The things I can confirm are cross-save between PS4 and PS5, […] and progress bars for trophies. Such features that these consoles have. Other things might come, but I do not want to promise that now.
Outriders competes with “all interactive media”
MeinMMO: In your opinion, what is your biggest competition? Not as a studio, but as a game.
Piotr Nowakowski: Every medium. In today’s world, we compete with movies, with all interactive media. I will not name any specific game or title. It’s really hard.
Bartosz Kmita: We have a specific game and certain ideas. […] The general shooters might be competitors, others might see loot shooters as competitors, games living off their story are our competitors. Sooner or later, we will have to state that every game that is released now is our competitor. […]
I truly believe we will find our place in this world. And some people will simply play our game alternately with other titles, why not.
We would like to thank Bartosz Kmita and Piotr Nowakowski for taking the time for us.
By the way: We will be following the release of the demo and the game here on MeinMMO. If you are interested in the RPG shooter, make sure to check back regularly.
Are you joining the demo? Which class will you try out first? Participate in our survey.
Piotr Nowakowski: Yes, we aim to utilize the new consoles well. […] It is still something we are working on. The new consoles came relatively late, so the basic aspects like performance and resolution are things we will address. […]
The things I can confirm are cross-save between PS4 and PS5, […] and progress bars for trophies. Such features that these consoles have. Other things might come, but I do not want to promise that now.
Outriders competes with “all interactive media”
MeinMMO: In your opinion, what is your biggest competition? Not as a studio, but as a game.
Piotr Nowakowski: Every medium. In today’s world, we compete with movies, with all interactive media. I will not name any specific game or title. It’s really hard.
Bartosz Kmita: We have a specific game and certain ideas. […] The general shooters might be competitors, others might see loot shooters as competitors, games living off their story are our competitors. Sooner or later, we will have to state that every game that is released now is our competitor. […]
I truly believe we will find our place in this world. And some people will simply play our game alternately with other titles, why not.
We would like to thank Bartosz Kmita and Piotr Nowakowski for taking the time for us.
By the way: We will be following the release of the demo and the game here on MeinMMO. If you are interested in the RPG shooter, make sure to check back regularly.
Are you joining the demo? Which class will you try out first? Participate in our survey.
With Outriders, a new loot shooter will be released in April 2021. Sven Galitzki and Tarek Zehrer from MeinMMO recently had an interview with the developers People Can Fly.
What is Outriders? This third-person shooter fills the gap between loot shooters and full-fledged RPGs, driven by its main story. You can play four different classes, collect loot, and experience an exciting story in a dark sci-fi world.
Starting February 25, you can get an initial (free) glimpse as the demo will be released then. What you need to know about it can be found in our special: All info about the free Outriders demo – release, content, platforms
On this occasion, the developer studio PeopleCanFly answered our questions.
Who is speaking in the interview? In a conversation via Discord, MeinMMO could pose their questions to Bartosz Kmita (Game Director) and Piotr Nowakowski (Lead Designer) from People Can Fly.
The developers mentioned two things that make Outriders different from similar loot shooters like Anthem or Destiny:
- Full-fledged RPG: This includes the RPG mechanics, which are deeper and provide players with more freedom regarding their builds, characters, and playstyles.
- Full-fledged story: The campaign of Outriders is not supposed to be mere side content where you mindlessly complete objectives, but a well-crafted story with surprising twists.
Additionally, the discussion touched on the service model, how things will proceed after release, and which games are seen as competition.
Those who enjoy story and loot shooters will feel “at home”
MeinMMO: Could you explain to someone who hasn’t had a deeper insight into Outriders: Why should one play Outriders? What are the core aspects that define the game?
Bartosz Kmita: We primarily target people who enjoy story-focused shooters or prefer deep mechanics in RPG systems. I think we are trying to connect these two worlds, and someone who identifies with one of these worlds […] will enjoy Outriders.
We attempt to develop a game that delves deeper into the RPG system, further into the loot aspect, creating build systems with freedoms that we offer to players. Those who enjoy RPG aspects and additionally want the story of a well-developed world, we are attempting to provide exactly that. […] Fans of looter-shooters and story-focused shooters […] will feel at home and enjoy the game.
MeinMMO: To be a bit more specific, people like to compare games with similar titles. What might one play if I like Destiny? Which games could Outriders be most compared to?
Bartosz Kmita: I think a comparison with other looter-shooters is obvious, as this point (loot, note by the editor) primarily decides that you will be compared to those games. We are not trying to avoid this. We believe we have a different game with other systems. When making this comparison, we think we are putting RPG systems more in the spotlight.
We give players much more freedom in how they will play our shooter. The player builds their character, they develop their way of playing, they might fail at that, but we provide the freedom to decide how they approach our game.
For some, it could be a cover shooter, a cover-based game, while another player might not even use this system because they build their character differently. We offer much more freedom and options for players to choose from.
On the flip side, the second pillar of our game is the story and the aspect of world-building. We believe it is extensive, and I find it exciting.
That is what distinguishes us from other shooters and tactical games of this kind, as people typically do not expect an interesting story with cool twists in such games. Typically, the story gives them a simple goal to pursue. I think that is the second thing that sets us apart from the competition.
Piotr Nowakowski: Maybe people will someday say: “This game is similar to Outriders!” […] At least that is what we hope.
No Games-as-a-Service because it “started to annoy”
MeinMMO: You have emphasized early on that Outriders will be released as a complete product. Did you consider a Games-as-a-Service model during development, and if so, why did you discard it?
Bartosz Kmita: Yes, we considered it at the beginning because everyone was doing it. So we thought: “Okay, maybe people want that.” We then started development with this idea of a Games-as-a-Service.
But at one moment, we realized: “Okay, whatever we try with our game, due to the Games-as-a-Service model, we must adjust a lot again.” Then this model started to annoy and create more problems […]. We were constantly inclined to chop content, hold back some features, and possibly break the story into chapters.
We ultimately thought that this game makes no sense if we do not give players everything at launch. […] So we opted for a more old-fashioned approach, allowing us to give people basically everything we will create.
If the game is successful, and if people enjoy this world, we would be more than happy to improve it, develop more adventures, and create more stories […], but for now, we are focused (on the launch note by the editor) and giving them the finished product. That was our thought process behind it.
More content if it is well received
MeinMMO: How will Outriders be supported after release? Will there be quality-of-life features?
Bartosz Kmita: Of course, we will look at the game, balance things, and fix issues, no matter how well the game performs. But if the game is successful and people like it, we will expand it and develop more things. However, this will depend more on how players adopt the game.
MeinMMO: Do you already have a little roadmap after the release? Or are you first looking at how Outriders performs?
Bartosz Kmita: We have a roadmap because we will support the game after launch. We will monitor it, balance it, fix it, perhaps add some things, but that is the only safe statement about what we will do after launch. We do not want to go into more detail about these things yet.
Postponed release because they did not want players to be “beta testers”
MeinMMO: Why did you postpone Outriders?
We want to give players a finished game. […] Well, there were two options: We postpone the release and fix what we know is broken, and we add the elements that we know are necessary to improve the game and deliver the complete package.
Or we release the game as is and fix it with patches, effectively using players as beta testers.
That’s why we fundamentally decided to postpone the game. Because, to be honest, that is what we would expect from ourselves as players. It’s that simple.
MeinMMO: The Outriders demo will be released soon. What would you recommend as developers; what should players check out first in the demo?
We aim to help players from the very beginning and have tutorials for everything. We gradually guide them through the stages of the game. We do not throw anyone into the deep end. […]
We also want to teach those who have no experience with this type of game from the start how to play so that no one gets lost in the game. But the more you play, the more you understand what we are doing. We hope that you begin to experiment, change builds, and really play the game […].
Multiplayer like a cinema visit with friends
MeinMMO: You already mentioned that the story campaign is an important part of Outriders. What about decisions? Can important decisions influence the course of the story?
Bartosz Kmita: No, there are no branching outcomes in quests. For various reasons, we have moved away from this concept […]. We basically realized that we really know what story we want to tell, which only makes sense with a specific ending and some events in between.
We did not want to undermine that by leaving players choice because we want to tell a specific story about humanity. In multiplayer, we see it as going to the cinema together with friends and commenting on the aspects of the story, rather than providing options for decision in quests.
Endgame can also be played solo – but it won’t be easy
MeinMMO: The campaign is also designed for solo players. What about the endgame? Previously you showed that you should bring your strongest gear and your most powerful friends to succeed. What about solo players?
Piotr Nowakowski: In general, the endgame is adjusted and balanced for multiplayer, so it is best to have a 3-person team. […] Nevertheless, you can go there alone if you have a good build and know how to play solo, you can do that.
It will definitely be a greater challenge as you first need to achieve some things to be prepared for various enemy types and combat situations.
But it is possible, and we have testers who have succeeded alone. They managed to do that because they had access to everything,[…], so they could prepare all setups and use all good mechanics.
Players will also be able to do that, but they will have to earn everything. They need to collect gear, find the way they want to play, and discover how to build their character. Then it is definitely doable.
- All info about the endgame that is currently known: These are the expeditions
Features for Xbox Series X/S and PS5
MeinMMO: Outriders will also be released on PS5 and Xbox Series X/S. Are there specific features for the next-gen consoles?
Piotr Nowakowski: Yes, we aim to utilize the new consoles well. […] It is still something we are working on. The new consoles came relatively late, so the basic aspects like performance and resolution are things we will address. […]
The things I can confirm are cross-save between PS4 and PS5, […] and progress bars for trophies. Such features that these consoles have. Other things might come, but I do not want to promise that now.
Outriders competes with “all interactive media”
MeinMMO: In your opinion, what is your biggest competition? Not as a studio, but as a game.
Piotr Nowakowski: Every medium. In today’s world, we compete with movies, with all interactive media. I will not name any specific game or title. It’s really hard.
Bartosz Kmita: We have a specific game and certain ideas. […] The general shooters might be competitors, others might see loot shooters as competitors, games living off their story are our competitors. Sooner or later, we will have to state that every game that is released now is our competitor. […]
I truly believe we will find our place in this world. And some people will simply play our game alternately with other titles, why not.
We would like to thank Bartosz Kmita and Piotr Nowakowski for taking the time for us.
By the way: We will be following the release of the demo and the game here on MeinMMO. If you are interested in the RPG shooter, make sure to check back regularly.
Are you joining the demo? Which class will you try out first? Participate in our survey.
