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Source of Parody: Dev Log - Josh Strife Hayes feat. Chris Wilson
Jack Prosper: Reddit has been begging me to ask you, what's the name of our next League expansion, and its overall theme?
Chris Wilson: It's called Awakening, and our art director went through various phases of having either horns or just hairy legs on these bosses before settling on an owl-looking creature with feathers growing from his arms as the basis for all the monsters in this league. So it looks very different from your standard monster look, which should add to some variety there.
Jack Prosper: Awakening league sounds familiar! Chat is going wild right now chanting "Owl League Confirmed".
Chris Wilson: I'm glad someone else can enjoy the reference, I mean, it was the first one to pop into my head and it makes sense, because it feels appropriate for Path of Exile.
Jack Prosper: Leagues going from "Movie Themes" to "Celestial Owl" feels like a very natural progression for GGG.
Chris Wilson: Well, that's a lot less scary than if they were trying to come up with a thematic name for a movie that no one would ever be able to understand without a little bit of explanation, but that's something we try hard to do every time we make a new league. And we always start by asking ourselves what the most exciting moment in the game was at any given point over the previous couple of years, or whatever we want to call the lifespan of the game, and then making sure it gets represented somehow in the theme or mechanics of the league itself.
Jack Prosper: So I'm guessing there's this big owl cosmic entity we're going to be fighting, like the Eater of Worlds and Burning Exarch. Which authority is he Owl of Awakening fighting on behalf of?
Chris Wilson: You'll have to wait until next month for the answer.
Jack Prosper: If it turns out Kuduku is behind this I'm going to lose my collective marbles.
Chris Wilson: That could be interesting to see. We don't talk about future plans much because it tends to not end well when you give information away too much, so you know, just play along! But yeah, definitely stay tuned, the more that you know about the world, the more that you find you enjoy the surprises in store for you.
Jack Prosper: Okay, we know about the theme. What's the main feature we experience in the Acts while leveling a new character before endgame? What is the exclusive feature of Awakening league.
Chris Wilson: Our entire goal with each expansion has been to increase the power ceiling of your build options. So as you go through your normal progression from 1-67, you get access to all these cool skills and items which are good enough to support a very high-end build at the beginning of the game! And then you continue to progress and learn more powerful stuff.
Jack Prosper: If you don't raise the power level, then you wouldn't have anything to nerf!
Chris Wilson: Exactly, if we raised it without increasing the ceiling further we would be making an inferior product that people would stop playing in two weeks' time because they felt like they'd already hit their limits. The problem is that our players generally take several months to reach that limit in terms of how strong they can make things they've got going on right now, and what's even worse is that sometimes they do reach the upper limit of what's possible for them, but for some reason feel unsatisfied, so they start working on something else on top of what's available for them currently.
Chris Wilson: That creates this need for us to continually improve our game over time, so every expansion that we ship will be better than its predecessor. Not necessarily by huge margins, but just a bit. A little bit more flexibility, a little bit more ability to experiment in ways you never had before, or just giving you a few more builds you haven't tried yet. All those things add up into a much bigger total experience for you as a player. Which is why I love seeing Path of Exile grow year after year, because it's just constantly getting stronger, it's constantly finding new challenges and problems and solutions. And I hope it keeps growing for years to come!
Jack Prosper: Yeah! Love your enthusiasm, Chris. Chat is getting on my case for avoiding the question. What is the core gameplay loop for Awakening?
Chris Wilson: You'll have to wait until next month for the answer. But I can tell you the one thing about the game itself which makes it different from the previous leagues is that we have put a lot more emphasis on adjusting specific skills that are good against specific types of enemies. Because that gives you very clear directions as to where you should focus your efforts. Whereas previously we tended not to worry too much about that kind of min-maxing, and instead would give you all these skills and items and then leave it up to you to figure out how best to use them.
Chris Wilson: In this league, we're putting more of an emphasis on telling players how they want to spend their points in order to be most effective, rather than leaving it up to them to decide for themselves.
Jack Prosper: Chat is going crazy about an in-game Passive Tree Planner.
Chris Wilson: My lips are sealed! Everyone has their own tastes when it comes to what they like to play. But at the same time, if someone wants to go for the highest possible power level possible with the least effort possible, well that's great too!
Jack Prosper: Cast on Death, for instance.
Chris Wilson: (laughing) Yes, and several new additions! We've also got some stuff coming up over the course of this expansion which you won't see anywhere else until the final days leading up to the launch. So you know, definitely keep an eye out for any opportunities to earn currency or rewards outside of normal progression, because there will be a bunch of those during Awakening as well as other things to do while you wait for endgame content to roll around again.
Jack Prosper: Any final words for our audience today?
Chris Wilson: Just check back next month for more info about Awakening. It looks fantastic, so I'm excited about it, but I can tell you that we have not just one, but two new champions who have been introduced into Path of Exile by the events that occur in this league! That should give you plenty to get excited about too!
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The Story So Far…
A game designer named Chris began work on his first commercial project called Shattered Haven in 2004. A year later he created his second game, Shadowbane. When Chris decided to make Path of Exile in 2009, both games had gained considerable traction and were still popular. He made three separate builds before releasing the fourth version as Early Access and receiving overwhelmingly positive feedback from players. After two years of development, and a few changes here and there, GGG released Path of Exile in 2013 to critical acclaim and has grown steadily ever since. Since its inception, GGG has maintained an open communication policy with its fans through blogs, podcasts, social media channels, and regular live streams where they discuss their progress with their community and answer questions submitted via email.
Path of Exile was born out of Chris's desire to create a hardcore ARPG experience without all the annoying things that he found himself experiencing when playing Diablo III at trade shows. Path of Exile features visceral combat against large groups of monsters; strong RPG mechanics that allow you to customize your character build; fast-paced action- RPG gameplay that allows for intense moments when fighting powerful enemies; and high replicability thanks to many hours of endgame content, including six challenging acts filled with unique boss encounters. The core team members are now almost 100 people working on the game full-time across seven offices around the world, making sure that everyone is happy with the latest content update and able to focus on what makes each act feel distinct from the next.
Path of Exile currently maintains one of the most active fan bases in any online gaming community as evidenced by the huge size of its player forums (currently over 200,000 registered users), multiple official streamers, as well as its presence at major international gaming events such as PAX Australia or Gamescom. There have been several expansions launched since 2013: Synthesis, Conduit, Delve, Ruins of Sarnak, Betrayal, War for the Atlas, Breach, Jungle and Curse, Legacy League Updates, and Ascendancy. Each expansion introduced new features, systems, and ways to play Path of Exile, with new skills and abilities being added every season. In addition to these regular releases, GGG also publishes a series of seasonal challenge leagues, which offer special rules and restrictions alongside their own rewards. All of these additions combined ensure that the game keeps growing even after 10 years!
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