In a story universe as malleable as Knockout City, one might think there's room to bring fan theories into the game directly. In Season 6, it may very well be Potatobot, a potato with mechanical limbs and a power supply which was designed to do manual labor in place of humans. We have so many other ideas to do with him.'" In Knockout City, weird science is just part of the neighborhood.įeurstein calls these hints of story or characters "seeds" and said the team will plant a few with each season and see what blossoms into the next Chonky. "We were leaning into this armadillo thing, but we didn't want to go too far, just in case no one liked itand when the community latched onto him, I said 'Oh, thank god. "We fell in love with him first," Feurstein said. Feurstein and Russo said the fans took to Chonky right away, and the team was relieved they did. Chonky, an armadillo who today can be seen in street art, crew vehicles, and more of the game's colorful world, has emerged as a fan-favorite character. This helped bring the game's unofficial mascot into the spotlight, too. "Oh, because they evolved from armadillos," he told them instead. When someone on the team asked him why, in a narrative sense, do the characters curl up into balls-which the game uses as a type of team-based super move in matches-he said he was going to defer to the catchphrase, but suddenly pivoted. ![]() This approach has proven to be so liberating that Feurstein has developed a reputation for coming up with answers to lore questions on the spot. "The art style, the narrative choices that we make, all that stuff is there to help support the gameplay, so it all ends up being very cohesive." Game director Jeremy Russo elaborated on how that story and other elements all feed back into what is arguably the most important aspect: how it plays. "And every little idea, we're just like 'yes, and…'" ![]() "Anything is possible in this city because that's how we designed it,' Feurstein said. A rogue AI hacking the city, an alien invasion, the moon inching ever so closely to Knockout City's homeworld-that's all just Knockout City, baby. The slogan, thus, became a shorthand explainer for the city's chaotic string of events players have seen through five seasons to date. As weird things happen, it invites further, farther afield weirdness. "When you create a place like Knockout City and you make it unique in certain ways, the location starts to give you permission to do whatever you want." It was described to me like a feedback loop: The city is weird, so weird things happen in it. As he described it, the slogan began to come up within the studio long before the game came out as a way to explain the weird stuff developers were adding to it. "That's Knockout City, baby." Narrative director Eric Feurstein introduced me to this phrase early on in my conversation with the team. GameSpot recently caught up with Velan Studios to discuss the studio's approach to live-service storytelling-and, to more simply ask, what the heck is going on in Knockout City? As of the June 1 launch of Season 6, Knockout City is a free-to-play game. From Fortnite to Destiny to Sea of Thieves, no two teams are really handling it the same, which is part of what makes these games so engaging. ![]() Incorporating stories into live-service multiplayer games is not uncommon in games today, but it's still early days for such experimentation. As a live-service game building story content directly into a multiplayer environment, Velan is continuously experimenting with making space for a narrative where you maybe wouldn't expect to find it-and the results are as out-there as they are delightful. However, major upheavals are commonplace within its fictional, dodgeball-obsessed city. A lot is changing very suddenly for the arcade sports game in the real world. Not only does its sixth season launch today, June 1, it also marks the first season as a self-published and free-to-play game. Velan Studios is celebrating a major moment for its arcade dodgeball game Knockout City.
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