Warsaw, Poland-essentially essentially based 11 bit Studios is right known for finely-crafted, systems-centric approach video games that aim to lift out extra than correct encourage avid gamers to cure complications, nonetheless to cure complications that chronicle for deeper human emotions.
“Important video games” is the term customary on the total by 11 bit CEO Przemyslaw Marszal. The studio’s most most contemporary video games, This Battle of Mine and Frostpunk, are exceptional examples of the theory of meaningful video games. They both find the worth of human lifestyles and relationships, whereas forcing the player to compose advanced choices to the point the place they’re deciding on the “ideal” alternate choices out of many unpleasant alternate choices.
With Frostpunk 2 no longer too long within the past confirmed (launch date TBA), Marszal acknowledged 11 bit’s purpose is to save the identical theory of “meaningful video games” into extra immense video games extra akin to AAA quality and scale.
“We may love to compose those meaningful video games for the widest target market we are able to,” acknowledged Marszal. Which methodology investing extra heavily in internal and third-celebration video games by adding extra projects and crew members.
The transfer toward aggressive increase is a engaging transfer for the 170-person studio. The studio is famous for smaller, focused recreation experiences with emergent story and titanic emotional influence. So the attach a question to turns into how to shield that creative point of curiosity whereas appeasing shareholders and growing a firm to compose it aggressive on a world scale.
One of many keys is to shield how 11 bit has consistently made video games, acknowledged Marszal. “Going back to how we slay our video games, and how we methodology introduction of our video games, the first thing is that on every occasion we began our video games, we began with an opinion,” he acknowledged. There wasn’t a amount of point of curiosity on kind within the very early levels of recreation introduction, or on mechanics; it became consistently the postulate that guided the blueprint.
That “unique tips first” methodology is one who 11 bit is asserting as the firm grows, with one crew working on an unannounced “unique opinion”-led recreation. Nonetheless that’s being accompanied by two other creative approaches from two extra parallel teams whose projects began with an outlined kind: one working on the approach sim Frostpunk 2, the opposite working on 11 bit’s first strive at a third person perspective recreation.
To Marszal, this is ready specializing the studio and challenging extra past what he referred to as the “indie recreation horizon” to enter an international of increased-manufacturing, AAA-stage recreation construction. He would not peep how increase can happen if 11 bit exclusively follows tips into random genres.
“What we saw is that we can possess to attach a question to ourselves, ‘how would we love to specialize?'” he acknowledged. “After we…compose the 2nd recreation in [a genre], we can compose a unparalleled greater recreation, and the next time we need to lift out that we can lift out even greater. So we saw we must modify our mannequin of developing video games and the equation of specialization. So no longer simplest [should we] possess an opinion as one driving force, nonetheless even possess some thought about how we can possess to concentrate on [specific genres].”
The transfer toward specialization also supposed losing 11 bit’s internally-developed Liquid Engine and adopting Story’s Unreal Engine–a posh transfer that Marszal admitted upset the studio’s engine programmers.
Marszal acknowledged the studio tried to save Liquid for correct one of the most projects, nonetheless it if truth be told correct did not determine. “It became very no longer going for us to possess an engine internally that can swimsuit all of those needs [of multiplatform, multi-game development],” he acknowledged. The porting of Frostpunk staunch through platforms became “so fucking onerous” Marszal acknowledged, reliving the exasperation of the ordeal. “And so we understood, ok, our point of curiosity will not be any longer in creating engines, we can possess to point of curiosity on creating video games.”
The studio is also ramping up its external publishing efforts, investing thousands and thousands of extra greenbacks into third-celebration video games that apply 11 bit’s “meaningful video games” mantra. The studio will dwell one to see because it expands its mission to compose video games that mean one thing.
“[I want to make] meaningful video games, those precious video games, the video games that admire avid gamers’ time, [that] admire the player,” he acknowledged. “I could love to compose video games that are intelligent, that I could love my childhood to play. That guides me, so I instill those values in our video games.”
