# Dishonored 2 director Harvey Smith wants to honour sacred imsim texts while finding news ways to surprise fans: “That’s the two wolves inside me”

- URL: https://talkfuse.com/story/dishonored-2-director-harvey-smith-wants-to-honour-sacred-imsim-texts-while-finding-news-ways-to-surprise-fans-thats-the-two-wolves-inside-me/
- Published: 2026-11-14T15:00:00+00:00
- Updated: 2026-11-14T15:21:45+00:00
- Original publisher: PC Gamer
- Original article: https://www.pcgamer.com/games/sim/dishonored-2-director-harvey-smith-wants-to-honour-sacred-imsim-texts-while-finding-news-ways-to-surprise-fans-thats-the-two-wolves-inside-me/
- Topics: Gaming

## Key points

- Arkane built its identity around immersive sims.
- Smith says *Redfall* never came together.
- He wants to respect the genre while finding new surprises.

## Summary

Harvey Smith says Arkane’s commitment to immersive sims helped define the studio and led to work on games such as *Dishonored* and *BioShock 2*. He argues that choosing projects aligned with the team’s strengths mattered more than taking work simply for the money, even though that approach put the independent studio at risk.

Smith describes *Redfall* as a game that failed to come together, and says Arkane should not have worked on a games-as-a-service title. Production director Ben Horne says several factors converged around its release, including it being, he believes, Xbox’s first $70 game. The article also frames Smith’s creative tension as a desire to respect the immersive sim tradition while still surprising fans.

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Summarised by TalkFuse (https://talkfuse.com/). Quote the original publisher for the reporting and link this page for the summary and discussion.