Dishonored 2 Devs Explain the Clockwork Mansion

In this episode of On the Level, I speak to Arkane designers Dana Nightingale and David Di Giacomo about the shape-shifting Clockwork Mansion in Dishonored 2.

=== Before you watch ===

Accessibility: This video has burned-in subtitles for the French to English translation. The subtitle track "English" disappears during this time. However, the subtitle track "English (United States)" contains an overlay copy of the subtitles, if you need to move them or increase their size for accessibility reasons.

Spoilers: The Clockwork Mansion in Dishonored 2.

Content warning: Blood, Violence

=== Games Shown ===

Dishonored (2012)
Dishonored: Death of the Outsider (2017)
Dishonored 2 (2016)
Dishonored: The Knife of Dunwall (2013)
Deathloop (2021)
System Shock 2 (1999)

=== Credits ===

Music from Dishonored 2 official soundtrack by Daniel Licht.

Dishonored 2 concept art by Nicolas Petrimaux

Dishonored 2 - Emily Any% Speedrun 20:48 World Record | Cearadeth

=== Subtitles ===

[GMTK]

What levels should I break down in future episodes of On the Level? Leave your ideas in reply to this comment!

[Thaibiohazard]

“Am I allowed to say that ? Should I do another take ?”
“Sure, let’s do”
**Put the first take in anyway**

[StylizedStation]

Terribly well done. Super cool to get inside the heads of the devs and see exactly what they were thinking. This clearly took a while to make, so thanks for taking the time to share some cool insight with the community :)

[SpaceDodo]

The amount of detail they have in the prototypes is astounding! My prototypes are like, "Pretend this box is a person, and when your character glitches just ignore that."

[PurposelessRabbitholes]

One of the best levels ever put into a video game. Period.
Wonderful video.

[nvrndingsmmr]

I've never played Dishonored 2, and the clockwork mansion is so impressive that I had to stop watching this video about 4 minutes in. I *must* see this for myself before watching this breakdown!

[cloudbroken]

In the Dust District I went straight to the mansion door and the Jindosh lock, sat down with a notepad and solved the puzzle. Then I turned around and did then entire level anyways lol. It occurred to me a little ways in that none of it was necessary, but I have a hard time not combing every inch of the levels in immersive sims.

[yacan]

Dishonored 2 still feels miles ahead of level design, even now. The clockwork mansion is so beautifully made, it feels like something so pure and imaginative that I haven't seen reflected in any other games. Massive props to these geniuses

[gondalasatvarsh]

Please let deathloop be a commercial success, I love arcane so much. they are one of the biggest devs of AAA immersive sims. These guys remind me of looking glass studios so much.

[nfybfmhf]

The subtle world-building in this level and other levels as well is crazy, I remembered that in this level you can see one of Jindosh's signs with something like "Don't mop the floor while the Ark Pylon is active, whether you understand conductivity or not", this one sentence literally shed a light on his personality and how he treats his staff while managing the whole mansion. This kind of subtle yet concise character building is one of the reasons why I love Arkane so much

[eliastew]

I love how devs aim to cover all play styles and reactions instead of forcing a player into something.

[sirin]

Dont forget that its possible to beat the whole level without pulling a single lever

[statelyelms]

Not the focus of the video at all.. but I like that little "you're under 30fps" reminder!

[garretthelvy]

16:00 Here we can see all the classic Dishonored weapons in action; the crossbow, sword, and *old person*

[yulovery]

One of the best level and best design all game really

[Pyridius]

The funniest part of my experience with the Clockwork Mansion was that I entered and immediately broke the glass roof rather than pressing the switch so I went through most of the level creeping around without going through the "main parts" and I was so confused haha

[bluebaby]

I want that "you are under 30fps" guy on every game now

[palebluenarratives]

You can tell that Dana was so passionate about her work from the sorrowful expression when she’s done talking about the cut of the wind corridor <3 2:50 Thanks Dana, David and Mark: great video.

[dogmirian]

I would like to see more of Dana's flowcharts and how she externalized a real-time 3d space in a 2d diagram

[yudhok]

when I play this level for the first time, It's really unthinkable how this level is made. The way gear shift and all the furnitures, level shift, moving up, down is very convincing. it looks really impossible and awesome.