Chet Faliszek is the CEO and co-founder of Stray Bombay Company, which is currently working on the four-player co-op FPS game The Anacrusis. Chet Faliszek spent 12 years at Valve, where he was co-project director for the Path to Survival series and screenwriter for numerous game series such as Half-Life, Portal, and Team Fortress. Chet Faliszek loves to tell great stories.
You've probably seen his prowess in games like Half-Life 2, Portal, and Counter-Strike: Global Offensive. After making WDV and its sequels, he fell even more adamantly in love with telling stories through co-op gameplay.
In 2019, he co-founded the game studio Stray Bombay Company, hoping to spark interest in co-op. Now, nearly three years later, the studio's first work, The Anacrusis, has entered early access.
Stray Bombay's piece has a lot of unique features. Similar to WDV, it is a four-player co-op shooter that relies heavily on an AI game director system to lead the game and respond to players' actions and skills. But this generation of directors is smarter, able to manage movements and guide movements from a global perspective.
In The Anacrusis, a team of four is stranded interstellar, and they encounter aliens for the first time on a giant starship and must fight to survive. The whole game is full of fantastic ketch design elements. Inspired by titles such as Space Legends 1999, Escape from Underground Paradise, and Battlestar Galactica Season 1, the game is gorgeous and permeated with retro-futuristic styles.
The game recently released its third update, and Faliszek tells us about the birth of the studio, the source of inspiration and the process of refining the game, and how Unreal Engine helped them realize their vision.
What guiding principles do you think are in the studio and what role did they play in the initial game ideation process?
Chet Faliszek, CEO and co-founder of Stray Bombay Company: We have a set of principles that determine the direction of games and studios. One of the most important principles in games and studios is this: We want people to work together for a common goal. This means that whether deciding on the studio's goals or dealing with the minutiae of the game, we will all make transparent decisions as a team. At the beginning of the pandemic, the transition from field work to remote work was a good example. There was an employee who wanted to leave Seattle. Rather than simply answering the question "can he leave?" we asked everyone in the studio: If he can leave, does that mean we can all go elsewhere as we please? If so, is it possible to recruit people anywhere we go? We collectively made the decision to transform the company into a virtual studio. Two years after making this decision, there are more people on the team who have never been to the office than there.
Our basic premise is that if everyone is honest and reliable and puts the goals of the studio above their personal goals, we can share all the information, conspire together, and make better decisions for the company.
How did the idea for The Anacrusis come about?
Faliszek: I really want to go back to the four-player co-op model, which is my favorite genre of game. Although I've played almost all types of games, the ones that I can play over and over again belong to this category. I often play games like Deep Rock Galaxy and GTFO with players from the Stray Bombay community. In terms of setting, I have a soft spot for the sci-fi style of the late '60s and early '70s. The shows of that era had a serious attitude, and although it now seems that we will feel that they are contrived and stupid, the people involved in the production at that time regarded them as very serious theatrical art. The design language of that era (after the release of "Gordon" and before the rise of the Star Wars space truck driver-style atmosphere) was particularly suitable for use in games.
I think the sci-fi genre of that era and the zombie genre we used when we started making The Road to Survival are facing a similar dilemma. Gabe asked me a simple question: Are zombies too cheesy? That was true then, but what if in the games we made, the characters didn't know or didn't think zombies were old-fashioned? What if these characters were straightforward to everything?
How has the game's core idea been refined?
Faliszek: We always had some design principles in mind: we needed to get four players together to give them a non-threatening, normal enemy that would work with others against the enemy regardless of their skill level. Then we also need special enemies to help us climax in battle. We spent a lot of time researching how players played in existing co-op games and customized our own special design based on the experience we wanted to create for our players.
The original designs were very close to the design when the game was released, but like everything we added to the game, they were constantly influenced by player feedback. For us, Early Access is designed to expose players to the game as quickly as possible so that we can gather community feedback. In the first few months after the game's release, we were pleasantly surprised to find that the community generously gave a lot of feedback and suggestions, and our unique design benefited a lot.
Why did the studio decide to use Unreal Engine to develop this game?
Faliszek: We decided from the beginning that we wanted to support mods in a whole new way, with the ability to replicate mods to all players and dynamically add them to the game. Our game is a first person shooter. We want to make the game on PC and mainstream console platforms, but also need dedicated servers that support cross-platform play, and considering these needs, it is easy to make a choice.
How did insisting on using only one engine affect The Anacrusis throughout the game's development?
Faliszek: We didn't deliberately insist on using Unreal Engine 4 alone, and we made this decision carefully to avoid making fundamental changes to the engine that would reduce the cost of support and maintenance. Out-of-the-box Unreal Engine 4 itself is enough for us. We can quickly integrate the latest and stable engine updates into the version used by the editor, test the integration within a day or two, and then deploy the update to the entire team.
From a development perspective, this is the most stable process I've ever been involved in, and it allows us to create a play culture. From the beginning, we played the game several times a week, which changed the way I thought about game development.
What problems did Unreal Engine solve, and how did it help the studio develop The Anacrusis?
Faliszek: There's a reason everyone starts with a shooter. Once you open the engine, you get a usable and fun shooter framework and build your game on top of that. Obviously, we've added a lot of additions and changes to this core framework over the past few years, but with a steady starting point and a fast build-test-iterate cycle, we're bound to succeed.
In addition to this, the engine includes a large number of free assets and tools, giving us many options that allow us to experiment with new mechanics that allow us to focus our art budget on assets that will be released with the game.
The 2.0 version of the AI director system in the game has received a lot of attention. How did the original concept and execution of the WDV director system version 1.0 evolve into version 2.0?
Faliszek: The original director system cleverly controlled the rhythm of the game: it tracked the intensity of the battle and gave the player a short breath accordingly, before staging a thrilling battle that was different every time.
On this basis, we extended the director system to version 2.0. We build systems that not only understand players quickly, but also build profiles for players and adjust the difficulty of the game accordingly, not just throwing enemies at players. The Director System version 2.0 can guide players around in search of items, surprise them by spawning enemies behind the player, or increase or decrease the player's stress by changing the combination of enemies.
It also knows when the player needs help, and if the player is injured, it generates healing items on the way. If the player misses it, the item will also gently shake in front of the player.
How did you come up with the space setting and the retro futuristic look of the '70s for the game?
Faliszek: I grew up watching the likes of Space Legends 1999, Escape from Underworld, and Battlestar Galactica Season 1. As I got older, I was drawn to SaidMead and other artists who reminded me of days when the small parts of Star Wars had not yet taken over the sci-fi world, and we could still see colors other than gray.
How does Unreal Engine help the artists on the team achieve their goals for the look and feel of the game?
Faliszek: We use UE4's layered material system here, which makes it easy to change the color or material of items and weapons. Unreal Engine's Material System allows us to easily create our own materials and effects without having to write shaders. It helps with iteration and reduces the amount of setup that programmers or technical artists need to perform. When it comes to creating visual effects, showing others a prototype idea, or even a concrete implementation, Unreal Engine offers many options. The material system does the heavy lifting and allows our small art team to excel beyond its normal strength.
Are there games, movies, books, or other works that helped you shape the look, characters, and settings of your game?
Faliszek: In terms of setting and setting, it did borrow from TV shows and movies from the late '60s to the early '70s, where sci-fi was characterized more toward making things strange in the real world, rather than later, when integrated circuits got the public interest, people tended to make things smaller, faster, better in science fiction. During that period, TV shows seemed particularly weird and stupid. It was an indescribable time. At the time, I was still young, but I felt that when I grew up, everyone would live in outer space. Travel to the space station and uncharted territories of outer space appears to be the latest frontier.
As for the characters, there are two sources of inspiration. The day we started thinking about it, we looked at who was in space. Humans have been resident in space since the era of the International Space Station began, and here's a great website that lists all the people who were in space that day. Whenever you look at the site, you'll see the best and brightest people and their respective countries in a diverse list. We believe that if space travel becomes more and more popular, this site will next reflect the number of people in the world.
The character's name and nationality are taken from a number of real people, such as The First African-American Guy Lawrence Jr. Guion Bluford to go into space, and Robert Henry Lawrence Jr., who died on a test flight before the first mission, or else he would have become the first African-American astronaut in the United States.
Why does the team think mods are essential for modern social gaming?
Faliszek: We firmly believe that games should not stay where developers present them. Once a game is released, it becomes part of the community. With feedback from early access, we saw the impact of the community on the design, but we wanted to go a step further. We want them to be able to share ideas and lead games and content to places we may never have considered.
Whenever someone asks me a difficult question, I say that we should explore this issue together, because the wisdom of the group is higher than that of the individual. The same goes for the game itself. The release we bring is a starting point, and over time, in addition to community feedback, the content created by the community will also drive the game's growth.
How important is early play for game development? What changes did the demo drive you in the early stages of development?
Faliszek: Early playtests are crucial. Based on the results of the demo, we've made changes to everything from how the director's system works, to the weapons, to the user interface.
Our complete design process is to set game goals first and keep them in mind as you get to work. Design works. Implement the smallest part of what's available for testing, starting with a colleague in a daily playthrough. Iterate on feedback while building more, share each step with internal testers (preferably if you have one), and then get feedback.
Every part of our game has been modified based on feedback.
Why is it important to publish a game as an Early Access?
Faliszek: The idea of giving players feedback shouldn't be empty talk. If you do a closed trial or a confidential trial, you will be involved in the specific kind of players who are keen to try something new. While releasing an Early Access game can also collect feedback, if you want regular feedback from regular players, you must release your game early and update it frequently. As long as the core loop of the game becomes interesting under some specific restrictions, we will launch it.
Since the early access was released, how has the studio worked with the community to continuously improve the game?
Faliszek: Even before the game was released, we played the game several times a week with players in our Discord community, which helped us tremendously. The game involves multiple platforms, and teammates are not all friends, in this case, a four-player game will clearly expose the problems with the friend list and the matchmaking mechanism.
Since its launch, in addition to Discord, the community has provided a wealth of excellent feedback through various platforms, forums, and our support ticket system. We try to remove obstacles in order to get as much feedback as possible.
We also tried to do various experiments to determine which ideas on Discord were more interesting. Currently, we host weekly challenges in our games that prompt players to play differently or take on different challenges, but we can only update those that are hard-coded into the game when we update the game client. On Discord, we've further increased the difficulty of the game and really advanced the unusual way of playing. So we'll ask the player, who can finish chapter 2 the fastest? Who can kill the fewest aliens while playing the third chapter? It's all about testing "which challenges are fun and which are boring". For example, "the aliens who were not eliminated in the first chapter and killed the most" quickly departed from the essence of the challenge and became a "who is more idle" competition.
Can you tell us about the idea behind the "Town Hall", what does it do besides the regular communication with the gaming community?
Faliszek: We originally wanted to hold "town hall meetings" to discuss certain features, and we need to spend more time talking to the community before we roll them out. If it takes a lot of time or effort to develop something and we want to see how the community is feeling about it, we go into the Discord Stage channel and have an internal discussion with the leaders of the work, and then open it up to the Discord community for comments and feedback. The "Town Hall" complements our internal communication, ensuring that our vision is from the player's perspective from the beginning.
The role of the "citizens' assembly" is well reflected in the mode of resistance. We defined the goals and limitations of this model, and in repeated discussions with the community, we got a lot of interesting ideas that were worth trying out during the production process.
What tools did the game developers use to create the important co-op gameplay in The Anacrusis?
Faliszek: The most important thing we have to do is to avoid introducing elements that cause players to compete or fight each other. The skill system is a good example. Initially, we simply placed individual skills on the ground around the level, and the first player to discover the skill would get it. This causes some players to scramble to find all the skills in the level, while others feel lost or angry about missing out on the skills.
Now that we use the Matter Compiler (MC) to assign skills, players no longer need to compete with greedy loot collectors. When a player finds a skill, they can tell their teammates where it is, and the machine will then issue the skill to all players. The moment of discovering a skill turns into a joy to share with friends.
How has the selection of weapons evolved, and how do they work in the game?
Faliszek: When we started developing the game, we wanted to divide the weapons into different levels, so that as the player progressed through the levels in the chapter, they could upgrade the various guns. But when we introduced skill systems, we realized that weapon level systems limited the design space of skill systems —no one wanted to put their energy into guns that would be discarded within a level or two. So we ditched the weapon level system and instead let players use skills to invest in the weapons they hold. Players can create a unique combination of special abilities that can be modified each time they play, giving players a constant sense of freshness.
Looking back at the improvement of the game, how did the studio improve the climactic rhythm of the gameplay, both to give players a breathing time and to make them feel that they were able to survive because they had honed their game skills to the point of mastery?
Faliszek: In an external demo before the game was released, we realized that we could use a director system to distinguish the intensity of the battles experienced by the player from the actual difficulty. We didn't adjust the intensity of the experience established by the director's system by moving any of the sliders associated with the game's battle sandbox. To kill ordinary aliens, you always need to spend the same amount of plasma rifle ammunition. When an alien melee attack is successful, the damage they inflict on the player is always the same.
Before the game was released, we spent a lot of time testing it, letting four friends play by voice, and the game performed well in this situation. Now, we're working to bring this experience to other players, including single-player or two-players who go into the match pool, as well as those who don't want to use voice, and so on. For example, shortly after its release, we realized that our game was too intense for many players, especially when they played with strangers without using voice. In addition to adding more sophisticated communication options, we recently released a new default difficulty that allows the battle to be slightly more tempered while retaining the expected intensity.
For those players who are interested in the game's background, universe, and characters, how do you plan to unfold the story for them?
Faliszek: We're trying to do something different with the story, which means that Early Access players aren't necessarily getting the best experience. However, when the player plays a chapter for the first time, the game plays out a standard storyline. Players will learn what to do, where to go, and how to achieve their goals. In the subsequent game flow, the scope of the scene will be further expanded, the player will see more interaction between the characters, and the understanding of aliens and the background world of the game will also deepen.
But all of this is expressed in a slightly different way than traditional games. Instead of having the two characters talk directly about the initial attack, we let them talk like normal people. They will engage in a reasonable conversation, not just to illustrate the story. Players don't know "that's the way it is" directly, but instead they need to piece together the causes and consequences from different game flows. It's a lot of fun to watch players piece together the various parts of the story in our Discord channel. Players are smart, and if they don't connect the clues properly, that's our problem.
What kind of philosophy does this game convey?
Faliszek: We just thought that if people could work together, the world would be a better place, and that's why we designed the game: to encourage cooperative play and not to leave them with the opportunity to clash. At the same time, we feel that our approach to game design at the studio level also conveys an important idea. We successfully released The Anacrusis without experiencing very stressful moments. In the two weeks before we submitted the certification, there were only a few days when employees worked more than the standard eight hours. As a studio, we chose to cut out the release version of the game rather than rush it because we knew we could add features that were forced to be removed during early access.
This article is transferred from the official Unreal Engine website~