Lending new which means to the time period ‘massively multiplayer online first-person shooter’, Atomega is the shock new announcement from Grow Home studio Reflections. In it, it’s essential to rush across the recreation’s big map gathering cubes of mass as a way to turn into bigger and extra highly effective – get lower down by one other participant, nevertheless, and also you’ll have to begin your bulking session from scratch.
Too fruity for you? Here’s a list of more traditional, but still excellent, FPS games.
It’s a curious idea that’s significantly simpler to select up than it’s to elucidate (don’t fear, we’ll nonetheless have a go after we publish our assessment of the sport subsequent Tuesday). With that in thoughts, we sat down with 4 of the builders – division producer Pete Young, Atomega producer Rich Alexander, gameplay programmer Matt Lacey, and UX designer Lewis Chisolm – behind Atomega to try to shed some gentle on this esoteric new on-line shooter.
Where did the preliminary idea for Atomega come from?
Rich Alexander: The concept was to do one thing completely different. There was a prototyping stage the place we tried a lot of completely different ideas – we thought of what we may do with parallel universes, and with the concept of ‘one is many’. Atomega got here out of excited about ‘big and small’. The DNA of that prototype continues to be there within the recreation right this moment. It simply caught our consideration and creativeness. How does that work? What occurs while you turn into the bully? How does it really feel as you’re employed your approach up [the pecking order]?
There’s only one map and one mode within the recreation. That appears dangerous.
RA: It was a acutely aware choice for us – we have been targeted on making the expertise as robust because it probably could be. The map is large as a result of it caters for issues which can be tiny, after which 100 occasions the dimensions, and the whole lot in between. So it is about getting in all of the element. I nonetheless discover holes and tunnels that I by no means knew about, and I will flip to Matt and ask, “Has that at all times been there?”
Matt Lacey: And I will be like, “nicely, I do not know!”
RA: [Laughs] It’s so detailed. We’ve performed the sport on a regular basis of improvement and we nonetheless do not get tired of it, due to all of the various things that may occur in every spherical. You’ve acquired the completely different participant varieties, the completely different gamers, the completely different power-ups that you need to use at completely different occasions… it is about creating these memorable moments. So there’s loads of selection there, and also you study and uncover extra as you play.
Given the only map, and per-round character evolution, have MOBA’s been an inspiration?
Pete Young: We’ve acquired a load of FPS followers within the workforce – there are individuals who love Overwatch, and there are folks like me – I am an old-school QuakeWorld fan. So I believe it is the FPS style that has a stronger affect. It’s extra about us desirous to make a singular and completely different expertise inside that style.
RA: We’ve at all times needed to do one thing completely different, and that is uncommon. Often, loads of our choices have been based mostly on following what felt like essentially the most pure development of concepts. So, within the morning we might playtest and say, “Wouldn’t it’s attention-grabbing if we did X, Y, and Z?” And then the workforce would flip that round, and by the tip of the day we might be enjoying a model of that. We’re all players, and we’re all impressed by what we play, but it surely’s actually been about making an attempt to determine what we may try this feels completely different, however that’s nonetheless accessible. That’s been one of many greater challenges that we have confronted – are you able to decide up and play it?
Do you intend so as to add extra maps sooner or later?
RA: Once we get this on the market, we simply wish to hear what the neighborhood say. What are they asking for? What are their wants and calls for? We’ll positively be bug fixing and balancing initially, simply to ensure that the expertise is as robust because it probably could be. From there, no matter we can we’ll develop it in the identical spirit that we have developed the sport.
PY: We’ve acquired some concepts, however let’s have a look at how the sport is obtained first.
Has balancing the ability of the varied participant varieties confirmed troublesome?
PY: There have been two issues that excited us proper firstly. Number one: how do you make a degree that caters for super-tiny characters and super-massive characters, whereas nonetheless being enjoyable and truthful, and letting the participant really feel like they’ve choices in any respect sizes? Number two was balancing: how do you stability these extremes and make it really feel prefer it you’re nonetheless a contender it doesn’t matter what measurement you’re?
RA: It has been actually difficult. Luckily, now we have folks like Matt available. A whole lot of the playtesting we have accomplished internally has helped us determine conditions the place a participant may be overpowered. But additionally we needed to just be sure you can play in numerous methods; in the event you get to the second greatest kind, say, are you able to simply keep there? Is that a technique to win? For instance, I am fairly passive in the best way that I play – I do not shoot until shot at, actually, and I favor to simply acquire mass and construct up that approach. But there are some folks, like Lewis, who’re very aggressive and into capturing and taking different gamers down. Their path to profitable is increase and being the largest. It’s been an attention-grabbing problem to do this.
Have you had any disasters alongside the best way?
ML: There have been loads of playtests the place we have utterly damaged the stability, and had everybody going, “Oh no, what have we accomplished?”
Lewis Chisolm: There’s additionally the problem of relaying all these recreation mechanics and methods to the person by way of the UI, and making an attempt to anticipate what they are going to take into consideration a sure factor once they see it. You’re making an attempt to speak all this data within the smallest period of time doable, utilizing the smallest quantity of data. I believe loads of triple-A video games actually undergo from loads of on-screen muddle. It takes a very long time for all this data to essentially sink in, and you aren’t getting totally immersed within the expertise. We regarded again at video games over the previous 20 to 25 years – seeing the purity of early shooters has actually helped inform Atomega’s interface.
Another aspect of basic video games is energy ups, after all. Atomega’s really feel nice – have been they simple to resolve upon?
ML: We settled on these fairly rapidly.
RA: We knew that was an vital a part of the sport – to create that selection, and people memorable moments. So if in case you have a Saur combating a Superior, how can we make that completely different every time? For instance, with a protect energy up you possibly can wait till you are practically useless earlier than triggering it, and your opponent goes, ‘Oh no! I can not imagine you probably did that…’ When these moments occurred within the workplace we realised that we have been onto one thing.
We realised that some energy ups have been too robust or weak, so we separated them or bundled them up collectively. And we needed to tie them in with the atmosphere, too. So in the event you’ve acquired excessive influence, for instance, possibly you hold across the bridge space and shoot an enormous man off the aspect. One of the challenges with the ability ups has been to make it really feel such as you’ve acquired the suitable factor on the proper time, however by no means overpowered.
PY: There are all these subtleties that you just won’t discover at first, too – magnet sucks bins in nearer, however it’s also possible to shoot bins in distance and pull them in direction of you. There are a couple of of these little issues that gamers who’ve put a couple of hours into the sport will nonetheless be discovering.
The recreation feels slick to play, however presumably guaranteeing that all the completely different sized participant varieties labored on the identical map was one thing of a headache?
ML: [Laughs] Yes. We used to simply preserve you at one field under your subsequent evolution when indoors, so that you’d need to exit and discover your final field to develop. It was fairly late on that we acquired that solved and allow you to discover all of your bins every time, after which develop [as soon as you left a smaller area].
LC: It was fairly hilarious while you would develop and get caught…
ML: Yeah, and we had a degree the place you bought caught between the timber, too, so a QC tester needed to go and check each doable mixture of timber. It’s positively been a problem to realize this, but it surely all comes again to the identical factor, which is altering sizes on the fly, rapidly. One of the issues we actually needed to nail fairly early on in improvement was the velocity with which you undergo the completely different levels. We did not need gamers to really feel utterly pissed off when, after reaching a very excessive degree and having all of it taken away from them, they needed to begin once more. To really feel, ‘Oh, what a slog I’ve acquired now to get again to the highest’. We need it to really feel like, ‘OK, I’ve acquired the suitable energy up, possibly I come throughout a mass fountain and there is loads of bins there, or possibly two giants each lose on the identical time, and I can rapidly get again to the place I used to be. That feeling of, ‘Ok, it did not go nicely for me there, however I can get proper again into the struggle’. That’s partly why we added the flexibility to teleport away [and not lose everything].
PY: We did have a time earlier than teleporting was added, and it was brutal – you spent all that point getting greater and greater, after which it was all gone.
On that time, did attaining the transition between the varied participant digital camera positions throw up any hurdles?
ML: You’re proper… Some of our fashions aren’t humanoid shapes – we have got bizarre raptors which can be prolonged – so, yeah, it was difficult to get across the clipping points, and cameras in partitions and stuff. But I believe we managed it!
Who do you assume this recreation is for?
RA: We assume it is for followers of shooter video games. If you’ve got performed the style and you are a fan, and also you’re searching for a unique strategy, Atomega will hopefully scratch that itch for you. But it is also for individuals who possibly do not have an enormous period of time of their lives to play video games – on a private degree, I’ve acquired a son, and I haven’t got as a lot time as I used to to play video games. When I do, I wish to drop straight into the motion. So we needed to construct one thing for somebody who has 30 minutes however who desires to really play for these 30 minutes. And we hope that possibly this will probably be a gateway for individuals who aren’t as acquainted with the style, because it strips away loads of the complexities, however nonetheless has the depth there to supply a strong expertise.
Our assessment of the sport will probably be printed subsequent Tuesday.
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