Nether - Interview with Chip Sineni

Phosphor Games is certainly a very active development studio. Just a few months after trying to kick-start the very interesting Project Awakened, they released on Steam Early Access a survival shooter focused on multiplayer called Nether. Together with Creative Director Chip Sineni, we tried to shed some more light on this game for you. Enjoy!

 

 

What can you tell us about “The Cull”, the event that originated the disaster event? Will players be able to learn more about this in the game, perhaps by text/audio clues?

The cull is a mystery to the player. A solar flare occurred in the sky and then loved ones and friends started turning into creatures. We have added story throughout the game, but would like to reveal more of this story in the game - there are lot of core things we want to add first. If the community prioritizes story based features, we will add them to the game . We’ve discussed hiding journals and books in the world , as well as audio tapes- there are opportunities to do a lot of things.

 

 

How extensive are the RPG elements in Nether? How different can player characters be once fully developed, and is there a level cap in place?

There is a skill tree that players can pick what areas they want to grow in. We want to expand this to more extensive persistent leveling, and we’ve discussed classes as well. Really it is up to the community the priority of this feature.

 

 

What can players expect to do in the PvE mode? Will there be an ongoing narrative progressing with patches?

A large part is just staying alive, scavenging for gear and items, going to the safezone and buying and trading items. There are creature surges in the world you can fight against in groups, as well as the safezone itself can come under attack. We can add more of these world events and objectives as the community prioritizes it.

 

I understand that the current map is based on a city. Will you add more maps featuring natural environments, or other cities in the future?

One of the coolest things about doing a city is it really allows us to do urban exploration to a degree that has never been done in games before. Many of the buildings are enterable, there are many buildings you can climb and get up on. There are lots of opportunities to make hidden areas only some players will ever find. Whether we do other cities or a different kind of terrain is really up the community. The community for instance have said they really want to see subways in the world, so we are focusing on that next.

 

From what I understand, even though the game is now available on Steam Early Access, it still has some time before an actual release - can you give us an estimate on how long do you think it will take?

It is really hard to say when it will be ready for release- we are shaping it with the players, and the way it feels changes a lot with each patch. I wouldn’t let early access scare away players if they are interested- if anything getting on early means you have an opportunity to help direct where the game is going.

 

Will there be any form of clan system in Nether and if so, what kind of features can players expect?

We definitely need a clan system. We are still working out what it can be, and looking at feedback from the community on what makes most sense

 

I know you tried the Kickstarter route with Project Awakened, which I found interesting in premise. Is there any update you’d like to share with us about that project? Would you try to raise funding there again?

We are just focusing on making Nether great right now, before we jump into anything else.

 

Next generation consoles are just a few weeks away from their launch. Did you get to try either PS4 or Xbox One devkits yet, and if so how did you find them? Is there any plan to release Nether on those consoles?

Some publishers have approached us on Nether for next-gen consoles, but the dev team right now is just focusing on making the PC version as good as it can. It isn’t clear on next-gen if there will be a sense of “early release” style games, so we’d have to wait until Nether is closer to version 1.0.

 

Thank you for your time!