New interview, niiice:
Okay. Is the game still in pre-production, or have you moved to production?
Alexander Mishulin: The development started in 2021. We spent almost a year doing prototypes, transitioning between the genres because the game we are making is not quite similar to the games we have done previously. So we established new processes, established new approaches, and made sure that everything is working well, the shooting parts are working well, and of course, established all the new processes to make content. After that, we started making our vertical slices, and now we are full in production.
As you mentioned, The Expanse: Osiris Reborn is a big change for you because you have been making cRPGs, a very different genre. Honestly, I thought that maybe the next step for you would be to make a cRPG still, but with a higher budget, like Baldur's Gate 3 for example, or perhaps Baldur's Gate 4, rather. But no, seriously, it was surprising to see you go with this. I also love Mass Effect, so I'm totally in. But I am curious - did you just go directly for the third person shooter pitch, or did you at some point consider making it a cRPG?
Alexander Mishuli No. From the first pitch, it was all about making a third person game because The Expanse is about people. We want you to connect more with the characters, the protagonist and the companions, and we want you to be immersed in this very grounded, realistic, sci-fi world.
We wanted to show you that, and for that, we needed to change perspective and make things more realistic and cinematic. Because of that, we transitioned to the third person, and yes, we were a little bit afraid at the beginning. We started prototyping and made several combat and exploration arenas.
We experimented with different approaches, how we wanted our cover system to work, how we wanted our enemies to work. Just for combat arenas, we had six prototypes in the beginning just to make the combat basics feel right. But for the narrative part, it's very much still the same Owlcat game with all the different options for you to choose when you're playing new characters, to embrace them, to feel the consequences of those choices, with all the politics and web of intrigue happening in The Expanse universe. It's very much the same approach to narrative we had in previous games, apart from the dialogue being more cinematic, more in line with the genre.
You've said that players will create their own character. Character, right? Usually, in most RPGs, making the character also means choosing between different races, each with its own attributes and abilities. Of course, in The Expanse, they're all humans, except for minor differences, like Belters having a body that cannot bear the full weight of Earth's gravity due to generations of living in space. But, in RPG terms, will there be any differences in the game depending on your choice of Earther, Martian, or Belter?
Alexander Mishulin: When you start the game and create the character, you select your origin, and that is a huge choice, not only in terms of RPG elements but also in terms of storyline. It's your origin story, how you came to be, and many choices and consequences in the game will react to you being from a certain faction. For example, when you visit Ceres after all the events surrounding the Canterbury, the Belt is agitated towards Earthers and Martians. So, if you are not a Belter, you will encounter some forms of aggression towards you. If you are playing with a Belter character, you will feel more at home.
Additionally, some of the choices and some of the options available to you will be different. The same goes for all the origins. They all have different choices and parts of unique content that they will access as the start of their story. And then when the story takes shape, you'll start to forge your own path, dabble in politics, and probably choose some other faction you want to support, not necessarily your own. Maybe I'm playing a Martian, but I feel that I want to help the Belters, and I want to become friends with this faction, so I build a relationship with them in such a way that I'm supporting their cause and their reaction towards me will slowly change to reflect that.
In the original narrative, Holden and his crew eventually earn the favor of most of the factions. However, sometimes RPGs have mechanics where you must choose between factions and befriending one automatically makes another hostile. What's your approach here? Can you be a very diplomatic character in good standing with several factions at once?
Alexander Mishulin: I will not answer directly because, first of all, this system and this narrative part are still very much in development. But our vision is that we want you to experience all the political powers and the power plays in the universe. We want you to be able to join a certain faction, try to forge your own path, or try to ignore the factions for most of your decisions. We are trying to provide you with as many roleplaying choices as we possibly can in this regard. Of course, for all those choices, we want you to see the consequences of your actions, whereas a faction will like you or dislike you, or you manage to play one faction against another.
Of course, there are also some light mechanics supporting it. I will not delve into details, but we want the game to be a whole experience, not too narrative-focused or too mechanics-focused. It's a balanced experience. When discussing character creation earlier, I focused more on narrative, which is part of the character creation, but there is also a mechanical part supporting the narrative. The same goes here.
Companions are going to be a big part of the game, right? Can you say how many there will be?
Alexander Mishulin: I couldn't tell you the exact number of companions, sorry. But as for the approach, we want the companions to be front and center of all our games, but this time around, we are trying to give them an even bigger spotlight. You are going on a mission with two companions, but the rest of the team is not left behind on the ship. They can still help you fulfill your mission objectives in many different ways.
Probably somebody will stay on the ship and help you with the ship throughout the mission, or some of the companions can go fulfill their own objectives, or they can form a second team that goes through the mission on a different path. Sometimes you're meeting them, helping them out, or they're helping you out and you're progressing through those missions. It's not like every mission has a similar pattern, so every time it is different. Sometimes it's more focused on a couple of companions. Sometimes it's more your own personal story. But overall, we are bringing companions to the missions as much as we can.
Okay. I know you confirmed that there will be romance, right?
Alexander Mishulin: Yes.
What differences, if any, will there be with the romances seen in your most recent game, Rogue Trader?
Alexander Mishulin: When we're approaching romances in our games, we try to make it interesting, both in terms of decisions and in terms of how you approach certain characters through romances and how romances show the characters from a different perspective. The same goes here. It'll be deep narrative experiences that allow you to understand your character better, understand the companion better, and go through this story in the way you like.
Speaking of combat, can you share how many active abilities you are targeting? I would wager less than in a CRPG.
Alexander Mishulin: We want our players to have a lot of freedom in how they play the game. You can select a character that is more weapons-focused, and then you will be relying more on weapons, on shooting and your targeting skills, but you can also create a character that has more focus on abilities and playing from abilities' perspective and building your gameplay and your choices to support your abilities depending on that or a mix between the gunplay and abilities. You will feel the difference and you can build your character to support the play style you want.
To do that, we are trying to make a game that is accessible, perhaps not with all the building options like in Pathfinder or Rogue Trader, but there are still a lot of synergies to find and a lot of perks to choose from, so you can rely on that. We want all the players familiar with cover shooters, with action RPGs and, of course, with Mass Effect to feel at home.
Ranged combat obviously plays a significant role given the setting, but can you make a melee-focused character?
Alexander Mishulin: You can create a character focused on close-range combat, using weapons like shotguns. Also, you saw in the trailer that one of the characters was carrying a shield and had a shoulder cannon, so you can go into close-range combat with a more defensive stance. So, if you favor this approach, there are some options that will be available for you in the game.
Will there be ship combat in The Expanse: Osiris Reborn?
Alexander Mishulin: There is no huge mini-game that allows you to play ship combat as a mini-game, but traveling on a spaceship is very much part of The Expanse and we want you to feel that. So there is no full-fledged mechanic, but there are some surprises regarding this in the game.
