T0@st
News Editor
- Joined
- Mar 7, 2023
- Messages
- 3,307 (4.02/day)
- Location
- South East, UK
| System Name | The TPU Typewriter |
|---|---|
| Processor | AMD Ryzen 5 5600 (non-X) |
| Motherboard | GIGABYTE B550M DS3H Micro ATX |
| Cooling | DeepCool AS500 |
| Memory | Kingston Fury Renegade RGB 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) DDR4-3600 CL16 |
| Video Card(s) | PowerColor Radeon RX 7800 XT 16 GB Hellhound OC |
| Storage | Samsung 980 Pro 1 TB M.2-2280 PCIe 4.0 X4 NVME SSD |
| Display(s) | Lenovo Legion Y27q-20 27" QHD IPS monitor |
| Case | GameMax Spark M-ATX (re-badged Jonsbo D30) |
| Audio Device(s) | FiiO K7 Desktop DAC/Amp + Philips Fidelio X3 headphones, or ARTTI T10 Planar IEMs |
| Power Supply | ADATA XPG CORE Reactor 650 W 80+ Gold ATX |
| Mouse | Roccat Kone Pro Air |
| Keyboard | Cooler Master MasterKeys Pro L |
| Software | Windows 10 64-bit Home Edition |
Six years ago, developer 1047 Games released the free-to-play Splitgate, an arena-based first-person shooter that allowed players to place portals around maps, adding a fresh strategic layer. Now Splitgate 2 is set to double down on this unique idea with bigger maps, a new class-based system, and the introduction of The Lab, a player-facing version of the team's map creator. Ahead of the open beta opening up on May 22, we sat down with Ian Proulx, CEO and co-founder of 1047 Games, to talk about Splitgate 2's new mechanics and how community feedback and rigorous playtests are helping deliver a sequel that hits the right notes.
Making a sequel to a free-to-play shooter in 2025
When asked how the team is doing in the weeks leading up to the open beta, Proulx's response was succinct and to the point: "It's definitely a bit of a crazy time for us." Splitgate had a team of around 15 people. In contrast, there are about 200 developers working fulltime on Splitgate 2, plus 50 or so outsourced contributors. "We've definitely put a lot of thought and effort into making sure that we have a process that works versus the first game, where everybody was doing a little bit of everything all the time," Proulx added.
Despite the substantially higher headcount, Proulx said that Splitgate 2 development is going smoother than its predecessor. 1047 Games does playtests twice a week as an entire company, in addition to a larger-scale playtest once a month. The team treats it as close to the real thing as possible, having everybody log onto an account and join matchmaking.
Even though the stakes of a playtest are lower than, say, thousands of players joining matches at once, the team hopes that running these company-wide matches is helping to build muscle memory, getting into the habit of operating as if the game is live—especially with Splitgate 2 targeting monthly updates. As influential as the playtests have been, however, Proulx reinforced that community feedback is everything. He's a "big believer" in the benefits of the company talking to the community and reading social feeds, from Reddit to Discord. Alongside hearing directly from players, the team has also consulted statistics to pin down popular maps and weapons with the highest prominence.
With all of this information, plus the results of a large-scale survey involving people who played and quit Splitgate, 1047 Games decided on a few key points. From the get-go, the team wanted to preserve the high skill ceiling of the portal mechanic, while adding variety to pretty much everything surrounding the feature. "In Splitgate, you had a lot of game modes that were all sort-of different flavors of the same thing," Proulx said. "You had every single character spawn with the exact same gun and attributes, so it was sort-of like, there's one way to play. Here's a gun, here's a portal gun. It's awesome. We nailed the portal mechanic and the gunplay, but that's it. And so this time, we wanted to have more variety."
Classes are one of the sequel's most prominent additions. In Splitgate 2, players can pick between three factions. Aeros are agile and fast, Meridian can heal teammates and manipulate time, and Sabrask are focused on strength. Each faction has a specific Ability, as well as a Team Trait. If you pick Aeros, for example, you gain a movement and reload speed boost with the Rush Ability (plus a one-time health boost), while the Taskmaster trait reduces ability cooldowns for both you and your teammates.
Classes also have five primary weapons, as well as five different attachments to mix and match. To 1047 Games, it was important to think about the intention behind every addition, not merely add extra layers to the game for the sake of it. "One of our pillars was to 'Keep It Simple, Stupid' because one of the things we loved about the first Splitgate was the simplicity of it," Proulx said. "It's very easy to just pick it up and dive right in. There aren't tons of mechanics to learn, and with that in mind, we didn't want to overwhelm the players by having 50 different attachments and 50 different perks."
Handing players a map creator with The Lab
The Lab is Splitgate 2's creative mode. 1047 Games is inviting players to create custom maps and game modes, taking inspiration from Unreal Tournament and Halo's Forge Mode. There's a low barrier to entry, though players will find more advanced tools to experiment with once they're ready for more.
"Building maps in Halo: Reach is actually the reason I even had aspirations to go into game development," Proulx said. "I just remember loving that and spending dozens of hours with my friends making awesome stuff, and it's something we always wanted to do since the early days of Splitgate." The team introduced a map creator in the original Splitgate, but in Proulx's words, it was "super basic," with only a few tools available. Their motivations were pure, though. 1047 Games wanted to make sure (especially as it started thinking of moving on to a sequel) that the community had tools to support the game even if the developers weren't going to do so.
Taking cues from Halo Infinite's Forge Mode (and gathering feedback from players during playtests), 1047 Games has focused on streamlining the experience as much as possible in Splitgate 2. The goal is for any player to be able to make maps with their friends, regardless of previous experience with map creators. Maps made in The Lab will support up to 16 players.
To Proulx, Halo: Reach struck a perfect balance between easy-to-use and offering a multitude of options for those who wanted to delve deeper. "You could still make lots of maps," he said. "It gave you the tools to make a lot of awesome content, but it didn't overwhelm you with dozens and dozens of features that most players weren't going to need. So that was kind of our approach with The Lab—let's make something that anyone can have fun with and just make really awesome maps together."
Of course, Splitgate 2 centers around portals, a mechanic that doesn't exist in Halo: Reach. When asked about the complexity of building custom maps where, say, other players can create their own shortcuts and vantage points to get a strategic advantage, Proulx said that it's far from easy.
"A couple of our level designers are big Halo folks, and one of them actually worked on Halo, and they both said that this is the hardest game they've ever made maps for because it's just you know, every single angle, right?" he said. "If you make a map for a traditional FPS, you're thinking about angles. 'Okay, where could I get flanked? Where could I get shot from?' But in Splitgate, you don't just have to think about that—you have to think about every angle that you could portal to and from as well."
1047 Games are eagerly waiting to see what the community comes up with during the Splitgate 2's open beta before making adjustments and additions. There are also plans to add community maps to public playlists, featuring the most creative ones. Between The Lab, the new factions, and the introduction of 24-player maps, Splitgate 2 is gearing up to make another lasting impression. That said, Proulx and the team are a player-first studio, and will be keeping an eye on the community to help decide when to cut a feature or tweak an idea if players don't respond well.
Looking at other live service games, Proulx said that he's surprised that not many of them offer creator tools. On the one hand, he believes proprietary engines might not be amicable enough for the task, unlike Unreal Engine 5. But there's also an element of what the studios are looking for in terms of community. "For some of these live service games, they release a new game every single year," he said. "And if players can just go make all of the maps in the previous one, are they going to buy the new one? Maybe not, right? So I think there's probably an element of that. But for us, Splitgate 2 is our forever game, and so we want to just give the tools to the community to support it and keep the content going."
The open beta for Splitgate 2 launches on May 22, and will remain available until launch.
View at TechPowerUp Main Site | Source
Making a sequel to a free-to-play shooter in 2025
When asked how the team is doing in the weeks leading up to the open beta, Proulx's response was succinct and to the point: "It's definitely a bit of a crazy time for us." Splitgate had a team of around 15 people. In contrast, there are about 200 developers working fulltime on Splitgate 2, plus 50 or so outsourced contributors. "We've definitely put a lot of thought and effort into making sure that we have a process that works versus the first game, where everybody was doing a little bit of everything all the time," Proulx added.
Despite the substantially higher headcount, Proulx said that Splitgate 2 development is going smoother than its predecessor. 1047 Games does playtests twice a week as an entire company, in addition to a larger-scale playtest once a month. The team treats it as close to the real thing as possible, having everybody log onto an account and join matchmaking.
Even though the stakes of a playtest are lower than, say, thousands of players joining matches at once, the team hopes that running these company-wide matches is helping to build muscle memory, getting into the habit of operating as if the game is live—especially with Splitgate 2 targeting monthly updates. As influential as the playtests have been, however, Proulx reinforced that community feedback is everything. He's a "big believer" in the benefits of the company talking to the community and reading social feeds, from Reddit to Discord. Alongside hearing directly from players, the team has also consulted statistics to pin down popular maps and weapons with the highest prominence.
With all of this information, plus the results of a large-scale survey involving people who played and quit Splitgate, 1047 Games decided on a few key points. From the get-go, the team wanted to preserve the high skill ceiling of the portal mechanic, while adding variety to pretty much everything surrounding the feature. "In Splitgate, you had a lot of game modes that were all sort-of different flavors of the same thing," Proulx said. "You had every single character spawn with the exact same gun and attributes, so it was sort-of like, there's one way to play. Here's a gun, here's a portal gun. It's awesome. We nailed the portal mechanic and the gunplay, but that's it. And so this time, we wanted to have more variety."
Classes are one of the sequel's most prominent additions. In Splitgate 2, players can pick between three factions. Aeros are agile and fast, Meridian can heal teammates and manipulate time, and Sabrask are focused on strength. Each faction has a specific Ability, as well as a Team Trait. If you pick Aeros, for example, you gain a movement and reload speed boost with the Rush Ability (plus a one-time health boost), while the Taskmaster trait reduces ability cooldowns for both you and your teammates.
Classes also have five primary weapons, as well as five different attachments to mix and match. To 1047 Games, it was important to think about the intention behind every addition, not merely add extra layers to the game for the sake of it. "One of our pillars was to 'Keep It Simple, Stupid' because one of the things we loved about the first Splitgate was the simplicity of it," Proulx said. "It's very easy to just pick it up and dive right in. There aren't tons of mechanics to learn, and with that in mind, we didn't want to overwhelm the players by having 50 different attachments and 50 different perks."
Handing players a map creator with The Lab
The Lab is Splitgate 2's creative mode. 1047 Games is inviting players to create custom maps and game modes, taking inspiration from Unreal Tournament and Halo's Forge Mode. There's a low barrier to entry, though players will find more advanced tools to experiment with once they're ready for more.
"Building maps in Halo: Reach is actually the reason I even had aspirations to go into game development," Proulx said. "I just remember loving that and spending dozens of hours with my friends making awesome stuff, and it's something we always wanted to do since the early days of Splitgate." The team introduced a map creator in the original Splitgate, but in Proulx's words, it was "super basic," with only a few tools available. Their motivations were pure, though. 1047 Games wanted to make sure (especially as it started thinking of moving on to a sequel) that the community had tools to support the game even if the developers weren't going to do so.
Taking cues from Halo Infinite's Forge Mode (and gathering feedback from players during playtests), 1047 Games has focused on streamlining the experience as much as possible in Splitgate 2. The goal is for any player to be able to make maps with their friends, regardless of previous experience with map creators. Maps made in The Lab will support up to 16 players.
To Proulx, Halo: Reach struck a perfect balance between easy-to-use and offering a multitude of options for those who wanted to delve deeper. "You could still make lots of maps," he said. "It gave you the tools to make a lot of awesome content, but it didn't overwhelm you with dozens and dozens of features that most players weren't going to need. So that was kind of our approach with The Lab—let's make something that anyone can have fun with and just make really awesome maps together."
Of course, Splitgate 2 centers around portals, a mechanic that doesn't exist in Halo: Reach. When asked about the complexity of building custom maps where, say, other players can create their own shortcuts and vantage points to get a strategic advantage, Proulx said that it's far from easy.
"A couple of our level designers are big Halo folks, and one of them actually worked on Halo, and they both said that this is the hardest game they've ever made maps for because it's just you know, every single angle, right?" he said. "If you make a map for a traditional FPS, you're thinking about angles. 'Okay, where could I get flanked? Where could I get shot from?' But in Splitgate, you don't just have to think about that—you have to think about every angle that you could portal to and from as well."
1047 Games are eagerly waiting to see what the community comes up with during the Splitgate 2's open beta before making adjustments and additions. There are also plans to add community maps to public playlists, featuring the most creative ones. Between The Lab, the new factions, and the introduction of 24-player maps, Splitgate 2 is gearing up to make another lasting impression. That said, Proulx and the team are a player-first studio, and will be keeping an eye on the community to help decide when to cut a feature or tweak an idea if players don't respond well.
Looking at other live service games, Proulx said that he's surprised that not many of them offer creator tools. On the one hand, he believes proprietary engines might not be amicable enough for the task, unlike Unreal Engine 5. But there's also an element of what the studios are looking for in terms of community. "For some of these live service games, they release a new game every single year," he said. "And if players can just go make all of the maps in the previous one, are they going to buy the new one? Maybe not, right? So I think there's probably an element of that. But for us, Splitgate 2 is our forever game, and so we want to just give the tools to the community to support it and keep the content going."
The open beta for Splitgate 2 launches on May 22, and will remain available until launch.
View at TechPowerUp Main Site | Source
