NCORE developers Interview. How the creators of Warface plan to repeat their success

Recently, we shared our impressions from a 40-minute gameplay session in NCORE. Now, let's talk with the developers of the new PvPvE shooter. The conversation will cover both the game itself and more general questions about approaches to game development, the developer's attitude towards gamers, and monetization principles.

The questions were answered by NCORE producer Stepan Gorokhov and creative director Ivan Pabyarzhin.

VGTimes: Hello! Tell us, why is the game called NCORE? What does it mean?

Stepan Gorokhov: There is some background to it, which we might reveal during the in-game narrative.

VGTimes: Will there be any other modes in the game besides the main one with collecting and delivering coins to a specific hex?

Ivan Pabyarzhin: There was an idea to create mega-hex structures, where instead of one hex, we have large hexes combined with each other, towering in the center of the arena. There were also mechanics of shrinking rings (referring to the gradual reduction of the battle area — ed. VGTimes), we tried all of this. There were testing stages. All these ideas are not buried, they are waiting for their time.

Also, during prototyping, we tested this idea: during landing on one of the hexes, the player finds themselves involved in a specific game mode. Each hex is a unique mode, always different. We later abandoned the idea because, after presenting the prototype to players, we realized that the game was very difficult to understand. You play a large mode on the entire arena, plus you need to delve into the modes happening on each specific hex. We simplified everything, but the mechanics we developed are waiting for their turn.

Even now, we already have 6-7 hex events (separate local events on hexes, not to be confused with entire modes — ed. VGTimes), and there are about 80 more ideas in the backlog. For example, "Apokalipipets," as we named one of the events. In it, players capture a control point on the hex, and the hex is simply destroyed, disappearing from the map. So what you saw today (press — ed. VGTimes) is just the beginning, the game will grow with content.

VGTimes: Tell us more about your feature with weapons that become melee weapons at the right moment.

Ivan Pabyarzhin: Every gun in the game transforms into its unique type of melee weapon. There are melee weapons that strike faster but deal less damage; there are those that strike slower but harder. Roughly speaking, when you wield a claw (similar to a karambit), it strikes quickly but doesn't deal much damage. On the other hand, if you take a sniper rifle that has turned into a scythe, swing it and strike, the radius of damage and the amount of damage you deal is noticeably higher. But the attack will be slower. So there is a balance in everything. Our task is not to dictate to the player how to play but to give them the opportunity to decide for themselves.

VGTimes: What about monetization?

Ivan Pabyarzhin: We, the NCORE development team, are also gamers. We know and understand all the pains gamers experience in different projects. Therefore, we now want to focus on making the game as fair as possible. So that skill and the player's knowledge of how to act at any given moment in the arena are decisive. As a result, we focused on customization as the main way to receive investments from players (through the sale of "cosmetics" — ed. VGTimes). Besides this, of course, there are additional tools we can use, like "battle passes." But the most important thing is that we do not plan to make any moves that would introduce Pay-to-Win into the game.

Again, the game can be released in other markets, and the audience can be scaled. Our task is to make sure that the people who play this project and the people who make and publish it are proud that this is our joint product, published and distributed not only within the CIS but also globally.

Overall, a player can support the project by investing money into it. And for that, a special thank you. A player can also support the project by spending time in it, which is also a great value. Therefore, when we talk about releasing updates or seasons, we must give both groups of people opportunities to spend their time and resources on what they prefer. We strive to maintain this balance. Reward players who spend their time — through an achievement system, a task system, free levels within the battle pass, a system of special events; and players who are willing to pay — through updates to the premium store.

VGTimes: What about skins for characters and weapons? Will there be legendary items? Or paid ones?

Ivan Pabyarzhin: The characters you initially play with are basic heroes. Obviously, there are also premium ones. The girl on the official art is an example of a premium character. There are cheaper items to produce that can be more easily distributed in various ways, and there are very expensive items to create, such as legendary skins. Only legendary and epic quality skins will be found in the in-game store. Everything below that level will not go to the store and will be distributed for free in exchange for the game time spent by the gamer.

There is also planned weapon progression in the game. Accordingly, by playing with a weapon you like, you will gain experience. As you progress, the game rewards you with skins, from the simplest to the legendary. Legendary skins are distinguished by their unique patterns. In turn, the most expensive skins will allow you to choose how a particular weapon element will decorate the gun.

VGTimes: How many characters are available for the player to choose from?

Ivan Pabyarzhin: Currently, there are two customizable dolls — a boy and a girl. Within these customizable dolls, there will be an opportunity to earn equipment elements: faces, hairstyles, jackets, pants, gloves, boots. From everything you earn, you can create a unique look. The item you receive is automatically available for models of both genders.

In addition, there are four unique paid characters, plus several more in development. Such characters are offered as is (without customization — ed. VGTimes). For example, a cute girl from the official art. Such skins are sold as part of a bundle: the skin comes with a story, a unique glider ("flying skateboard" — ed. VGTimes), and its own skins for three types of weapons. Also, unique skins have special progression embedded. If you play with this skin, you start with its basic version. After playing a certain number of matches, you will unlock an intermediate version. After playing even longer, you will unlock the maximum version. And only these characters will have the ability to put on or take off a helmet. In the future, we will also add separate voice acting for such characters.

VGTimes: Are there any intersections with Warface? As far as we know, some developers came to NCORE from that project, including the leaders.

Ivan Pabyarzhin: Our industry is experiencing dynamic development. With the employees I worked with on Warface, I have friendly relations. We still communicate with everyone. Specifically speaking about NCORE, the main investor and rights holder is Astrum Entertainment, and no other companies are associated with the game.

Stepan Gorokhov: People don't work in one company all their lives, and gamedev is quite a narrow industry. Both I, Ivan, and other guys from our studio have worked in a bunch of different firms, ranging from domestic ones like "Lesta" to Blizzard, Ubisoft, and other international companies. We chose an approach for ourselves that involves finding the best talents who will provide a significant impact on the game (positive influence — ed. VGTimes), helping to make it really cool. Thus, Ivan leads the development from a creative point of view because he has proven himself as a very cool specialist with a strong vision of the product (vision of what should be achieved — ed. VGTimes). If he previously worked on Warface, it doesn't mean he will always make only Warface.

VGTimes: The PvPvE action market is oversaturated, as if supply exceeds demand. How do you plan to stand out and attract gamers?

Stepan Gorokhov: Yes, that's true: the market is oversaturated today. Especially in shooters, especially in session-based ones, especially in free-to-play. Therefore, our efforts are not limited to just one in-game feature, like hexes. But we need to wait for the release to fully demonstrate the entire, let's say, "system wrapper." That is, how the game will look, how it will be perceived by the user. Even within the framework of gaming economies.

Ivan Pabyarzhin: Obviously, if you release a game and then don't develop it further, the project's path will be very quick. Therefore, by the time we release, we will, in any case, offer a game development plan as we see it. By that time, I hope we will gather enough feedback and player wishes to understand how they see the game's development. And then we will regularly update the game. We can't imagine a situation with updates once a year. That's suicide. We will try to bring new content every month, every quarter, and every six months, which will not only be cosmetic but will also offer new gameplay aspects. The structure of the game is such that in terms of mode combinations, hex combinations, and what gameplay can be brought to a particular map, we have very high flexibility. We can adapt to the needs of the players. Perhaps this advantage is hidden, not visible on the surface, but it is the feature of the game that we intend to fully reveal.

Stepan Gorokhov: Many players have a "home game" from the big names: either Call of Duty, or for a younger audience — Fortnite, or even younger — Roblox. In general, franchises that gamers consistently "sit on," including CS. But still, a fairly large percentage of players move from project to project. Take Frostpunk 2, and other shooters that have recently been released, they have gathered their hundreds of thousands of concurrent players on Steam charts without a sharp drop. This indicates that gamers are saturated with "home games," and people are open to something new. Even if they don't completely change their "home game," they consistently go to several other projects for big seasons, betas. Some of them settle permanently. There is always some percentage. Therefore, we see that there is a window of opportunity.

VGTimes: How will the best players be rewarded? Any competitive features, leaderboards, rankings?

Ivan Pabyarzhin: By the release, we will definitely add leaderboards. I understand that this is not the most anticipated thing you want to hear, but it will definitely be there.

Currently, we are writing a game design document related to the ranked mode. We also have a variation of the current available mode, but specifically for ranked games. And this mode is more hardcore, with permanent death: players will be eliminated depending on which round they died in. By the end of the round, there will be fewer and fewer players. Based on this mode, we will plan the development of the ranked one.

Experience shows that having a ranked mode at the very launch of the game is not the best idea. In the first months, players get acquainted with the project and mechanics, develop strategies for themselves, learn to play and adapt to all the new things they have received. But in the very first updates after the release, this is one of the key things, yes.

The most important thing is that we don't want to create a competitive mode that will only be available to 1% of players. We want to implement it in such a way that everyone can find similar people with whom they can compete. That is, to compete within certain groups, within which you can become better and stronger. And then move on to the next groups.

Stepan Gorokhov: Of course, there will be achievements. But the main thing for us today is to understand how well the balance between PvP and PvE is built.

Ivan Pabyarzhin: We are developing a profile system that will help you stand out and highlight that you are cool. And within it, there will be an achievement system. By viewing your profile, other players will see what achievements you have earned and will be able to understand how experienced you are.

The second story is the player card, which will be displayed for the gamer you defeated during the battle. The card is customizable. You can set a picture, frame, display the achievements you want on the card, and so on. Furthermore, on the back of the card, we want to allow players to place widgets showing statistics for a particular period. You can also delve into the full player profile with all the statistics from the card, provided that it is not hidden by the player from prying eyes.

VGTimes: What audience number at launch will mean success for you?

Stepan Gorokhov: There will be several sources of audience. And it's more correct to talk about how much we expect from each source. Depending on the source, the internal traffic number varies greatly. The funnels are different, it's hard to predict.

Ivan Pabyarzhin: I can answer as follows: I worked on Warface for a long time, so I know how to make a game survive on the market for a long time. Using a decade of experience in game development, we will do everything to ensure that, even if not immediately, our game takes off like "Fortnite." Only a few achieve this, but with stable updates, the audience steadily grows.

If we are on the same wavelength with players in terms of reputation, strive to understand what they want, and give it to them, we hope everything will be fine.

VGTimes: How is the fair matchmaking being built?

Ivan Pabyarzhin: It's important to avoid extremes here. When you make matchmaking where all players are equal, the game doesn't become interesting. This has been proven in practice, believe me. Making a game where chaos happens is one of the possibilities. In "World of Tanks" it works quite well. It gives an interesting direct pattern: sometimes you encounter very strong opponents who crush you, and sometimes you become such an opponent for other teams — you crush them. The question is in regulating and preventing such situations from arising over a long period, so the player gets their endorphin waves.

The ideal option is matchmaking through chunks. That is, you create groups of players who are similar in skill but float in a small range plus-minus from you. This allows you to encounter both stronger players and slightly weaker ones. But at the same time, you still understand that just a little more — and you can push through. Our task is to find such a golden mean in the case of NCORE.

It's not easy to do, everything depends on many factors: online at a particular moment, on which input devices people play, on which platforms, and so on. I won't delve into technical details. The main thing I will emphasize once again — we are players ourselves, I have been playing since I was 4 years old, started on the ZX Spectrum. For me, this is the main business and the main hobby to which I devote all my time. Therefore, I understand the dangers that may lie in wait, but we will try to do everything in our power to make you happy (you, meaning the players — note VGTimes).

VGTimes: How will the anti-cheat work? Will there be one?

Stepan Gorokhov: It must be admitted that this is an eternal battle of shield and sword. There are cheaters in all games, they will always be. The difference is only in how often an honest player encounters them. Our task, like any publisher's, is to defeat cheaters by 99.9%. We are working on this and managing quite well.

I would also like to note that we will not send messages about the ban of a cheater to the person who reported them. In some other projects, we see that this functionality is being abandoned, as it is a rather toxic mechanic. You can simply be mass-reported and then personally threatened. To avoid bullying and disclosing account information to third parties — that is, imagine you are playing, you get banned, and some guys know you were banned — we are not implementing this. Similar sad cases occurred in League of Legends.

VGTimes: Will there be a general voice chat in the game?

Stepan Gorokhov: We have a voice chat within a team of three people, and we will think about the general one. Maybe we will expand the functionality. And if we do, it will be with the possibility of full disabling. Like in "Dota," when pros go in and immediately set all mute.

VGTimes: Did you conduct any audience research before launching NCORE into production?

Ivan Pabyarzhin: When we launched the development of NCORE, we researched behavioral models of how people play different games. We saw four such models. There are players who like to play only solo. There are those who love to play with friends and sacrifice everything they have to help their team. There are guys who always jump into the thick of things. And there are those who move very carefully and do not encounter PvP at all. We tried to saturate the game with such a number of opportunities so that each of the mentioned groups had something to do, something to entertain themselves with.

And here is a small nuance. When you come into the game, you behave according to one pattern. But as your experience grows, your behavioral pattern changes. You become a bolder, more aggressive player. Giving the opportunity within this evolution to improve your combat methods (gadget system) and strategies (event system and variety of hexes) is our task.

And most importantly — giving the player freedom of choice. We have a system for notifying the player that another team has arrived at the hex. It gives a choice: you can meet the opponent, or you can run away. But your opponents also make a decision. They are free to try to find you or run away and not fight. Our task is to saturate the game with such triggers.

VGTimes: What are the release plans — when, what to expect, which platforms?

Stepan Gorokhov: This year. But we can't say exactly about regions, platforms, and dates yet. And we definitely don't want to do early access. I see this mechanic as unfair, having poorly proven itself in the industry.

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And what do you think about NCORE? Will it take off? Share your opinion in the comments. Let's discuss.