Well this one doesn't have servers because it's entirely PvE single player.
Technically this is a games-as-a-service game, so it has servers. There is co-op planned later.
There was tech to instantly scale-up/scale-down baremetal cloud hosted servers made in my time there. So it will only utilize the capacity it needs, saving on server costs indefinitely.
The server tech is there so when co-op is ready, they just have to push an update and it will 'just work'. There were replication issues with a lot of data sent between clients, so I imagine that's their next goal, in addition to fleshing out the story, of course.
They use a backend middleware known as PlayFab to facilitate persistent stats for accounts.
I was part of the team that worked on the tech they used to export from a spreadsheet to the backend - meaning that the game actually pulls those stats on any new servers that spin up, allowing for on-the-fly economy / balance changes.
Co-op multiplayer is planned for later. There is possibility of PvP eventually.
Very excite.
S
Secrets
Are you working on this one?
Past tense. I worked on this one from 2017 when we pitched the game internally at 505 Games, until June 2020 when I was laid off during COVID as they wanted to consolidate development to the UK @ DR Studios.
Didn't they shut down the servers for the first one in like 2018? Why would this one be any different?
I think it's going to be moderately well received on the gameplay side - I'm worried about the monetization, but 505 Games has multiple contingency plans in place for all of their titles to react to backlash - the server tech also allows them to quickly iterate and nix anything that isn't wanted, so I have less fears about that compared to most people.
Hawken 1 had a terrible retention rate, the conversion rates for f2p players were stupidly low, and the ARPPU was even lower. The game's servers are basically kept online to keep the IP online for 5 years so they don't lose the rights to it.
www.pcgamer.com
