Developers at Invoke Studios have intentionally omitted waypoints from Warlock: Dungeons & Dragons, aiming to encourage players to explore and discover the game world organically. The open-world action-adventure title avoids traditional quest markers, instead relying on players to piece together objectives through environmental observation, dialogue with non-player characters, and critical thinking.
Dominic Guay, General Manager at Invoke Studios, explained in an interview that this design choice is rooted in a desire to enhance player agency and curiosity. "We wanted them to engage with the world, to figure things out and feel that when they found things, it was based on their actions and not just blindly trusting a waypoint," Guay stated. He noted that the development team, which includes individuals with prior experience on open-world titles like Ubisoft's Watch Dogs series, found that excessive hand-holding could diminish the sense of exploration.
"What ends up happening at some point — and it's normal — a lot of players will just follow blindly the waypoint, and then you lose that agency, you lose that feeling of curiosity because you're like, well, why even bother?" Guay said. "And so we didn't want to go there. We wanted the player to explore."
To support this design philosophy, Warlock features a "Mystery" system. These mysteries are intended to be uncovered through player actions within settlements or by exploring the world, rather than being explicitly directed by a marker. Guay highlighted that these mysteries can have multiple entry points and may even alter player interaction based on how they are discovered.
"There are multiple entry points," Guay explained. "They're kind of harder for us to do in that way, but we love that challenge. Not only are there multiple entry points, but depending on how you stumble upon them, it might change how you interact with them, meaning that maybe you could have found actually you can chance upon that Mystery from a completely different place and then it'll lead you toward that settlement, and you'll know before coming in there's something fishy going on here. So then you'll approach that settlement differently than in this case where you learn it from within."
The approach taken in Warlock contrasts with some recent trends in game design, such as the "fart gas" scent trail mechanic in PlayStation 5 exclusive Marvel's Wolverine, which drew criticism for its perceived excessive guidance. While Warlock is an open-world action-adventure focused on emergent gameplay through its magic system, and Wolverine is a more linear experience, Invoke's commitment to reducing player hand-holding highlights a distinct design direction.