Six years ago this month, about a dozen developers who worked together at Vigil Games and Crytek USA on titles like Darksiders decided to start their own studio, Gunfire Games, figuring they could be more in control of their financial situation and work on passion projects. They have worked on titles like Darksiders 3 for THQ and a number of VR games for publishers like Oculus, including two that became testing grounds for their blockbuster 2019 hit Remnant: From the Ashes. Tomorrow, on Remnant's first anniversary, Gunfire Games will release its final DLC expansion, Subject 2923.
Since its earliest days, Gunfire has grown from that core group to about 70 employees, but it has retained a very particular focus on what projects it takes on. According to Design Director John Pearl, who is in his 20th year as a game developer, the studio is full of people who are passionate about building cool virtual worlds and creating experiences that are fun to play. Game Rant sat down with Pearl to talk about how the Subject 2923 DLC fits into that philosophy by building upon Remnant: From the Ashes and what came before.
Gunfire Games released the VR title Chronos in 2016, which centered around players slaying a dragon in a tower, only to find out the dragon was a guardian keeping an evil force called the Root from invading the jungle planet of Yaesha. That premise became the basis for Remnant, which has players return to Yaesha a month after the events of Chronos as they observe other catastrophes caused by the Root on Earth, the wasteland planet Rhom, and the swamp planet Corsus. In 2017, they released From Other Suns in VR, which is where Pearl said the team "got our feet wet" creating the kind of randomly-generated worlds which would play a huge part in Remnant's success.
Unlike the game's first DLC Swamps of Corsus, which introduced a new Survival Mode and fleshed out the titular planet enough that it could appear in Adventure Mode — which Pearl said is what most people play once they've beaten the base campaign, Subject 2923 will have a standalone story that takes place a year after Remnant's final boss fight. That story campaign will be accessible at any time, but "it helps if you play the base game." Subject 2923 offers players access to "two-and-a-half biomes" not yet seen in the Souls-like shooter, including the icy planet of Reisum. It will also tie up plot threads introduced by the base game regarding the Dreamer experiments that brought the Root to Earth and caused the end of the world.
In terms of Gunfire Games' other key focus, creating a fun experience to play, Pearl said Subject 2923 will introduce a number of "cool bosses" alongside enemies that, in some cases, were considered through concept art for the base game but did not have a place. He feels people's reactions to the gameplay and shooting have been positive since Remnant released in August 2019. The development team has spent a lot of time trying to balance elements that have been scrutinized on streams and forums. "For me, that's the first thing you have to do," Pearl said. "If you're going to make a shooter, there's so many out there, and there are a lot of bad ones."
"The feel of the moment-to-moment shooting, nothing else matters if that stinks. I think we've hit a sweet spot, and fans seem to appreciate that."
Pearl feels it's "fun" that Gunfire Games was able to prepare Subject 2923 to release a year after Remnant's launch so it would fit the timeline set in-game. The DLC will focus heavily on the story the team has been looking to tell since the beginning, seeded throughout the main campaign and events like Leto's Lab released via free patches. Having built a "tight, passionate" team helped bring that vision to life even during a final stretch that has been less than ideal. Gunfire Games transitioned to work from home in March due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, but Pearl said the process was smooth and everyone has kept in close contact. "I think we've made the best of it and have really good DLC."
Part of that connection has been fostered over a shared love of FromSoftware's Souls series, which directly contributed to Remnant's development in a number of ways. Games like Bloodborne inspired the difficulty and combat design, but also encouraged the team to create "water cooler moments" where fans would compare notes to figure out what differing experiences they had playing the same game. Pearl said a big part of Remnant's design philosophy was trying to keep things interesting with its randomly-generated content so communities would take to sites like Reddit and excitedly connect with each other.
The development team also wanted to include content that players could entirely miss without impacting their experience. For example, players can take on "the hardest fight in the game" by battling Rhom's world boss Ezlan, the Undying King, rather than accepting his quest. Similar water cooler moments with experiences not every player will see are included in the Subject 2923 DLC, because Pearl said these elements "give the community and the game legs." He said gaming communities are smart, and will "always" figure out what makes a game tick if there are interesting things for people to sink their teeth into.
According to Pearl, Gunfire Games hopes to never become stagnant as it passes its sixth anniversary, so the studio will be working on new projects that focus on "exciting worlds and good-feeling gameplay" following the release of Subject 2923. He was unable to talk about what these projects might be. However, there are still plans to support the game beyond its first anniversary, as the development team will be continuing to apply balance patches. Remnant has sold 1.6 million copies as of July, and Pearl hopes they can offer those players something to really enjoy in a variety of ways.
"[Remnant: From the Ashes] is a game we're really passionate about. To be honest, we've been trying to get this kind of a randomly-generated shooter off the ground for years."
Remnant: From the Ashes is available now on PC, PS4, and Xbox One. Its Subject 2923 DLC launches tomorrow for $9.99.