GamesThird Person ShooterHelldivers 2Helldivers 2’s D&D campaign was set up “about halfway through development” to support over 10 million people “all collaborating on a story"When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.
GamesThird Person ShooterHelldivers 2Helldivers 2’s D&D campaign was set up “about halfway through development” to support over 10 million people “all collaborating on a story"When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.
When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.
(Image credit: Arrowhead Game Studios)
Helldivers 2’sD&D influence, which supports a 10-million-player-strong role-playing campaign, made its way into the game “about halfway through development,” according to former lead writer Russ Nickel.
Speaking toInverse, Nickel revealed that his history as a D&D dungeon master “has been so helpful for game writing.” Not only did Nickel need the know-how to build a galaxy-spanning sandbox plan, but more crucially, he had “to be able to let go of those plans” to react to players.
“I love how collaborative it is,” he continues. “It’s so crazy to me that right now there’s a dungeon master who is playing a game with 10 million people, and they’re all collaborating on a story.”
“This feels like what live service was born to do,” Nickel says. “For a while, Arrowhead didn’t know if the sequel was going to be a live-service title. But as we talked about it more, it was clear that this would make for such a cool live service experience, one where the story can change constantly so it really does feel alive.”
The idea to update the live service like a D&D campaign came in “about halfway through development” because the team “were just building the game to be playable” at first. “The back half of development was adding in the narrative and figuring out exactly what that playable prototype would become.”
Helldivers 2 is getting removed from sale in more countries without PSN access, prompting blindsided devs to call for it to be made “available worldwide.”
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1Nemesis review: “A magical sense of tension”
1Nemesis review: “A magical sense of tension”
1
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2Arcs review: “A whole lot of game in a small package”
2Arcs review: “A whole lot of game in a small package”
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3Path of Exile 2 review: “A stellar start to a thrilling and brutal dark adventure”
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4Indiana Jones and the Great Circle review: “The best adventure Indy has embarked on in over 30 years”
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3Kraven the Hunter review: “The insistence on an R-rating helps save this, with a decent helping of bloodthirsty action”
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4The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim review – “An uninspired expansion of the most iconic screen take on Tolkien”
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3Secret Level review: “An uneven experience with serious highlights that ultimately make up for the misses”
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Skeleton Crew review: “Perfectly captures the vibes of classic Star Wars with a swashbuckling twist”
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5Creature Commandos review: “James Gunn’s heartwarming, R-rated tale about super-monsters proves that the DCU is in good hands”
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Creature Commandos review: “James Gunn’s heartwarming, R-rated tale about super-monsters proves that the DCU is in good hands”