What Will Make Haven a Fun Game For Friends & Couples

The are excellent RPG video games out there with a plethora of complex gameplay features and high-stake plots about saving the world… and then there’s Haven, a science-fantasy RPG about a couple stranded on an alien planet, specifically built from the ground up by developers to be a soothing, relaxing gameplay experience. But how did the developers at The Game Bakers make their game so relaxing while still adding elements of excitement and challenge? Very carefully, as it turns out.

It’s very easy to compare any high-concept indie game about exploration, mobility, and teamwork to Journey, the cult-classic about mysterious pilgrims wandering through a desert of beautiful ruins. In this case, though, comparing Journey to the upcoming RPG Haven is rather on-point. All the gameplay videos released by The Game Bakers to date show the protagonists of Haven flying over a beautiful wilderness with hi-tech jet boots that cause fields of grass to bloom in their wake. Additionally, the turn-based combat, crafting sequences, and dialogue cutscenes are all designed to accommodate co-op play, letting 1 or 2 players work together and share in the gameplay experience through split-screen or online play.

The plot of Haven centers around a pair of lovers, a dark-haired man and white-haired woman who flee from civilization to start life anew on a wild, untamed alien world. Why they’re fleeing is currently unclear: are they a modern-day Romeo and Juliet, escape from rival families/factions who disapproved of their union? Or are they dissidents from an authoritarian society that forbids romances like theirs? Either way, lines of dialogue exchanged between Kay (the guy) and Yu (the girl) emphasizes their fear of being found and forced apart, plus their love of their newfound freedom. This theme of freedom and escape from restrictions strongly underlies Haven‘s gameplay – both its open-world exploration and lack of potentially frustrating features.

Haven’s Gameplay Minimizes Book-Keeping

Developers at The Game Bakers wanted Haven to be a relaxing, soothing RPG. To fulfill this design goal, they had to strip out or streamline many of the elements that have grown around computer RPGs over the years. Stat-point allocations, traditional quest logs, inventory management, and grinding for random drops have all been either removed for stripped down in Haven to avoid moments of frustration or tedium. Additionally, the crafting system in Haven is specifically designed to avert the trial-and-error RPG gameplay which causes many gamers to simply look up solutions on a wiki. In Haven, if players try to mix together new ingredients, the crafting system will give them a preview on the final result, and a large amount of recipes ensures something can be made.

Travel Mechanics in Haven Are Smooth and Relaxing

In Haven, the main characters Kay and Yu travel across the landscape of their new, alien homeworld using anti-gravity jet boots: as a side effect of whatever arcane process powers these anti-gravity devices, hovering across the landscape breaks down the scab-like Rust that covers the planet and causes verdant grass to blossom in the character’s wake. Besides creating a beautiful, visual spectacle, this kind of travel mechanic takes the often-mundane process of traversing open worlds and gives it elegancy and artistry: two co-op players traveling around in Haven can twirl around each other like ice-skate dancers or race each other across the landscape like surfers.

Haven’s Interface Is Smooth and Unobtrusive

One of the biggest draws of Haven, arguably, is how it takes a step back from the current computer RPG trend towards complex interfaces with lots of different numbers and meters. Wherever possible, developers have tried to eliminate displays of numerals and digits in favor of visual cues; Flow (the equivalent of mana) is represented by the size and sheen of a flickering ball icon, while character health is represented by the glowing field around each main character and the degree to which they limp and clutch their sides. The split-screen/online co-op portions of Haven’s gameplay are furthermore designed to have as few moving parts as possible: all a player has to do is grab a controller and press a button to join another player’s session.

The intuitive, streamlined gameplay and narrative of Haven meshes perfectly with its co-op mechanics for several good reasons. For starters, the story of a group of fugitive lovers working together to survive in a new land is the perfect narrative vehicle for co-op mechanics. Furthermore, Haven‘s emphasis on non-stressful, easy-to-pickup gameplay makes it easy for a friend, partner, or family member to pick up a controller and join a play session on short notice. Unlike with other RPGs, there aren’t as many complex mechanics or convoluted plot elements to master. Ultimately, Haven and other games like it occupy a unique niche AAA titles often fail to reach: the genre of video games that emphasize teamwork and relationships over violence and a quest for power.

Source: PlayStation Blog

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