The developer behind the upcoming Redfall, Arkane Studios, recently noted how the entire map in its previously released Prey could easily fit inside a single part of the game world. The whole Talos I space station is apparently smaller in size than a single farm in rural Massachusetts.
The news comes from a panel at Quakecon, Bringing Redfall to Life. Art Director on Redfall Karen Segars explained how “the Talos I in Prey was five football fields. The size of Redfall is kinda ‘hold my beer’ on that one. So, we definitely challenged the whole team with making something this big."
Talking about the early stages of development on Redfall, Studio Director Harvey Smith described the size of its open world, pointing out that “Jim McGill took Talos I at scale and dropped it in the middle of the farm that’s there. And the district just eats the whole space station of course. It’s gigantic.”
“It was just the size of the actual farm area,” Lead Producer on the game Aaron Carter added. “And that’s just one mission.”
The game world in Redfall is going to be the largest ever created by Arkane. While the Talos I space station is known for its verticality, the square footage is most likely larger than the farm in question, but the map will surely be impressive in both size and scale. This particular farm is just one part of a single district in the game, Redfall being made up of two distinct districts.
“It’s an open world, but it’s not an open world based on the scale of vehicles. It’s an open world based on foot,” Smith remarked.
This comes in the wake of news that Arkane is no longer interested in making linear campaigns. "I don't feel any interest in making a completely linear campaign again," Campaign Director on Redfall Dana Nightingale explained. "I fell in love with the way Deathloop is structured where the player’s goals are their own. The idea of saying ‘okay, mission one, mission two, mission three.' That feels like a step backwards for me."