Before making Dishonored, Arkane Studios could have had its pick of two iconic IPs to develop games for. First came a new Thief title, as Bethesda had the IP and wanted to make use of it. But, there was another big franchise that could have got the Arkane treatment in Blade Runner.
In a new lengthy video from Raphael Colantonio and Harvey Smith, two of the key creative minds that put Dishonored together, the pair reveal that they were given the feline equivalent of "two bags of catnip" before they made Dishonored. Both were huge fans of Thief and Blade Runner, but Colantonio explained that Thief seemed like much more of a tangible offer. "We had an amazing pitch for Thief," Smith said.
For Blade Runner, they worked with a specialist animator in first-person combat, and made some short demos of things like replicant fighting for the game, which never saw the light of day. Initially, Thief seemed like the offer, then Arkane's owner Bethesda jumped to say it could also be Bladerunner, but Colantonio knew that the studio simply couldn't work on both projects.
It worked out as a split, with Smith being seen as the Bladerunner expert and Colantonio as the bigger Thief fan. That made the work somewhat of a competition, which both developers were glad never got a winner. Instead, Dishonored was born. Perhaps a mix of the two IPs? Probably not, but something immersive sims are all the better for.
