Find out how Radical Heights is taking on Fornite and PUBG '80s style
The next game from CliffyB's studio aims to shake up the genre with new ideas, new rewards and new BMX bikes.
When a studio's first title fails to hit the mark despite superhuman levels of effort, it's perhaps forgivable that they'd choose to latch onto the next big gaming trend in order to gain some leverage. Boss Key Productions – co-founded by former Epic Games design director Cliff 'CliffyB' Bleszinski – have apparently done just that.
When a studio's first title fails to hit the mark despite superhuman levels of effort, it's perhaps forgivable that they'd choose to latch onto the next big gaming trend in order to gain some leverage. Boss Key Productions – co-founded by former Epic Games design director Cliff 'CliffyB' Bleszinski – have apparently done just that.
The company's
2017 debut, LawBreakers, seemed to have it all: fantastic graphics, an engaging premise and a variety of game modes. The one thing it didn't have was an audience – there were horror stories that the closed beta had just 7,500 players at its peak, and at launch that figure had dropped by 60 percent. Boss Key have issued a statement saying that development of the game isn't sustainable based on current revenue, meaning it's effectively dead.
"Often times as developers we say, 'Gameplay is King', and while this is true, if a game isn't fun, no one will play it," says Zach Lowery, who worked as senior animator on LawBreakers. "What we neglected is that 'Accessibility is the Kingdom.' If your game isn't accessible, players will be thrown off and never grasp the fun that exists with the gameplay."
Boss Key aren't ignoring the hard lesson they learned from the failure of LawBreakers. The studio have taken it all on board and are using the experience to shape their next game, the free-to-play shooter, Radical Heights, on which Lowery is working as Creative Director.
"On Radical Heights, we've applied a lot of focus on making sure mechanics are simplified and understandable," he says. "You want to open that giant mystery door, just stand in front of it – no complex interactions. This is something we'll continue to focus on as we move forward through Early Access, and something we'll be listening heavily to our community's feedback on."
Set in an '80s-style world drenched in garish colours and screaming, poodle-perm rock music, Radical Heights gleefully adopts what's become the biggest gaming genre on the planet in recent months: Battle Royale. With titles like PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds and Fortnite attracting millions of participants and generating piles of cash, you can't blame Boss Key for wanting a slice of the pie. But Lowery insists that this isn't a case of taking an existing concept and slapping a new name on it; Radical Heights has its own tricks to bring to the table.
"At Boss Key, we pride ourselves on creating new and exciting game play, and trying to put our own twist on understood concepts," he explains. "In LawBreakers, you can see a lot of this in our Hero design, pushing outside of the understood tropes, and striving for unique fun that's never been done before. We felt strongly that we could develop a new Battle Royale game that was light-hearted and focused on an interesting juxtaposition of game play from what fans of the genre are accustomed to."
Lowery's love of TV game shows has been central to developing Radical Heights' zany setting. "I'm a huge fan of game shows; they're a massive part of my childhood, college life, and adult life," he says. "There's something about the risk that people take to reap the ultimate reward, and funny enough, 'Risk and Reward' was the working title for this project. When we started talking about interesting ways to flip the Battle Royale genre, we wanted to dangle risky opportunities in front of our players that would make them question, 'Do I want to run over there and grab that pair of aerobic pants, or do I want to focus on just winning?' And then, after they've made their decision, we wanted those opportunities to sparkle on screen and in their mind and make them go, 'Wait...maybe I do want that after all!'"
While it adheres to the basic 'last man standing' Battle Royale format, Radical Heights isn't a slavish clone of existing titles. Lowery thinks fans of both PUGB and Fornite will find something new and interesting in the game's colourful locales. "We don't take ourselves too seriously, and we're focusing on making sure the 99 percent of players who lose in a given round have fun and are enticed with other reasons besides 'just winning' to drop back in and play another round," he says.
"We wanted to focus on other player types and give them reasons to drop in and try it out," says Lowery. "Most Battle Royale games are focused on 'Shooter Player' types, and while we're very much a hardcore shooter, we're also playing to 'Customiser' and 'Adventuring' player types. You can drop into a round of Radical Heights and explore the world looking for cosmetic items to find and unlock.
"We've essentially laid the groundwork for an '80s fuel scavenger hunt through our world, while trying to survive the competition. Sure, you didn't make it to number one, but you found that pair of parachute pants you've been wanting – sounds like a win to me! We have some really fun ideas on how to expand this in the future."
Make sure you're the top gun
Still doesn't sound different enough for you? How about BMX bikes and ziplines, then? "Mobility is something that we knew was a big wide ocean to do some new and fun things in," says Lowery. "We've approached our design of it like a sandbox game. We want to populate our map with toys that not only provide utility, but are also just fun to play around on and can create game play on their own.
"The groundwork for the BMX bike immediately proved to be one of the most fun things to do in our world, so we doubled down on it and have a lot of plans for additional mechanics that involve the bike. But ultimately, the bike is there so you can feel much cooler moving across the map than just running for miles and miles through grass. And ziplines are there because we wanted to add verticality to our world – and let's be honest, who doesn't want to ride on a zipline?"
Even the aspects which Radical Heights borrows from other Battle Royale games have their own twist. Both PUGB and Fortnite utilise a decreasing play area to force participants closer together as the game progresses. Boss Key's take on this format is a little more free-form.
"We liked the idea of having something more flexible," says Lowery. "Believe it or not, we never even tried to do a closing circle in Radical Heights, because for a game show-inspired world, the circle didn't make sense. Instead of just doing the normal convention, we broke down what the actual mechanic was that the circle provided, and it's a pretty simple concept: it's there to funnel players into combat. If you're never funnelled towards other players, then the Battle Royale experience would just be everyone holding a rifle and lying prone in a bush. With the 'Grid' system we're able to change up the experience every single game, keep up the unpredictable nature of the end game, and keep our players on their toes at all times – we find that very interesting and a big part of our long-term plans for Radical Heights."
These wrinkles in the Battle Royale formula extend to how ordinance is procured, too. "Weapons and gear are randomly spawned around the world; items can also be found inside prize boxes and mystery doors around the map," says Lowery. "Additionally, you can find 'Cash' items – Cash being our in-game currency – and you have a choice to make with what you do with your Cash. You can use it to purchase new cosmetic items you've unlocked out of your prize room, or you can use it in-game to buy weapons out of our 'Top Gunz' vending machines if you can't find something better."
On yer bike, mate
This aspect of Radical Heights could prove to be the most interesting – do you ignore Cash and instead look for the best weapon you can find (and run the risk of getting taken out in the process) or do you lay low, acquire as much Cash as possible and purchase the biggest, most powerful firearm you can towards the end of the round? "At the start of the round, everyone begins with zero Cash in their wallet," says Lowery, "so it's always a level playing field, but as you accumulate Cash you have to make the tough choice about what to do with it."
Boss Key have been very open about the game's current 'rough-around-the-edges' status, and why they decided to give the gaming public access to the title at such an early state. Despite this, the critical reaction has been somewhat mixed since launch, but Boss Key are listening. The team made changes as early as day one, such as altering the contents of the 'Founder's Pack' – which gave buyers an advantage when it came to accumulating Cash – to make it seem less like a 'pay-to-win' situation. For Lowery and his team, this is all part of the anticipated learning process.
"When we first started pitching ideas for a new project, the team wanted to focus on creating an Early Access game, something we could build the core game play for quickly, and let our audience start enjoying it as soon as possible instead of holding onto something for two to three years and then going 'Tada!'" he says. "For multiplayer games, Early Access is becoming more and more the norm and teams want to build games with their community, making pivots and doubling down on features that players embrace, at a stage where it doesn't take months to change it, or you are in a corner and can't change things at all. For a small team like ours, our biggest strengths are speed and agility, so building an Early Access-type game is the perfect development for us to work within."
For the time being, Lowery says, Radical Heights is also staying PC-only, but once the full 'Version 1.0' release hits Steam, the studio is "open to exploring all opportunities" that could mean consoles and mobile phones.
Another aspect of the game which triggered some debate online is the lack of female avatars at launch. Given the game industry's current fight for diversity, it struck many players as an odd and perhaps foolhardy move. But Lowery insists that Boss Key aren't intentionally slighting female players, and that the studio intends to make the game as inclusive as possible.
"We have a lot of features planned for our road map to add, and female avatars are one of our biggest priorities," says Lowery. "We're working on them and we want to make sure we do them right. The important thing to note is that all clothing items in the game will work on both males and females. Inclusion and dressing your avatar however you want is very big for us and we never want you to go 'Oh, I can't wear that because I'm 'insert gender.'"
With Fornite and PUBG taking up so much of people's attention, is there room in the market for another Battle Royale title, irrespective of how different it aims to be? And will Boss Key be content with just a small piece of a much larger pie? "Our aspirations for Radical Heights haven't changed from its inception to its launch," says Lowery. "We want to make a multiplayer shooter experience that focuses on transporting you to the light-hearted times of the 1980s, an experience where dying can be just as fun as winning, reaching new player types with enticing and interesting cosmetic scavenger hunt mechanics, and focusing on adding personality and interesting twist to the genre.
"If we hit our aspirations, then ultimately we feel we will have created something really special and our audience will respond accordingly – that's all we can ask for."
Radical Heights is available now on Early Access.