Dishonored Original Pitch Revealed, Game Had Dialogue Trees During Alpha

In the course of a brief article-style interview with Official PlayStation Magazine UK, Arkane's Raphael Colantonio and Harvey Smith reveal the game's original pitch and inspirations, that Corvo wasn't always supposed to be a mute protagonist and a few more interesting snippets.

A couple of quotes ahead:
It's been mentioned in the past that Corvo was left intentionally blank as a character. (That was a deliberate choice,) reiterated Raphey. (If we portrayed Corvo angry and seeking revenge, it might offend the nonlethal player who is seeking a stable outcome for the City of Dunwall, and vice versa). He wasn't always intended to be a mute avatar, though. (We added some text input options for Corvo around Alpha but never really went further. To this day, we wonder what the other version would have felt like in the game).

Another thing that changed over time was Corvo's Blink ability, (Initially, it was an optional power, purchased with runes, and near Alpha we made it part of the player's core powers, after he gets the Mark of the Outsider). That was due in part to the stucture of the environments. (We always intended to make the game open, sandboxy and vertical,) explains Raphey. (It's one of the core values we share with our lead level designer, Christophe Carrier. We all love elements like getting on the roof, jumping into the water, finding a window entrance, or reaching the balcony. Blink capitalised on that).