IllFonic shares how its previous games influenced Arcadegeddon
We spoke with the IllFonic devs about their previous games, the lessons learned, and how they've been applied to its upcoming co-op shooter, Arcadegeddon.
IllFonic is building quite a catalogue for itself. Between Friday the 13th: The Game and Predator: Hunting Grounds, it has tackled some beloved franchises, but has now moved on to developing its own IP with Arcadegeddon. There were a lot of valuable lessons in IllFonic's previous games and, recently, CEO Charles Brungardt and Head of Creative Jared Gerritzen sat down with us to talk about how those lessons are being applied to Arcadegeddon.
When it comes to the fate of Friday the 13th, Brungardt says the decision was Gun Media's as the publisher of the game. For Brungardt, it was a learning experience and the shutdown of F13 did little to affect the IllFonic studio. They would take the lessons and move on to launch Predator: Hunting Grounds and develop the upcoming co-op game Arcadegeddon.
Gerritzen also spoke to the evolution of the studio across games. He shares what the team learned about balancing in an asymmetrical game, especially when it comes to keeping the monster from being too easy to kill without making them ridiculously overpowered. Predator: Hunting Grounds was definitely a game that catered to players who played it a lot and leveled up to get its best tools. In that way, it’s hardcore and can be daunting to newcomers.
The team doesn’t necessarily want new players to not be able to pick up these games and play if they haven’t been along since day one, but it also wants to reward those who have been in for the long haul. To that end, a core philosophy of Arcadegeddon was that the team wanted it to be an easy-to-pick-up, hard-to-master experience. If someone is nowhere near mastering the game, they can still have a good time playing the game and learning to get better.
It also helps that as IllFonic has grown its playerbase, it has grown its team and budget as well. Where previous games admittedly threw players into the deep end feet first, IllFonic now has the benefit of considering the shortcomings of its previous titles and making Arcadegeddon a more polished and casual-friendly experience.
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replyTJ Denzer posted a new article, Illfonic opens up about why Friday The 13th: The Game was shut down
