Dead Island Roundtable Interview

http://www.rpgamer.com/news/Q3-2011/071511b.html

The next question I asked was about the development of Dead Island. I wanted to know if Dead Island started out as an RPG or if it shaped into a zombie action RPG over the course of its development. Kummer said that the the game was a zombie RPG from the beginning. In fact, the game had even more RPG mechanics when it was first conceived and the team had to drop some of these RPG elements over the course of development. One of the most interesting discarded elements was multiple storylines with different endings. There was also going to be a mode where some players were infected zombies and others were survivors, which would have been very interesting in an action RPG. In the end, they decided to focus on a few key elements, a strong narrative and co-op play. The multiple story lines and endings were removed to maintain consistency between co-op games. The team felt that if they focused on too much, they would have a lot of bullet points on the back of the box but a mediocre game inside the package. Kummer said about sixty percent of their original ideas are in the game, and the features that were removed and added over the course of development has made for a stronger narrative and co-op campaign.