As the video game industry continues to evolve, one constant remains: the enduring popularity of multiplayer shooters. Amidst this overcrowded landscape, Double Eleven is poised to make its mark with an innovative new entry. In the latest Xbox Associate Preview, Microsoft unveiled a surprise early access release for its innovative multiplayer first-person shooter, which subverts the genre’s fundamental principles in thrilling ways. Conceptually, it’s sounding remarkably promising, with early reception thus far offering a distinctly optimistic tone – but what precisely drives its momentum? We recently had the opportunity to speak with Matt Dunthorne, the sport’s lead designer, to gain a deeper understanding of this topic. You are welcome to review the recording of our conversation below.
The reaction from gamers has been overwhelmingly positive until now. It’s been remarkable to witness the receptivity of gamers towards a concept as innovative as one that fundamentally reimagines the essence of traditional first-person shooters.
Thank you so much, and thank you for the excellent inquiries. I’m thrilled to discuss gaming with GamingBolt.
The response from gamers has been largely unimpressive thus far. As innovative as a concept that fundamentally reshapes or eliminates key elements of traditional first-person shooter formulas, it has been heartening to observe the receptivity of players willing to embrace this unconventional approach. By recognizing the issue at hand, they’ve successfully uncovered the sheer enjoyment that comes from actively engaging in the game.
We are absolutely thrilled with our team. Having poured their hearts and souls into this project, team members find the final product’s release to be incredibly fulfilling, especially when they witness gamers engaging enthusiastically with its various aspects. As passionate enthusiasts of the sport, witnessing the proposed ideas take shape and being actively involved in their implementation has been a genuine delight.
Our strategy from the outset was to deploy an early entry tactic and effectively corral the group right from the start. The opportunity to collaborate with the Xbox Game Preview program arose unexpectedly rather than being deliberately planned. As we collaborate with Microsoft on various projects, our regular discussions yield valuable insights; once we validate their concept, their response is consistently enthusiastic. The suggestion to bring the sport to Xbox sparked an initial conversation about the possibility.
Shortly following its introduction, the game’s potential to stand out became evident to the team presenting the Xbox Associate Preview showcase in October. Issues moved rapidly from there. While a rapid rollout across multiple platforms posed significant logistical challenges, the prospect of leveraging that exposure via a strategic surprise release during a major event was an opportunity too valuable to pass up.
The crew got a kick out of exploring the showcase, where they discovered some of the most exciting and innovative upcoming video games from around the world. The team held a celebratory event to commemorate our latest achievement in the workplace. That moment will forever be etched in our collective memory.
This idea came from a rather unusual source. Every few months, I organize a Shatterday event with my team, where we challenge ourselves by dividing into small, diverse groups and tackling unusual design problems together. Prior to presenting their concepts to us, each team thoroughly brainstorms potential ideas.
The novel aspect lies in the fact that challenges are created through a “select your own adventure”-style system, wherein teams randomly select components to incorporate into their pitches.
On this explicitly titled Shattered Saturday, a team faced a challenge that led them to ask, “What if we had to create an FPS where the only way to reveal the setting and enemies was to shoot them?” What’s being discussed here is essentially a product that has been largely created from scratch.
The pitch resonated instantly, striking a harmonious accord within me. The notion’s unadulterated clarity was exceptional, radiating a unique aura of potency. I was utterly thrilled by the prospect. A few weeks following my initial concept, I refined it into a comprehensive pitch, which I then presented to the Double Eleven board. As the presentation unfolded, a remarkable phenomenon occurred: attendees’ minds were suddenly sparked with innovative ideas, with suggestions for weapons, traps, and mechanics pouring forth by the end. The concept warrants further development.
Within a few weeks, our core gameplay prototype took shape, and internal playtesting yielded reassuring results: the game was just as engaging as we envisioned. Notably, our core expertise has undergone remarkably little evolution since its inception, with the current versions played by gamers still largely resembling those we first conceptualized.
The Shatterday program aims to serve as a catalyst, propelling the design team beyond their comfort zones and honing their pitch-craft skills, rather than simply generating novel products. proved to be an unexpected blessing – a truly welcome turn of events, as it appeared.
As soon as you discharge your firearm, a bright flash of light illuminates your position, making it visible to anyone who might be watching. While capturing may be the primary objective in a first-person shooter (FPS), it can paradoxically become detrimental.
The standout feature of this narrative, and what resonates with me most, lies in the tantalizing risk-reward dynamic that unfolds when characters venture forth to capture their quarry under the cover of darkness. As soon as you fire your weapon, its muzzle flash illuminates you like a neon sign, broadcasting your position to anyone who might be watching? In first-person shooter games, capturing enemy positions is the primary objective, but this pursuit can often become perilous, as it requires taking bold and sometimes reckless action to achieve success – a thrilling aspect that can’t be replicated by more conventional gameplay offerings.
To mitigate this risk, when you achieve your objective, the suit’s lights flash briefly, momentarily transforming it into a beacon that draws attention away from yourself.
In this setting, calm, tactical gamers rely heavily on their auditory acuity, utilizing sound cues to locate opponents with uncanny accuracy, then execute stealthy takedowns without detection.
Because sound plays such a crucial role, our exceptional audio team pushed boundaries to create incredibly accurate and immersive 3D positional audio experiences. Gamers have been empowered to display audacious confidence, effectively eradicating others without regard for their presence. They expended immense effort to achieve this feat.
Navigating in complete darkness poses its own unique set of challenges. To circumvent this issue, we introduced the ‘Echo’ platform. Echo provides a concise summary of the environment, affording gamers a brief moment of clarity to strategize and prepare for their next moves with increased confidence. Crucially, when you employ Echo to track an adversary, you’ll gain insight into their last known location. While this feature empowers gamers to take calculated photos within the game’s fast-paced environment, still maintaining a sense of urgency and risk.
Striking a delicate balance between the thrill of uncertainty and the fulfillment of meticulous execution, we’ve achieved a remarkable harmony that sets our approach apart.
One of the numerous significant hurdles faced by our art team was establishing a distinct visual identity for the game, despite the fact that much of the gameplay takes place in complete darkness. Crafting an immersive experience that preserves participant anonymity was no easy feat.
The vibrant murals on roads illuminated by blacklights and ultraviolet (UV) light installations captivate passersby, transforming everyday spaces into mesmerizing works of art. Amidst the shadowy arenas, ultraviolet lighting illuminates a mesmerizing realm of neon hues and dynamic patterns, both in the environments and on the gamers’ customizable avatars themselves. By implementing this approach, we successfully infused a significant amount of personality into the sport’s broadcast while remaining faithful to the underlying darkness that defines the gameplay at its core.
The juxtaposition of darkness and color in the game’s aesthetic is truly captivating – a masterful blend of tension-building blackness that heightens the sense of urgency, punctuated by bursts of vibrant color as the action unfolds, creating a thrilling visual dynamic that draws the player in. This innovative mode is a testament to the remarkable creativity of our art team. They actually smashed it.
The new content update will go live at the end of November.
The latest update introduces a thrilling new sport mode, Pitch Black: Kill Race, a high-stakes variant of the classic Deathmatch experience. This innovative addition features fresh gameplay elements, including new weapons and options for competitive players, as well as international leaderboards to test your skills against the best in the world. It’s an exhilarating start to our series of updates in the early stages of development.
We integrate straightforward bug resolutions with substantial updates featuring enhanced gameplay experiences. Our goal is to deploy significant upgrades approximately every two months, accompanied by incremental improvements in the interim to ensure that concerns remain current and we remain responsive to stakeholder input.
Let’s develop a genuine group circle. Our roadmap is publicly available on our website and Discord server, where we regularly review and update it in response to feedback from our community. In my opinion, group feedback is crucial in enhancing multiplayer video games, as early input enables gamers to feel invested in the game’s future development, which I personally appreciate. To foster an unshakeable connection with players, I aim to craft a game that fully immerses them in the world and its unfolding narrative.
While acknowledging the inherent flaws, our revised version could be: So, a cliché response perhaps, but the official stance remains “as long as it takes” – we’re committed to providing the necessary time for growth and evolution, ensuring the group can find common ground to reach its full potential. While I have a clear vision for version 1.0’s design, its relevance is questionable unless it aligns with gamers’ expectations and requirements. We will sustain a diverse approach and keep issues open-ended, allowing them to evolve in response to the needs and preferences of our team.
There’s no actual rush. Our primary emphasis lies in achieving precision and crafting a singularly exceptional outcome. Early access offers a unique opportunity to refine the game in tandem with the players who understand it best.
Balancing these diverse components required exceptional skill, yet I’m confident that we’ve achieved a remarkable harmony between the thrill of unpredictability and the fulfillment of expertly orchestrating a strategic takedown.
As a dedicated PlayStation enthusiast, I’m thrilled at the prospect of upgrading to a PS5 Pro. While we’ve focused primarily on other topics thus far, our attention will inevitably turn to the PS5 Pro, an enhanced model that’s definitely on our radar for future development.
As a developer, extra energy often translates into increased capabilities. Significant advancements in efficiency unlock new opportunities to solidify concerns around sustained consistency, enhanced physiological responses, and more.
We’re excited about the prospect of delivering a seamless gaming experience to console gamers, allowing them to rival our top-tier PC configurations in terms of performance, with silky-smooth gameplay and unrestricted frame rates. Isn’t it true that making the sport truly more enjoyable could have that profound an impact?
PSRR is a groundbreaking innovation, offering tremendous potential for enhancement, especially considering the crucial role sound plays in game design.
While I’m not an audio design expert, it’s clear that PSSR has the potential to elevate audio capabilities further. With enhanced capabilities to pinpoint sounds within a home environment, PSSR can facilitate more accurate positional audio, thereby simplifying the process for gamers to precisely locate an enemy’s footsteps, subtle sounds of reloading weapons, or the impact of shells striking the ground.
Our exceptionally talented audio team has a diverse background in various religions, ensuring their unique perspectives will unlock the full potential of this project and deliver remarkable results. I’m confident that they’ll be eager to immerse themselves in this technology at the earliest opportunity. I’m genuinely thrilled to witness how this innovation will potentially elevate the sport’s sonic landscape further.
I’ve always believed that when faced with a contested decision, it’s often better to offer a setting option and empower the player to make their own choice. The era when sports game developers told fans how best to play their video games has finally come to a close. To cater to players’ diverse preferences, we introduced a choice allowing them to decide how to play, which is reflected in the inclusion of both Efficiency and Quality modes on the console version of the game.
A concise overview of initial impressions regarding these configurations is thus:
- PS5 Efficiency Mode: 1080p, 60fps
- PS5 High-quality mode: 4K resolution at a smooth 30 frames per second.
- Xbox Series X Efficiency Mode: Optimized for 1080p @ 60fps
- Xbox Series X’s High Quality Mode: 4K resolution at a smooth 30 frames per second.
- Xbox Collection S Efficiency Mode: Optimized for 1080p at 60 frames per second.
- Xbox Series S High-Quality Mode: 1440p at 30 frames per second.
In Efficiency Mode, players can expect a silky-smooth gaming experience, characterized by swift and responsive gameplay that meets the high standards of many first-person shooter enthusiasts, who typically aim for a target frame rate of 60 frames per second. High-quality Mode delivers an extravagantly enhanced visual experience at higher resolutions, albeit sacrificing overall frame rates in the process.
We continuously work tirelessly to optimize processes, thereby ensuring consistency and maximizing efficiency. We regard our Efficiency and High-quality modes as key metrics to gauge our capacity to advance collective expertise across all platforms seamlessly.
While there is no official PS5 Pro support available yet, we’re excited to explore the boundaries of what’s possible with the latest console, pushing its capabilities to the limit as soon as possible.
