Daylight Interview:”We Have A Few Things In The Works”

As we promised yesterday, here’s our full interview with Zombie Studios, specifically with Studio Director Jared Gerritzen. We talked mainly about Daylight, which is releasing today (you can find our review here), but also about the future projects at the studio - enjoy!

• I’ve read a report from last year stating that there will be no form of combat and enemies who get a hold of the main character will have to be shaken off, although this mechanic was apparently still under discussion. Now that we’re very close to release, can you tell us what was your final decision?

There is no combat in Daylight, although there will be times when you need to run or defend yourself from whatever haunts the hospital and surrounding area. There’s an object in the game that aids you in defense if running isn’t an option, but if you don’t have it, you better hustle!

 

• Procedural content is clearly one of the main features of Daylight, and obviously it has the potential to increase longevity by a substantial amount. Can you explain how the system will work? Obviously monsters and layouts will change, but what about objects that the character can interact with?

95% of the game is procedurally generated, which means that the room you begin the game in will be the same, and several ‘checkpoints’ throughout, but otherwise the player will never know what’s going to happen. The location of remnants will be different, pathways will be different, and there are literally thousands of variations of the environment.

 

• I’ve read that an average playthrough of the game only lasts 30-40 minutes. Aren’t you worried that some gamers will be upset because of this, despite the strong elements of replayability? MGSV: Ground Zeroes is a decent example, with a significant backlash for its short duration.

The world of Daylight is intricate, very much woven together by the story as you move throughout. Without giving away too much, we will say that there is MUCH to explore beyond the hospital you awake in, but it is ever changing and not very friendly. We think the players will enjoy each new place as they encounter it.

 

• What’s next for Daylight after launch? Would you like to do a sequel if it’s successful enough, or do you envision it as a standalone type of project?

We have a few things in the works, ready to unleash onto the fans if they can handle it!

 

• How was your experience with PlayStation 4 as a developer? In an earlier interview you mentioned that you were targeting 1080P/60FPS but couldn’t commit to 60FPS yet, what’s going to be the final frame rate on PS4?

That is our target and first priority. Being the first Unreal Engine 4 game on the first cycle of the PlayStation 4 doesn’t give us the leeway that the last generation had with lesser known tech, so some parts will have to balance.

 

• In their Infamous: Second Son postmortem presentation at GDC 2014, Sucker Punch said that the future of PS4 games will be properly exploiting Compute. Do you agree and if so, when do you think we’ll start seeing games that are significantly using this approach?

Properly utilizing Compute shader functionality can certainly add a lot of life to a game, and as developers mature with the new hardware we should expect massive gains from offloading highly parallel tasks from the CPU to the GPU.  The trick will be defining what processes are good for Compute shaders to take over. Mastering Compute on the PS4 will be similar to mastering CELL on the PS3, but it has the advantage of being a technology that is valid for all current platforms.

 

• Daylight is also the first Unreal Engine 4 game to be released. How was your experience with this engine when compared to UE3? Do you feel like developers can create even better graphics with it?

We really had the opportunity to blaze a new trail with the Unreal Engine 4 technology, but we also didn’t have anyone to learn from before us. The graphics and lighting are pretty amazing, and we got to spend a lot of time exploring new tools before anyone else, so because of our experience with UE3 we were able to anticipate and account for pitfalls and overcome them.  It’s been a really fun experience.

 

• Before Daylight, you were mainly known for Blacklight Retribution. Is there a chance you will create another entry in the series, with the power of UE4?

We have really enjoyed the experience of creating a game on UE4, so you never know where the future will take us. Right now we are focused on bringing Blacklight: Retribution out of Beta on the PlayStation 4, and beyond that, the sky is the limit.

 

• I know you also have another game in the pipeline, Phantom Army. To date we know that it will be on Steam, but since you have a good relationship with Sony and F2P games seem to do fine on PS4, is there a chance the game could be there as well?

We are really excited about Phantom Army, and working with our publisher SmileGate has been a really great experience. We have a lot of ideas and excitement building over Phantom Army, so everyone will just have to wait and see!

 

• Thank you for your time.