Why Making Co-Op Is Hard
Hey everyone, Laurynas here — Game Director at Engines of Fury & this is another Devlog!
As you probably already know Engines of Fury is an extraction shooter. It’s got all the bells and whistles of any other extraction game except for one: co-op. Now I myself am a social player most of the time. To me, playing League or PUBG is about the experience of connecting with your friends more than anything. And to me that is where extraction games were falling short all the time.
The Infection — ACT3 of SEAON 1 — is coming to Epic Games April 29th
Get on the whitelist: https://bit.ly/3YdLCbf
You see, most of if not all of the games in this genre allow up to three member parties. Dark and Darker, Delta Force, Gray Zone etc. all have three member parties. Which is great if you know, you only have two friends you play with. But if there are more people in your party, this can basically disqualify the game since you’re not gonna abandon the team. Because of this, me and my friends we don’t play extraction shooters that often. So with Engines of Fury I had a goal of designing the core raid system to support parties of larger groups. How hard could that be, right?
With Infection coming out, you’ll finally be able to explore Stoneport in a co-op party. A party that will allow you to invite up to one other person to join you. I know what you’re thinking. Here I’m complaining about three person parties being too small and our co-op only has two??? What the hell. But lemme explain, it’ll make sense I swear.
There’s actually two reasons for such tiny parties during The Infection event. The first has everything to do with the closed nature of the test. Basically, these test events aren’t open to the public which means there won’t enough players to actually form larger parties. It’s not like you’ll be able to invite anyone to join. Limiting parties to two people will ensure there isn’t a single OP group destroying everything in it’s path. The second reason is that making co-op is hard.
At the very core of every extraction game is survival. You’re using your skills and cunning to hunt for the best scrap, hunt down the monsters and of course prevent yourself from getting hunted down. If you’ve played more than a few you’ll notice that quite often you can die by simply not noticing the other player fast enough. Now imagine if that other player was actually a party of 5. You’d basically have no chance. It actually makes sense limiting party sizes to a max three players as it gives you at least some chance. But that is where I think Engine of Fury works better.
Being a top down game, EoF is way more strategic than your garden variety extraction shooter. You pay more attention to the map, the footsteps and trails left by other players. Even when you do encounter someone else by mistake, there is always a way for you to run away and avoid a fight. And that’s just the beginning. Not to spoil too much but there will be way more opportunities for you to be stealthy, escape or hunt if that’s your thing. Engines of Fury will always give you a way to survive even when the odds are stacked against you. And that could mean party sizes of more than 3 people. But until everything is in place, we’ll be limiting party sizes to give you, the player, a way better chance of survival in Stoneport.
Rest assured that the game you’re seeing right now is but a glimpse into the experience we’re aiming to provide each and every survivor. While we’re excited for you to try out the new co-op experience we’re way more excited for you to see what’s coming up next!
The Infection is coming to Epic Games April 29th
Get on the whitelist: https://bit.ly/3YdLCbf
