File:Darby McDevitt on multiple plots and dialogue trees.png

Darby McDevitt describing multiple plots and dialogue trees as they pertain to Assassin's Creed: Valhalla and elsewhere

Lucas de Sousa Duarte (@miinyri) on Twitter "Hey @DarbyMcDevitt, if you could answer, in your own opinion, do you think it was coherent to have the addition of choices inside a genetic memory using the Animus, especially since those memories are part of a big universe that was pre established as linear? +"
Lucas de Sousa Duarte (@miinyri) on Twitter "+ Also, do you think there's a good and lore friendly way of addressing this without breaking pre established informations or forcing something only for gameplay purposes? Thanks."
Darby McDevitt (@DarbyMcDevitt) on Twitter "@miinyri This is a topic I have wanted to address for a while, and I think it must to be split into two pieces to be coherent: Dialog Branching and Multiple Storylines... (cont.)"
Darby McDevitt (@DarbyMcDevitt) on Twitter "@miinyri As a feature, I think dialog branching by itself is actually no less viable than any other choice the game offers you as a player. It's a variation on "synchronization" in the same way that ever other player action is. For instance... (cont.)"
Darby McDevitt (@DarbyMcDevitt) on Twitter "@miinyri Say you're playing an Ezio game: Player 1 infiltrates a space using stealth and kills only the target. Player 2 walks in the front door and murders 25 guards before assassinating the target. In real life, these two scenarios would have vastly different branching outcomes. (cont.)"
Darby McDevitt (@DarbyMcDevitt) on Twitter "@miinyri The narrative implications of 1 death versus 26 deaths SHOULD be huge. It would in real life. But in gameplay terms, this choice only has a local effect. It doesn't extend beyond the confines of the mission. We could perhaps say the Animus is always "resynching" the user."
Darby McDevitt (@DarbyMcDevitt) on Twitter "@miinyri In the same way, having dialog choices within a conversation, to allow the player to play with the drama a little, is in the same vein as allowing one to play a mission or quest in their own stealthy or guns-blazing manner, esp if the story resychs at a certain point. (cont.)"
Darby McDevitt (@DarbyMcDevitt) on Twitter "@miinyri We have already seen branching narratives due to action in the series: Did you hug Leonardo? Did you carry Mary's body out of the prison? Dialog choices can offer the same tiny synch variations as well. But being an RPG the expectation is that entire stories must branch.(cont.)"
Darby McDevitt (@DarbyMcDevitt) on Twitter "@miinyri Is it canon that Ezio hugged Leonardo? Players seem to be okay with this variation. But what if a character dies in 1 branch but lives in another? That seems a bit too far. What if that character eventually dies by other means? Perhaps that's a resynch on a grander scale? (cont.)"
Darby McDevitt (@DarbyMcDevitt) on Twitter "@miinyri So I think the real concern with fans is this: How broadly should storylines be allowed to branch before they break the lore? Having multiple endings to a story is the biggest offender, because it means there is no canon outcome, no common resolution. So how far can we go?(cont.)"
Darby McDevitt (@DarbyMcDevitt) on Twitter "@miinyri All these are questions we asked ourselves while working on ACV. And when you play you'll hopefully find interesting answers to these questions, and interesting challenges to some ideas. I won't spill any secrets here, but keep this in mind going forward. (End)"

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