And then obviously it's such a tumultuous year in American history, it was again kind of a no-brainer.Ĭan you talk at all about the other settings you were thinking about, and what was the definitive mark that made you go with 1968? Well, I looked at what music was out at that time, and said 'we can't have this track if it's not in 1968 or beyond, right?' But just the fact that that's the year my dad returned from Vietnam, that became the year that we really settled on. I think 1968 really came from the personal note for. The harder thing, I think, was narrowing down the year, because we could have set it at any time after Mafia II. Some very early prototypes of the city layout that had been done by various groups that had been kind of working on the project off and on between Mafia II and Mafia III.įor me, it was a no-brainer to pick New Orleans as our inspiration. For me it was easy to just come in and say, 'Well that's the one that's most interesting to me, let's explore that more.' So there had already been some concept work that had been done, some concept art, some assets that had been built just to see what it would like to build those assets. So again, because they had kind of kicked around ideas for Mafia III for a bit, there were a couple different settings that were talked about that were already in the wind, or already part of the conversation. You mention that everything came together when you settled on your setting, so can you talk about how that conversation went? Who came up with the idea, how did it evolve? Luckily, we are incredibly fortunate that a lot of the guys that worked on Mafia II decided to come out here and join us, and a lot of the guys that worked on Mafia II that remained in the Czech Republic agreed to continue to work on the project. But it didn't really crystallize until we started talking about setting it in 1968, and Lincoln as the protagonist, and building a studio here to lead the creative effort behind it. I think the franchise is really near and dear to 2K, so it never was not something that people were pursuing and talking about. I'm interested in what happened, or where the franchise went in the years in between, and then your role in it, since you mentioned early that you came here and brought up working on Mafia.īlackman: It was more of a conversation in terms of the possible things we could work on, Mafia III was something that was kicking around, and some concepts had been worked on and there were ideas that were definitely floating around. GameSpot: It's been a while since Mafia II. But knowing the intensity of research putting into fleshing them out and building New Bordeaux can give us a few hints. We've met but know don't know much about Lincoln's associates, although we do know that how you dole out power between them will affect your resources throughout the game. Both felt strongly about imbuing their hero with this identity-but in many ways, we can't call him a hero, as both developers asserted the importance of having a flawed protagonist.Īlthough the game is scheduled to launch later this year, there's still much that hasn't been revealed: for example, we've yet to see the Bayou, an environment to the south of the game's nine-district map, a swathe of swampy ground where many mobsters hide what they can't in the city. For both men, the year itself was the tipping point: in 1968, Blackman's father returned from fighting in the Vietnam War, and a few months later Harms' father left for the frontlines. I sat down with creative director and studio head Haden Blackman as well as lead writer Bill Harms to discuss what swayed the team towards a setting in 1968 New Orleans, their hopes for portraying authenticity of experience with their protagonist, and the research that went into building the world of Mafia III. By clicking 'enter', you agree to GameSpot's

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