Just need the right budget: Dishonored creator believes there's room for immersive sims in the market

According to Harvey Smith, the genre scales beautifully.

Thief creator Randy Smith Evergreen previously stated that immersive sim developers should abandon the race for ever-larger budgets and scales. In his opinion, the genre's audience is not large enough for expensive projects to easily compete with other AAA games. His colleague Harvey Smith, known for leading the development of Dishonored, generally agrees with this position, though he believes the situation is somewhat more complex.

Commenting on Evergreen's opinion, Smith jokingly said that he plans to scold his friend for such a stance at their next meeting. At the same time, Smith acknowledges his colleague's main argument: a large budget can become a noose for an immersive sim, as development costs increase, so do the publisher's expectations. As a result, a niche game has to rely on sales comparable to projects designed for a mass audience.

According to Smith, games of this genre can be created at almost any scale. As an extreme example, he cites a hypothetical two-hour project set entirely in the developer's mother's house. On the other hand, with a serious budget and a large team, the same approach can lead to the creation of Deus Ex, Dishonored, or BioShock.

The main thing is not to lose what makes an immersive sim special. Smith warns that with increased budgets, developers often become too cautious and start cutting down on features to reduce risks. As a result, the game may lose the most interesting and creative elements of the genre.

According to Smith, a large immersive sim should provide the player with a foundation for experimentation. As an example, he recalls working on Deus Ex, where he was the lead designer. Players found a way to use magnetic mines to climb walls: the character would jump onto one mine, pick up the next, place it higher, and continue climbing. The developers had not originally planned for such use of the mechanic.