Apex Legends Season 7, Ascension, is the game’s biggest yet. Not only did it introduce a new Legend, the gravity manipulator Horizon, but it also brought a third map and introduced vehicles. Some members of Apex’s development team at Respawn Entertainment recently discussed the challenges of creating so much content while working from home during the COVID-19 pandemic, and teased what is to come for following seasons.
Despite having to work remotely, the development team for Apex Legends managed to keep up a steady stream of content with few delays, aside from the Switch version of Apex Legends being delayed to 2021. Even more impressive is that the team managed to have a successful year during a pandemic, while also committing to an anti-crunch development approach.
Game Director Chad Grenier, Audio Director Erik Kraber, and Principal Animator Moy Parra spoke to IGN about the challenges of game development during a pandemic. Grenier talked about the turnaround time of different elements, saying that the prototyping phase for major things like Olympus and Horizon began roughly a year ago before the pandemic hit. He noted that everything else, like new voice lines and Season 7’s snazzy cosmetics, were all started and finished from home.
For animation, Parra revealed that for a short time, the studio was not able to use motion capture, a tool which Respawn heavily relies on for both gameplay and its launch trailers, like for Season 4 depicting Revenant on a killing spree.
Animation Lead Shawn Wilson apparently adopted a new, cheaper at-home mocap suit and began to capture all the animations the team needed himself until a low-staff system could be set up back at Respawn’s original studio. Parra said all they need at the studio now is an actor, a technician, and a “COVID officer,” while the rest of the team watches from Zoom and controls a camera robot that Parra said was “a tiny bit overkill.”
Kraber, Audio Director and namesake for the powerful sniper rifle in Apex Legends, talked about what working on the game’s music was like during the pandemic. Kraber said the team’s commitment to having a “John Williams meets Hans Zimmer” orchestral score for Season 5, Fortune’s Favor, led to the team needing 60-70 solo artists to come in one at a time to record their respective parts. The final mix of the swashbuckling Fortune’s Favor theme, which is also mixed for 7.1 surround sound, is over 600 tracks in Respawn’s audio editing software.
Kraber also shared that each of the voice actors for the now-15 Legends had to record from their own homes instead of the booth at Warner Brother’s studio in Burbank, California. Some of the actors did not have their own personal studios though, so other voice actors shipped equipment to one another.
When asked for closing thoughts, Grenier said that while he is excited for players to see Season 8 of Apex Legends, he is even more excited for Season 9, which he says will feature “major things you did not expect.” He also added that when looking at Seasons 9, 10, and 11, he feels that Respawn’s “best work has yet to be released.”
Apex Legends is available now on PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S, with Switch and mobile versions arriving sometime next year.