by theygamesFor any multiplayer shooter, great gameplay is of course king. However, building a novel world to host that action still carries importance. As was evidenced by its cinematic reveal trailer and a mobile app full of comics, it’s safe to say that Splitgate 2 is taking its storytelling fairly seriously. At Gamescom 2024, we spoke to the co-founder of developer 1047 Games, Ian Proulx, about the shooter’s “positive, sporty future” aesthetic and how it won’t take itself too seriously.
Creating and establishing lore in competitive FPS games is a tricky tightrope to walk. In most cases, it is not the main focus for players, but an overarching narrative and world-building is still important for both them and for developers to hang characters, maps, weapons, cosmetics, and more off of. However, if your universe makes the wrong impression, it can have dire consequences – it is arguably one of the big reasons that contributed to Concord’s recent, high-profile struggles. While Proulx admits the studio’s first iteration of Splitgate suffered because it had “no lore,” that couldn’t be further from the truth in Splitgate 2.
“The lore dictates everything in the game,” Proulx tells us. “In Splitgate, there was no lore. It was just kind of like: ‘Let’s go make a cool game.’ Then you end up with an art style that doesn’t really [work], it’s not cohesive. There’s not a unifying theme. It’s just sort of a bit scattered, and that still gets you pretty far, because it was a really fun game, and I think we had pretty good intuition. But in Splitgate 2, how it started was with me telling the team: ‘I want this game to be a positive future and a sporty future.’ That was sort of my instruction to the team, and then I let them run with it.”
In its debut trailer, that vibe certainly comes across, and Proulx says this aesthetic extends into the game’s maps and even its UI. It was also chosen so that the narrative would compliment the gameplay, rather than overpower it with something that was too intense or farfetched.
“In terms of, like, artistic inspiration and style and just personality, it’s a lot more our own thing, and we like to have fun with it,” he says. “You know, we don’t take ourselves too seriously. We’re not trying to save humanity. We’re just trying to have a good time.”
In our chat with Proulx, we note that one of the best multiplayer games right now, The Finals, takes a similar approach with its light-hearted, adaptable, virtual game show vibes. While he admits he is a massive fan of Embark’s destructive shooter, he’s keen to flag the differences.
“Our game is much more futuristic and much more of a sport than a game show. So, you know, most of our inspiration is like Formula One, NBA, or NFL versus theirs. I would imagine it’s more like Hunger Games, game show, etc. I think both [games] are awesome, but I think both are pretty different actually.”
In a separate moment, he hones in on F1 being a big inspiration for Splitgate 2. He compares the different factions and the armored suit you wear as the race car developed by each F1 team, while you, the player, is the skilled driver that can push that pilots the technology.
Given how brilliant Splitgate was without any of this world-building, it’ll be a treat to have some narrative threads and compelling characters to hang on to in Splitgate 2 – even if there are some early worries the focus on factions and abilities may compromise the portal poppin’ soul of the original. Nevertheless, the “positive, sporty future” 1047 is crafting is definitely hitting the right tone straight out of the blocks, which can’t be said for some other FPS games that have been revealed this year.
Until the Splitgate 2 release date arrives, here are some other brilliant free PC games you can play while you wait.
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Interview conducted at Gamescom by Sam Comrie.