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In an interview with PC Gamer, Arrowhead CEO Johan Pilestadt gave some intriguing insights into how the developer runs Helldivers 2. Chief among them is the revelation of a single mastermind named Joel who functions as a sort of intergalactic Dungeon Master.

In the interview, Pilestedt acknowledged the burgeoning meta-narrative being driven by the participation of players through roleplay, memes, and social media. What’s even more impressive is that the team behind Helldivers 2 expected this and wanted to model the game off of the interactive and collaborative narrative style of Dungeons & Dragons.

“We have an actual person with the job title of Game Master,”

Pilestedt explained in reference to this mysterious Joel figure.

“We have a lot of systems built into the game where the Game Master has a lot of control over the play experience. It’s something that we’re continuously evolving based on what’s happening in the game.”

This ranges from things like reinforcing enemies when players are having too easy a time to crafting on-the-fly narrative events in response to player action. It’s not just player action but also player perspective that Arrowhead is considering now. The saga of Malevalon Creek was a wake-up call for the team regarding the game’s environments.

“We look at the individual planets as ‘There was a planet that we made, that was good fun,’ and we have made so many of them. But the community’s attachment to each planet is significant … So one of the things we’re looking at internally is how can we reconsider these planets to become more of a character going forward.”