If you haven’t played Banishers: Ghosts of New Eden, then you might not know just how big the game world is. It’s a massive area that players can choose to scout around for side missions, treasures and whatnot. Not only that, but the game also has more than your run of the mill fetch quests for side missions, with some spanning multiple, interconnected narratives that takes quite a significant time to complete compared to your standard video game side quests.

For something as big as Banishers, how long would a studio take to develop it from start to finish? This was something we asked Don’t Nod in our exclusive interview with the dev team.

MP1st: I have to admit, I was caught a bit off-guard by how big Banisher’s world is. How long did Don’t Nod develop the game from start to finish?

Stéphane Beauverger, Narrative Director: It is not easy to define the full development time for a game, it really depends how you consider it. From scratch? From the very first idea written down with a pencil and a paper during the first conception phase? From the first playable sequence? And even after the release, people are still working on the game, like working on patches. Let’s say that it took between four and five years to create Banishers.

Given how big Banishers: Ghosts of New Eden is, and when you factor in the visuals, fully voiced dialogue (even NPCs) and the like, one might assume that it’s a full-fledged AAA game, right? As it turns out, it isn’t, and it’s just AA according to Don’t Nod.

MP1st: For its first AAA project, Banishers is very ambitious. What prompted Don’t Nod to create an open-world game of sorts right away instead of, say, a more linear, single-player game?

Stéphane Beauverger, Narrative Director: Banishers is not an AAA game, it’s a nicely crafted AA game – and we are proud of it. We have the will and passion to deliver a great experience to the audience, hence the large size of the map, and the huge amount of content. The game structure also depends on the nature of the game we make. Story-driven games like Life is Strange or Tell Me Why are more in need of a linear structure. With Banishers, we felt it was necessary to open the world and let the players investigate the mysteries of New Eden at their own pace, and in the order they were more comfortable with. Hence the more open structure of the game.

It’s surprising to me personally that Banishers isn’t considered AAA, as from what I’ve played, it feels like a AAA game. Hopefully, the game recoups enough of its budget so we get another one. Based on Don’t Nod’s comments about a potential sequel, the studio is high on making a follow up as well.

If you haven’t played Banishers: Ghosts of New Eden, I suggest you remedy that, as the game has a fantastic narrative, loads of side quests and more. Read my review here where I said, “Prepare yourself for the first surprise hit of the year, and if the game’s quality is any indication, this looks like the start of a new franchise.”

Stay tuned to our full interview with Don’t Nod hitting the site very soon!