The Surge: Future Souls? An audience with Deck 13
Aug. 10, 2015The Surge: Future Souls? An audience with Deck 13
Amidst the chaos of the first public day of Gamescom, it was great to sit down again with Deck 13’s Jan Klose to hear a little more about their latest project, The Surge, which will be published by Focus Interactive. Jan jumped right in with their inspiration for the new title.
“Close combat really stood out in Lords of the Fallen [Deck 13 undertook part of the title’s development],” he says. “We wanted to keep doing what we did well before, but in a new way.”
This means an emphasis on engaging with the enemy up close, tough enemies who hit hard, and learning through trial, error, and more than the occasional defeat. The team are not resting on their Lords-earned laurels however, and are working on adding more mechanics. Part of this will include futuristic weapons, although Jan is quick to indicate such weapons will play a supporting role to the main combat – this is not going to be a first or third person shooter. Of course there is a very different setting to Lords as well, although they can’t say too much at this time.
That’s all about the story at this time, although Jan added that the developers are keen that the story be important to the game, and not just an excuse for combat. Also in the vein of keeping things realistic, the main character is an antihero, but, as Jan eloquently put it
“not the tough, I was a soldier, I’m cynical and hate everything but in the end I’m actually kind of cool” kind of a way. In the beginning the player must learn how to survive, including improvising weapons.
Later on, this improvisation takes an interesting turn based around the combat mechanics. Fighting will be real-time, but with the ability to target specific enemy parts. Unlike, say, Fallout’s VATS system, which effectively paused the game, the player must also figure out how to target real-time. This can have additional benefits.
“You might figure out an enemy has a specific power, for example, noting their armour or something attached to them,” explains Jan. “You can target it to disable it. But more than that, if you target it the right way, when dispatching the enemy you can sever the part of interest, and then salvage and use it for yourself.”
This leads to some customisation options that are also partly derived from lessons-learned on Lords.
“Players didn’t understand the classes they were asked to choose at the start,” says Jan. “Maybe they’d choose Warrior, and think the game was really slow. So we got complaints ‘Lords of the Fallen is too slow!’ Or maybe they’d choose Rogue, be happy with their speed, and get killed in two hits by a boss. Then the game was ‘too hard’.”
These weapons then are designed not to allow you to pick off enemies with gunfire, but to use as buffs in the close combat sessions. This is to explain the different play styles, then let players test and build to their own style.
Jan is candid about the uneven experience in Lords.
“There were parts that were really strong, and also challenging, and others…not so much. Of course all games have that to a degree, but we wanted to flatten that variance as much as possible and keep the experience consistent.”
That consistency will also include consistent challenge.
“We want you to sweat when you’re considering trying to get somewhere, wondering ‘how far back was the last save point?’ And we’re not going to let you save whenever you want. However, for players who try, and manage to figure out how to get to that area, or behind that door, there will be rewards.”
This raises Deck 13’s new design approach. One of the issues with Lords was that while there were areas that were a challenge for areas to get to, and which rewarded the player with armour and weapon sets, the pacing was off and many times the new cool-looking set or weapon was not as good as what the player was already using. Part of that was down to 3 classes having 3 sets each, and needing places to put them, and part of it lacking time in development to really road-test it.
“We now have a specific focus meeting of the team leads,” Jan explains. “9, 10 people get together and discuss what they’re working on, be that art, level design, weapons, creatures. It gives people the opportunity to say ‘hey, that weapon doesn’t really work in this level, or against that creature it just doesn’t make sense.’ We’re working on making all elements synthesised and checking they actually work with each other.”
We ask about the game engine, and we’re told it’s based off the Lords engine, although the team are enhancing it so there are further effects.
“We’re not going to have some of the jaw-dropping stuff you see in the Triple-A titles, but we’re also not trying to make a game that’s a movie, we’re making a game that’s a game. We think there’s some great effects which will really help build the world.”
Of course we want to know when we’re going to know and see more, and we’re met with a rueful smile. Clearly a man who cares about his game, Jan would love to tell us, but he can’t.
“We’ll tell you when we can – promise.”
Challenging, real time combat, with area-targeting and customisable buffs supported by a compelling story sounds a potent proposition. We’ll be holding them to that promise! It’s about time we had a sci-fi themed game with Souls-like mechanics!
Fexelea
MMO raider by day and guide writer by night, Fex enjoys multiplatform gaming, good books and animes, and streaming with a cold beer.
@Fexela That is news to me, I was not aware Miyazaki specifically stated he was interested in a sci-fi type setting….very cool nonetheless, though.
Looking forward to hearing more about “Surge”. Keep up the great work Fextra
You see, the problem with this is that this sounds amazing and I already have too many things to try to pay attention to
Looking forward to getting more information on this later down the road, specifically with how our character will be affected by a more story driven game. Like with the Lord of the Fallen, the game was pretty set on having us play as Harykn so I have to wonder whether we could switch genders and possibly sculpt our character a bit in this game.
