Rockfish Games, creators of Everspace 2, AMA

[RFG_Erik]

What kind of new alloys will be in Everspace 2?

To be remarkably literal: Nickel, Chromium and Vanadium.

EVERSPACE 2 will have a lot of new commodities and resources to extract, trade, and craft with. We want to add a lot of variety here for distinct travel opportunities dependent on where you're at and what you're encountering, though we're also ensuring we don't go too overboard to avoid making certain stuff feel mindlessly added to the game. (This is a tough step, but we're happy with how it's moving along so far!)

As a comparison point, ES1 only has 11 resources (13 if you include nanobots and access keys, and 14 with the DLC). In the alpha of ES2 alone, we have somewhere around 30 different resources that can be found, with many new ways to use them coming in the future.

If your question was about new ALLIES we will be encountering in EVERSPACE 2, well then that changes everything! HA!

We have a companion system, where you'll be meeting characters along the campaign who will join up with you for certain missions, grant you new passive perks, and open up new pathways for you to take. If you haven't seen the story deep dive, I highly recommend checking it out!

But otherwise, some of these characters are pivotal in the story arc where our main character learns how to have purpose in life. Deep!

 

[RFG_Erik]

What was the funniest thing that happened in the process?

This question came from a while ago, but it's a good one!

I spoke with Uwe (Creative Director) about this one as well, and we both agree that it's really funny when we have to plug in placeholder content as we're developing forward. Two examples here:

1. Gero (Sound & Video Director) using his voice overs as placeholders for characters, and has a very distinct Russian-esque voice. Knowing what the actual characters are going to sound like makes this really funny for us internally.

2. TTS (Text-to-Speech). Many alpha players have heard this distinct placeholder reading the dialogue, and it's so silly that it's grown in popularity as well. In fact, we may include a TTS option in the full game for kicks and giggles!

 

[CharlieJoe]

Could you ever see the Everspace universe expanding into other types of games, such as a ground based exploration game! It could be cool to see mroe of this aweseome universe!

 

[RFG_Erik]

whats ur go to snack while working? hehe... did u learn german? goodluck and more power guys!

I'm not much of a snacker myself, I prefer drinking a lot of water. But I don't mind some fruit here and there, like a banana or an apple, if it's accessible.

I have dabbled in German slowly but I'm still really bad at it. Something that worked was playing EVERSPACE 1 in German, helped a lot actually!

 

[RFG_Erik]

Could you ever see the Everspace universe expanding into other types of games, such as a ground based exploration game! It could be cool to see mroe of this aweseome universe!

I could see that, but we'd also want to be really careful with that approach.

At it's core, both EVERSPACE 1 and 2 are rooted in a spaceship shooter setting. Changing that core rule into something else can alter a lot.

In fact, I could easily reference StarFox here. StarFox to StarFox64 was an incredibly healthy transition because they expanded their core - NOT changing it - by adding in new ways to fly through the on-the-rails shooter. But StarFox Adventures - a ground based exploration game - is a wild departure from the franchise aside from its cast of characters.

So yes, I think that would be fun; however, before we went in that kind of direction, we want to further establish our foundation, first.

 

[Memnock7]

How are things progressing with the current pandemic situation? Everything still on track!?

 

[RFG_Michael]

Modding is something we would love to do but it is not planned or being focused on right now. First of all we have to decide what can be modded and if this makes sense at all.



We have the game running in the office on different machines ranging from GTX 970 to RTX 2080Ti. Poorest to best experience. Most are on an RTX 2070 Super with 2k/60 FPS.


When we release it somewhere 2022 it would have been in development for more than four years.



Oh yeah, probably!

I see, I see... I guess, we should put Caspar, our omnicompetent Project Manager, on a shorter PR leash when talking about PC specs and next-gen console support... However, you gotta give him credit for his technical sandbagging!

All jokes aside, on a PC gaming rig with an i7 and an RTX 2070 Super, ES2 runs on epic settings in 4K at 60 fps most of the time at its current Alpha development stage (aka not fully optimized yet).

At the low end of the hardware spectrum, I'm currently playing the Alpha in 1080p at 30+ fps on my 6-yo gaming notebook with 16 GB of RAM, powered by an i7 @2.6 GHz and a GTX 970M, which looks still a bit better than ES1 on low settings (probably because of pre-calculated IG in ES2 vs. real-time lighting in ES1, but I'm walking on thin ice here).

Recommended specs will probably be close to my 2-yo gaming notebook with 16 GB of RAM, powered by an i7 @2.9 GHz and a GTX 1080, capable of running ES2 with mostly epic settings in 1080p at stable 30 fps.

For the final game, the goal is to hit 4K at super-stable 60 fps on an RTX 2070 Super or equivalent on high+ to full epic graphics settings.

In any way, you definitely(!) want to run ES2 on an SSD - the faster, the better! Wink, wink, nudge, nudge...

 

[RFG_Erik]

How did you come up with the idea of Everspace? What inspired it?

How did you come up with the idea of EverSpace?

Okay, BIG RESPONSE time! I checked in with @RFG_Michael to ensure we got the best details straight-from-the-top as well, so here we go!

EVERSPACE itself stems off one simple element: Taking what we enjoy and know best, and champion it for the PC/Console market. You see, we previously created Galaxy on Fire 1 and 2 for mobile. And after some colorful moments in history, we left that playing field to build EVERSPACE from the ground-up, with more powerful tools, and expanded ideas. We're inspired by many sci-fi stories from all mediums, including childhood games as well. FTL influenced a bit of our progression system, since we were diving into the realm of the roguelike, while the controls stem from games like Descent and Freelancer.

After the commercial success of the orignal EVERSPACE, it actually took us several months to come up with the right ideas and forge a strong vision for EVERSPACE 2 even though the core pillars (fast-paced arcade-y 3D space combat, intuitive controls, stunning visuals) have always been in our hearts. In the end, we decided to drop the roguelike formula and go all-in for an open-world space shooter RPG driven by a compelling single-player story campaign - which is a quite unusual approach for a sequel to a successful first installment of a new IP if you think about it.

However, to really understand what aspects of the original EVERSPACE fans liked and disliked the most, and what they wished for our next game, we also evaluated some 30,000 comments on social media and 5,000 user reviews on Steam. While almost everyone loved the fast-paced 3D space combat and tight Freelancer-inspired controls, the roguelike game loop was clearly not for everyone, especially for those who were hoping for a spiritual successor of Freelancer or Galaxy on Fire 2, which we were best known for back in the day when our previous studio was one of the best in 3D mobile gaming.

We love the freedom of exploration that Elite Dangerous provides the player, as well as the added weight to traveling through the consumption of limited resources and navigation through dangerous territories. But strong storytelling and the arcade-style gameplay of EVERSPACE 2 is less about the simulation of spaceship management and more about jumping into combat, so a lot of the design ends up being dramatically different in comparison.

In fact, Freelancer is our main gameplay reference, which we took a lot of inspiration from both regarding controls and the desire for an open-world experience and deeper storytelling. Our visual look and sound design comes more from Guardians of the Galaxy and Star Wars, while itemization stems from Destiny and Diablo. Second-to-second combat gets its roots from classic shooters like Halo.

Of course, beyond having been inspired by other iconic sci-fi games to build our vision, we also want EVERSPACE 2 to stand out from its peers, so we are throwing a lot of our own ideas into the mix, especially when it comes to locations filled with lots of points of interest and various activities, which we believe is unique in the space games genre.

 

[GeneralHamed]

What is your favorite game engine?

 

[smballz]

What are the minimum system specs to play decently in 2020?

 

[Takuya]

No, I doubt that.

 

[Lauwboi]

How do you smile like that?

 

[Zenno]

Will there be any exclusive ships or parts for customization?

 

[RFG_Erik]

What's the least related to a PC work that you need to do and know to have a great develop of a game and a software company?

I'm translating this to, "What's the least-related-to-PC-work required in order to develop in the gaming industry?"

I think there are a lot of different ways to answer this question, because there are a lot of different games out there that require a particular set of skills. And I'm not sure I can say any skill is required for gamedev, but rather dedication and perseverance. These are obviously not jobs, but rather trained and tempered mindsets.

My particular path required no PC work at all; I was hired on because of my attention to detail, creative suggestions, and passion for the project. Granted, it probably helped that my education was through the fine arts (so I could identify problems in the UI, typographical clarity, and other elements of that nature).

This was kind of a tricky question to answer here so feel free to expand upon that one if there's more you wish to know. And maybe my team members have more to say to this one, as well.

 

[RFG_Erik]

How are things progressing with the current pandemic situation? Everything still on track!?

This comes from @RFG_Uyu:

Steam Early Access is still on the cards for 2020 as we cannot hold out forever. Every budget has its limits, and we need to get it ready to keep our studio healthy, and of course to get more players into the game and collect even more feedback for our development cycles. The Corona situation banned us from our studio into our home offices. We miss each other dearly. The watercooler chat guaranteed quick solutions to that nasty programming issue from yesterday, loading the latest build or checking in new assets used to take only a few minutes. Now, we are connected via Discord and Slack, and transferring tens of gigabytes of asset and game data over the internet is no joke. Naturally, it slows us down but compared to other industries, only working digitally so to speak, we are more than lucky to be able to continue working and it keeps our minds busy.

FURTHER info from Uwe:

Well, it's not a single man's job. Here at Rockfish there is a whole team involved. Usually the game designer and art director start with art references from movies, games or real world designs, from where our concept artists create several 2D thumbnail sketches. Then, from our favorite thumbnail 3D artists build a 3D block-out which gets tested ingame, sometimes for quite a long time and from the entire team, depending on the gameplay relevance of the asset.
After several adjustments in 3D, the block-out gets a detailing overpaint, again from the concept artist, resulting in the final concept art or mood for the asset. All in all the process can take from 3-4 working days for a small asset to over several weeks, when extra detailing, animations and close-ups are needed.

 

[RFG_Erik]

How do you smile like that?

I'm generally a joyful fellow, as I have a lot to be thankful for, like the opportunity to answer questions for you all! I'm sure some of you gagged a little with this response but I'm serious; I'm very appreciative of you all and your thoughtfulness with threads like this.

 

[RFG_Erik]

Will there be any exclusive ships or parts for customization?

We're making an exclusive ship skin for our Fly In-Style Edition backers (and higher) from Kickstarter, but we're not planning on any exclusive modular pieces.

 

[Magistratex3]

I suppose 2 questions, how long did it take to make the gace from inception to release date? Second would be can I run this smoothly on a GTX 970?

 

[Rexon]

Did Everspace (1) ever have a different name at one point before its release? Like, for example, a place holder name? Plus, what inspired a name like Everspace? It sounds fun and catchy, but it's not something I could see coming off the top of my head; which is to say it's unique without being long-winded. I always find little trivia tidbits like this fun.

 

[Alex Red-Knight]

Hi so the game is based on what kind of story

 

[RFG_HCK]

What is your favorite game engine?

When developing Galaxy on Fire back in the days, we had our own in-house engine which was nice because it was very performant and optimized. But of course, it lacked in features and usability. So now, using the Unreal Engine allows us to spend less time programming basic features, we can prototype and test easily and very fast. So, to answer your question: Unreal Engine all the way!

 

[Murhain]

Uhh, so many questions... tldr. So sorry if repeating something:

How's the monetization model going to be (read: pay once, be done with it or new incentives coming along at a steady pace)?

 

[CrispyCake]

Star Wars or Star Trek ?

 

[fearless_fx]

Planning any RTX optimizations for the new 3000 series of cards?

 

[RFG_Uyu]

What are the minimum system specs to play decently in 2020?

Hey there, thanks for your question. @RFG_Michael already answered this one. Let me shamelessly quote him below.

[...] On a PC gaming rig with an i7 and an RTX 2070 Super, ES2 runs on epic settings in 4K at 60 fps most of the time at its current Alpha development stage (aka not fully optimized yet).

At the low end of the hardware spectrum, I'm currently playing the Alpha in 1080p at 30+ fps on my 6-yo gaming notebook with 16 GB of RAM, powered by an i7 @2.6 GHz and a GTX 970M, which looks still a bit better than ES1 on low settings (probably because of pre-calculated IG in ES2 vs. real-time lighting in ES1, but I'm walking on thin ice here).

Recommended specs will probably be close to my 2-yo gaming notebook with 16 GB of RAM, powered by an i7 @2.9 GHz and a GTX 1080, capable of running ES2 with mostly epic settings in 1080p at stable 30 fps.

For the final game, the goal is to hit 4K at super-stable 60 fps on an RTX 2070 Super or equivalent on high+ to full epic graphics settings.

In any way, you definitely(!) want to run ES2 on an SSD - the faster, the better! Wink, wink, nudge, nudge...