Ex-Mass Effect Devs Criticize Nightingale's Open World Design

Nightingale, the eagerly anticipated open-world survival crafting game from Inflexion Games, led by former Bioware head Aaryn Flynn, is set to receive a significant update this summer. The team, including art and audio director Neil Thomson, recently shared their thoughts and future plans in a YouTube video, expressing their dissatisfaction with the game's current state. They aim to address issues and improve the overall player experience with a major update planned for the end of summer.

"We are not satisfied with where the game is at, we're not satisfied with the overall sentiment, we're not satisfied with our player numbers," Flynn stated candidly. Since its early access release in February, Inflexion Games has been working on quality of life (QoL) enhancements and bug fixes. A significant addition was the much-requested offline mode, introduced a few months ago. Now, the focus is on fulfilling the original vision and rectifying the game's shortcomings.

Nightingale invites players to explore the mysterious and perilous Fae Realms. While open-world games are known for their expansive content and non-linear gameplay, Thomson pointed out that Nightingale is "almost too open world, too self-motivated in terms of goal-setting." To address this, Inflexion Games plans to introduce "more structure" to the game. This includes clearer progression indicators, specific goals, and enhanced realm designs to combat the repetitive nature players have noted.

"We do love the game very much, but we do think there's a lot of room to improve it," Flynn remarked. "One big way that we want to improve it is to bring more structure to the overall experience. What I mean by that is more sense of you as a player progressing; a better understanding of what you can do, a better understanding of the differences between these Realms." The team is also re-evaluating core elements and considering adjustments. The upcoming update will feature higher build limits, allowing for larger and more complex structures. Flynn hinted that previews of this new content will be available in the coming weeks.

Despite its 'Mixed' rating on Steam, Nightingale is seeing an increase in positive reviews, with about 68% of new reviews being favorable. Flynn and Thomson expressed gratitude for the community's support and encouraged feedback. "We played this new version really recently, and there's still a bit more work to do, but I think it's elevated it quite a bit, but obviously you'll all be the judge of that when we bring this thing out," Flynn concluded.

Echoing the sentiments of both fans and the developers, Game8 noted that Nightingale could benefit from more guidance and simplification of complex mechanics like crafting. For a detailed analysis, you can read our full review of Nightingale by clicking the link below.