Days Gone’s Massive Open World Was Designed by a Team of 6 People

Days Gone will likely be remembered as one of the more divisive PlayStation 4 exclusives. Yet, there’s one thing that most seem people to agree on. The game’s sprawling open world setting in Oregon features an incredible amount of detail, especially considering the dynamic way in which it can change based on the weather. It deserves additional praise for the number of Bend Studio developers in charge of designing it. According to Lead Open World Designer Eric Jensen, only five to six people were assigned to Days Gone’s open world team.

Jensen recently revealed this intriguing bit of information during a developer AMA on the title’s Subreddit. When asked what about his work made him the most proud, he responded with the following:

The thing I’m most proud of is how diverse and dynamic we were able to make the open world with such a small open world design team (5-6 people). We had to think smart and efficient with all of our design choices knowing the man power limitations. Seeing all of the crazy videos and screenshots that people have posted of the open world coming for Deacon or even interacting with itself has been incredibly cool for our team to see!

The Reddit AMA also revealed plenty of other development insights, too. For instance, Days Gone did once have a “look back camera” option, which would have allowed the player to look behind Deacon on-foot and while driving the Drifter Bike. All in all, the AMA discussion is more than worth a read, particularly for fans interested in learning more about the work put into bringing Days Gone to life.

Days Gone is out now for the PlayStation 4, but there’s more content coming soon. Bend Studio plans to launch free DLC, which will include a new Survival Mode, on an unspecified date this June.

[Source: Reddit]