and not feel constrained, because that’s what the game was all about. “But then there’s part of me that’s a realist, and has been in the industry long enough to see that... yeah, [the console launch] is a huge opportunity.”
DEALING WITH REALITY To meet that opportunity though, Sala is very open about the fact that while he’s proud of the writing in the game – some of it just had to get done in order to get the game out on time. Not that any of us at MCV/ DEVELOP can relate to compromising on our writing to meet a difficult deadline, of course. “So I had no experience with voice acting,” says Sala. “And then suddenly I have deadlines and dialogue that needs to be written.” There’s dialogue in the game that I’m quite proud of. As I’m writing in English, I had an editor helping me to make sure it’s in proper English, as I’m not a native speaker. There’s writing in the game that I’m really proud of, that had a time and a place where it was written. “And then there is writing in the game that just needed to get done. So in some of the banter, there’s stuff that just needed to be written. It wasn’t rushed,
but it could do with a lot more love. I readily admit that some of that writing was done on just the fact that needed to be done. But then there’s other writing, like the storyteller for the game, that had much more time to breathe. And you can see the quality difference in that.” The need to get the game shipped goes beyond the opportunity to be a launch title. Sala stepped away from his old studio as he became a father and wanted to spend more time at home. While The Falconeer is unquestionably a labour of love, it ultimately became a responsibility to get the game finished. “It needed to be done at a certain time. You know, nobody can live on air, and I have a family. Maybe when I was younger – you know, when you’re just living in a room somewhere, and you don’t have any dependencies. I might have said fuck it, and taken longer or whatever. But this always was going to be done on time, that’s how I started it. “And it’s not done in the sense that I’m not done with exploring this world. I’ll need a creative break for a little bit, but I’ll happily craft on and there’s bits I want to add to the story, stories that still need to be told. That’s the beautiful thing about digital delivery. You can keep crafting on what you’ve made. That feels less stressful, in a way.”
Below: There’s a lot of content on offer in the game
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