“If you’re trying to send people to Mars you’ll crash a bunch of rockets”: Arc Raiders devs on how failed ideas created one of 2025’s biggest hits

Technical designer Nora Silow recalls one early concept: a small, four-legged pouncing canine that would hop around the map. That idea — like many others — was ultimately shelved.

Senior technical artist Paul Greveson notes that ideas that seem strong on paper often fall apart in practice. What sounded exciting in discussion sometimes proved awkward in-game — for example, mechanics that forced awkward camera or movement behaviour.

Executive producer Aleksander Grondal says discovering what’s fun can’t be predetermined. The team puts features in, tests them, and then iterates — reworking assumptions and refining systems by actually playing what they’ve built.

Arc Raiders players lament the nerf to the Hullcracker — a once-popular Arc-killer — calling the change baffling.