Interviews

Throughout the week, representatives of Rare made a number of interview appearances on Mixer and other platforms. I’m sure there are more out there, but here are a handful of them summarized:

Executive Producer Joe Neate on ShackNews reiterates that the team is working hard to get into a regular rhythm of content updates, for both The Arena and for Tall Tales which are two new platforms that future content can slot into. Arena is just at the start of its journey and will grow tremendously, with skill based matchmaking and more competitive scene options. Balancing cursed cannonballs is still a consideration, they were removed from Arena in testing because of balance.

Again with ShackNews, this time hosting Design Director Mike Chapman and Senior Producer Drew Stevens. Mike mentions that the team doesn’t like to turn on new features without any fan fare, hence why there’s usually a lore or story reason such as Merrick’s Tale that accompanied The Hungering Deep.

Pets are still coming as their first post-release monetization option, but they need to fit the world and be up to the standard of their releases, and they weren’t quite ready. They add a social element to the world, humor and surprises between crews, a character you want on your adventures with you. They are purely social, they don’t add any gameplay benefit in a “pay to win” style. There’s no plans and nothing to announce in terms of releasing Sea of Thieves on the Nintendo Switch.

Gamespot also sat down with Executive Producer Joe Neate and Design Director Mike Chapman. The team is currently working on getting other sized ships into Arena and testing it. The team had planned The Arena very early on (originally titled Sea of Blood). Unlike most game dev cycles, the Sea of Thieves team and investment grew after the game launched and they’ve been working harder since launch than before launch. Next step is to make the development sustainable and have regular frequent updates.

Geoff Keighley with GameSliceTV sat down with Design Director Mike Chapman as well. Mike says “You’ll see us do more story rich content going forward, you’ll see us do more competitive things in Arena” as well as new tools and things to experiment with and have great adventures.

Electric Playground Network interviewed Rare’s Studio Head Craig Duncan about the new Battletoads game from Rare and Dlala Studios.

Dlala came to Rare with a pitch and demo for reviving Battletoads and had a lot of expertise in hand drawn animation, they were very passionate about the series so they decided to explore a partnership to make the game together.

The game is a “reboot” and a “new version”, and there’s an in story reason that the Battletoads haven’t been around for 25 years. They’ve brought through the “multi genre” aspect of the original NES game, but updated to be more modern.

There are more things and genres to share in the future, there will be things where one Toad is solving a problem while the other two need to help keep baddies off of him, and it ultimately has the heart of a couch co-op game. The game is purely in room couch co-op, not online.

In terms of difficulty, the series is known for that but with the design it has to feel like when you fail, it’s your fault and not the game’s, and you can learn and improve. But gaming has evolved since the 90’s and they are still exploring ways to make the game more accessible, things like difficulty settings and the like.

Now that Rare has 25 years of characters under their belt, “Are we going to see Cameos from any of the characters we know and love?” “No Comment”. Ultimately it’s about making Battletoads true to Battletoads and it’s Dlala’s vision of Battletoads, which Rare respects, but also it’s important to be involved creatively as well.

Re: classic IP being brought back to life in collaborations, “Can you see Rare doing more of that kind of thing? Like a new Blast Corps game or something like that?” What made sense for Battletoads was Dlala’s passion for the game and it felt like a really great fit.

Are there more plans with Battletoads now that it’s back like comic books, animated shows, etc? Answer: Like all these things we need to see how it goes. We’ve done a lot of transmedia work with Sea of Thieves and we’ve got that learning at the studio. The great thing about this partnership is that Dlala is an indie studio but they get the benefits of working with a big studio like Rare.