Be honest: Would you even know what LawBreakers is if it weren’t for the fact that CliffyB is attached to it? Nexon and Boss Key are well aware of this problem and have said as much in a new interview on Gamasutra today, specifically noting that the shooter market is outrageously competitive and oversaturated. Consequently, lead designer Dan Nanni says, the dev team is trying to avoid the herd and focus on whatever the other guys aren’t doing, all in an attempt to stand out.
“If we made decisions that made the game play too similarly to one of our key competitors, we knew we’d get overshadowed. […] If our competition was moving heavily towards special abilities, we’d keep focusing heavily on gunplay. If they remained mostly on the ground, then we’d keep pushing hard to put our players in the skies. The focus on gravity being a central gameplay element and blind-fire being a combat mechanic were ideas from the very beginning. The original seed of LawBreakers was more about theme than about function.”
Nanni also defends the decision to put the game back into closed alpha last year to retool core systems, like the speed of play. “It was the right call to make, and we embraced it,” he says. “Not only did it make our players happy, but it also further differentiated us from our competition.”
LawBreakers is set for launch tomorrow; it’ll run you $30.
