Too Much Focus on Sequels Damaged The Order 1886: Director

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The Order 1886 is one of the very first PlayStation 4 exclusives and while it wasn’t perfect, we all felt that it laid the foundation of something much bigger. However, too much focus on laying the foundation and creating a long-lasting IP damaged The Order 1886, according to Game Director at Ready at Dawn, Ru Weerasuriya.

When asked about the shortcomings of The Order 1886, Ru revealed how they treated this as an IP rather than an individual game. As a result, they added fewer mechanics while planning to expand every aspect with a sequel.

I think the shortcomings come from so much concentration on building an IP at the very beginning. We were so dead-set on making sure this IP had a foundation — a big foundation — that stories could be told so many different ways. At one point, the IP and the story was driving a lot of the work that we were trying to do. It’s kind of natural when you start a very new game. You’ve seen that with new IPs in the past — we’re not the first ones. There have been many IPs in the past that were firsts, and if you look [at] the level of the gameplay and complexity, often times it’s much smaller than [it might be in] a sequel. You need to set up the IP, you don’t have time to do everything, so you rely on fewer mechanics. And then the sequel really brings you to the point where you’re like, ‘Alright, we’ll expand everything.’

Unfortunately, even after so much focus on creating an IP, The Order never received another installment. It limited itself to a niche audience as major parts of the community criticised the game for its lack of gameplay mechanics. The studio is currently working on a new IP so no plans for The Order 1886 sequel any time soon. But there is a big future for The Order 1886, according to Ready at Dawn.

Source: Polygon