Chahi: God Game From Dust's Tech Determined Game's Direction

Author: by Staff

Ubisoft's From Dust, the upcoming god game from Out of this World/Another World creator Eric Chahi, was originally going to be a strategy game. But Chahi told Gamasutra in a new feature interview that the flexible technology used in the game changed From Dust's creative direction. The developer gave players the power to have control over a landscape. "At the origin, it was a strategy game, but there was a background with the world, with a lot of erosion, [the characters have] some knowledge to preserve, and you are are giving power to your people," Chahi explained. "This was intact from the beginning, but the way to express it in gameplay has changed over time." He added, "The fact arose that the simulation was really malleable -- it drove us to direct interaction with the terrain." The new Ubisoft-published From Dust is a god game, in which the player interacts with the world and can see its effects on a tribe of humans who dwell there. It simulates the world in real-time, which creates a number of complexities. From Dust -- a downloadable title -- marks Chahi's return to game development after about a decade outside the industry, focusing on art and theater. For more from Chahi on the ongoing development of From Dust, read the full Gamasutra feature interview.