Dishonored - Harvey Smith on Breaking the Game

Joystiq has some comments from Arkane's Harvey Smith about letting players break Dishonored:

"It's so much easier to make a game where you unlock things at the right time," he says. If, for example, a certain power is unlocked in the third mission, you know that players won't be able to use it in the second mission. You can "bullet-proof" against any game-breaking issues that way, he says. Creating this sort of closed, curated experience is simpler from a design perspective, and allows developers to spend "many many more hours polishing, making it more cinematic-like" says Smith.

On the other hand, with all the systems at play in Dishonored – stealth, a variety of powers, multiple entrances, numerous weapons, variable A.I. – it's a much greater development challenge to ensure that everything comes together. "You have fewer hours to polish, so games like this are inherently less cinematic in a way. They're inherently more player-driven. They're inherently harder to make, but, at the end of the day, the experience is something that you can play improvisationally," he says. "We're very passionate about that goal."