After Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 creative director Guillaume Broche took a moment to call out Dispatch while picking up the award at The Golden Joysticks, Dispatch’s creative director Dennis Lenart and narrative designer Polly Raguimov have taken the time to repay the compliment.
While collecting the award for Best Storytelling, Broche said, “Play Dispatch, it’s very very cool. It has a very cool story, if you like this one.” It’s rare for a developer to shout out another game while collecting an award, which is why I was surprised last year when the Astro Bot team gave a very transparent nod to Mario as they picked up the prize for Game of the Year at The Game Awards.
In an interview with PCGamesN, Lenart and Raguimov were both very humbled by the experience. “That means so much,” Raguimov says. “Super happy for them. To just take time out of your own speech to showcase another game, that’s massive, especially in that category. What [Broche] said about its story felt really, really cool.”
“I feel like it’s a similar thing in the games industry with folks who appreciate narrative where you hope that each other can do well,” Lenart adds. “When you see it done well, you appreciate it. It’s always nice to get nods from folks who do it, for sure.”
However, the pair didn’t just end with their appreciation but also returned the compliment to the already multi-award-winning game. “I’ve never had a game make me cry so quickly before,” Raguimov says. “That was impressive.” Lenart puts it simply, saying, “honestly, just incredible stuff.”
Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 lead uses award win to say play Dispatch, a superhero comedy from ex-Telltale devs with The Boys vibes: “It’s very very cool and has a very good story.”