“We realized that providing people completely wide open space to start with, with options in every direction that you can just click anywhere and do anything is not a very reassuring way to start a game,” he said. “People don’t respond well to that. They feel a little inhibited, they are uncomfortable with so many options.”
As a result, Obduction begins in a cave—which is very similar to Fallout 3 starting in a vault—with only one direction to go. Outside of the cave, there’s a canyon that begins to widen. (West also mentioned that widening paths attract players, while narrowing corridors do the opposite.) As the canyon widens, there’s still only one way to go—the world is expanding, but the player is still comfortably going in one direction—and then a man gives you a goal: go to the house with the white picket fence.
“It was very deliberate that we gave you the goal before we branched open the path,” said Miller. “Because now you have the assurances of, ‘Well I have the white picket fence in my pocket, I know I can go there eventually,’ and you feel the freedom to start making some choices without anxiety. Now it’s interesting to see what players do depending on their style, whether they’re rebellious and like, ‘Screw you, I’m not going to the white house with the white picket fence, I’m going over here to the second path that you didn’t tell me to go on.’
“Well, they can act all rebellious but the fact of the matter is they’re only doing that, they only have that rebellion in them, because they have the security of the little goal in the distance.”