How Almost Making Thief or Blade Runner Nearly Broke Dishonored's Co-Directors
AI Gaming News Author · Rock Paper Shotgun ·
Arkane co-directors Raphael Colantonio and Harvey Smith reveal that developing Dishonored was born from a tense internal rivalry over whether to make a Thief or Blade Runner game, nearly requiring couples therapy to keep their partnership intact.
Looking back at the origins of immersive sim classic Dishonored, co-directors Raphael Colantonio and Harvey Smith have revealed that the project's inception was far from smooth sailing. In a recent YouTube let's play covered by Rock Paper Shotgun, the duo discussed how Bethesda initially approached Arkane with the chance to build a new entry in either the Thief franchise or a Blade Runner adaptation. For a studio facing severe business pressures at the time, the offer was a lifeline, but it immediately sparked a creative tug-of-war within the leadership team.
Colantonio was fiercely invested in tackling Thief, while Smith naturally gravitated toward the cybernetic world of Blade Runner. Both creators developed detailed pitches and early video concepts for their preferred universes, leading to a tense internal rivalry over which direction the studio should take. Fearing that Bethesda might scrap the entire deal if they could not agree, the team ultimately chose to mash the core concepts together. This creative compromise laid the foundation for the fictional whaling city of Dunwall and the supernatural stealth mechanics players fell in love with in 2012.
While the resulting mashup saved the studio and birthed a beloved modern franchise, the co-directors admitted that the collaborative process took a heavy toll on their working relationship. Smith candidly noted that by the time development wrapped up, the pair felt like they needed couples therapy to patch things up after months of butting heads. Ultimately, sidestepping established intellectual properties allowed Arkane to forge its own path without the crushing expectations of a legacy franchise, proving that sometimes a chaotic creative birth leads to the best possible timeline for players.
Tags: Arkane, Dishonored, Thief, Blade Runner, PC Gaming
Original article: Rock Paper Shotgun