“This is how big of a change we’re willing to make to the game, so come back, talk about it, give us other ideas, you know?”
-Tribes: Ascend creative director Sean McBride
The Tribes series has always faced uphill battles -- attracting players, studios shutting down or changing gears.
The latest iteration of the franchise, Tribes: Ascend, suddenly updated after a long hiatus, and creative director Sean McBride spoke to PC Gamer about how you attract the community back after seemingly abandoning a game.
“I personally feel a responsibility to come back and make it a better game because I love it. At the same time it is a business decision. It’s a really rough spot in our company’s history -- leaving the game,” McBride told PC Gamer. At the time, Hi-Rez Studios switched gears to work on MOBA Smite, which then turned out to be a major hit. Now that the company is doing well, it can afford to pour resources back into Tribes.
So how do you entice players to try a game with a checkered past? “Let’s really embrace the fact that it’s going to be different now and draw players back with that. Ultimately I felt like players would be bored if it was totally the same game with some new maps and balance changes.”
The game burst back with a major new update -- the "Out of the Blue patch." Says McBride, “It set the stage, right?"
There's more over at PC Gamer.