep in the final release, requiring some excavation by players. While Arkane didn’t want to entirely abandon the world it had spent the best part of a decade building, though, it was keen to chart new territory in other ways.