Earth is dying. Devastated by a pole shift, the planet’s oceans have evaporated and its cities turned to rubble. In their struggle for survival, mankind is split between two warring factions: scavengers, barbarian robbers bent on claiming the world’s remaining resources, and the Resistance, freedom fighters working to restore civilization. are. Humanity is passing through its greatest test, where will your loyalty be?
Currently in beta (keys given at the end of the interview), Ravaged 2Dawn Games is the brainchild of Boris Ustav and his team, who have worked hard over the past few years on a fast-paced post-apocalyptic multiplayer shooter. Strong focus on skill, teamwork, vehicular combat and most importantly, fun. In other words, it’s everything the folks at 2Dawn wanted in a modern PC shooter, but couldn’t find.
We recently had the chance to talk with 2Dawn about its upcoming title, his experience with Kickstarter, and developing a PC game as an independent studio today.
Note: Although Boris stated that Ravaged was without a publisher during our discussion, the game has since been picked up by Reverb Publishing which will assist 2Dawn in promoting its game without breathing down the developer’s neck.
Hello guys, let’s start with the background of 2Dawn, the size of your team, how you got started, your expertise etc.
Boris: Hi, my name is Boris and I guess I’m the cofounder of Studio 2Dawn and the designer of the game Ravaged. 2Dawn is a company founded about three years ago. It previously consisted of a two-man team and we have grown back and forth to about 10 or 15 people as there are contractors working with us. Ravaged is our first title.
Ken: I’m the lead programmer and gameplay programmer.
Have any of you had any background in the games industry before this?
Ken: Well, I did a few ways. I did Desert Conflict, a mod for Battlefield 2, so I learned a little bit about tweaking modern game engines. I’ve always programmed games since I was really young, I’ve always been interested in graphics and all that. But I haven’t really been in the industry to speak of that.
Not to shy away from the game or anything, but the general premise of a post-apocalyptic shooter is relatively played, many would say. I can think of at least six games that are either coming soon or coming out last year or so with the theme of the end of the world, if you will. What would you say is the difference between Devastated and other such titles?
Boris: Well, I have to say there’s really no such game. When people say the post-apocalypse game has been played, none of those games are like what we’re doing. I find it hard to believe that people say this is one way played.
Kane: Maybe a little less than the Modern Warfare games.
Well, here’s the thing, to an extent, it’s a combination of both: a post-apocalyptic multiplayer shooter, so I’m trying to figure out what’s different here.
Boris: I think the biggest difference is how the post-apocalyptic world came to be. Our bus is based on Mother Nature. You know, the earth is getting old and dying and it is taking mankind down with it, leaving mankind fighting for whatever is left. And this is what I am saying separately. I haven’t seen a post-apocalyptic game that doesn’t involve aliens or some other species or race or zombies. I mean it’s not zombies vs aliens, it’s just humans, like in The Book of Eli or Mad Max or The Road, where it’s humanity fighting to survive.
What would you say is different between Ravaged and other multiplayer shooters gameplay-wise?
Kane: Coming back to the Modern Warfare genre, you know, where everything is overly realistic, we’re trying to get away from that and just make Ravaged fun, which is the most important objective. We’re just keeping it as fast-paced and fun as possible. Our graphics are great, I think, but the main goal isn’t to make everything look perfect or the exact rate of fire of the gun or whatever.
Boris: However, we’re also working out the exact rates of fire and things like that. We’re consulting beta testers, but as Ken was saying, fun is more important than anything else. If you’re having fun, we did ours.
Why only multiplayer?
Boris: Well, single player is actually very, very expensive. It takes a lot of resources and a lot of time to develop, so we decided not to go down that path. We wanted to do something where you could just jump in, have fun, play your 20 minutes, let go of your frustration and then go back to your normal daily life. Counter Strike comes to mind. I was addicted to it when it first came out and it was multiplayer only but so much fun.
Kane: I think we all have a multiplayer background. I don’t think any of us are huge fans of single player. I mean, I’m not saying we don’t like them, but I think we’re more multiplayer gamers in general, so that was our real focus.