WEBVTT 00:01.000 --> 00:03.000 Hello everyone, we're here at Gamescom. 00:03.000 --> 00:06.000 This is Alex from Gamereactor and I'm here with Joakim, the CEO of Framebreak. 00:06.000 --> 00:08.000 We're here to discuss Lightyear Frontier. 00:08.000 --> 00:11.000 First of all, I just want to give you a compliment on the name. 00:11.000 --> 00:13.000 It's one that really rolls off the tongue, Lightyear Frontier. 00:13.000 --> 00:15.000 I just keep saying it over and over again in my head. 00:16.000 --> 00:18.000 But it is a mech farming game. 00:18.000 --> 00:23.000 It's a farming simulator where you get your little, well, big robot really to come and help you out. 00:23.000 --> 00:26.000 And how much of a help is that robot in farming? 00:26.000 --> 00:28.000 And can we do a little bit ourselves on the side as well? 00:29.000 --> 00:34.000 Yeah, so the mech is essentially like every farming tool rolled into one. 00:34.000 --> 00:36.000 So it is a huge help. 00:36.000 --> 00:39.000 There's not really much you can do on your own outside of the mech. 00:39.000 --> 00:43.000 We've designed the gameplay around being in the mech, so you can get that mech fantasy. 00:44.000 --> 00:50.000 The farmer outside the mech is more of a driver that can hop out sometimes and do tiny things. 00:50.000 --> 00:54.000 But the majority of the gameplay is via the mech, doing all these over-the-top actions 00:54.000 --> 00:58.000 like shooting seeds straight into the ground to farm or blasting them with water and things like that. 00:59.000 --> 01:02.000 There's a lot to farm, but there's also a lot of world to explore. 01:02.000 --> 01:04.000 We're on an alien planet. 01:04.000 --> 01:07.000 We start off maybe even outside of our mech and have to piece it back together. 01:08.000 --> 01:11.000 What extent is exploring as part of the game as much as farming? 01:11.000 --> 01:14.000 And is there maybe a story that we can uncover in the world that we land on? 01:14.000 --> 01:15.000 Oh yeah. 01:15.000 --> 01:19.000 I would say exploring is basically as much of a part of the game as farming. 01:19.000 --> 01:21.000 We find about an equal balance there. 01:21.000 --> 01:25.000 And obviously some players are going to lean further into some part of it more than others. 01:25.000 --> 01:30.000 So there are secrets for the explorers to find, but also more depth in the farming for those that want to engage deeper with that. 01:31.000 --> 01:33.000 As for the story, yes, there is a story. 01:33.000 --> 01:38.000 If you start exploring the planet further, you find these alien ruins around the planet. 01:38.000 --> 01:40.000 And you try to figure out what the deal with those are. 01:41.000 --> 01:47.000 And it all kind of centers around this big alien door that you can find that you want to get into, but you don't know how. 01:47.000 --> 01:49.000 And I'm not going to tell you how. 01:49.000 --> 01:50.000 I'm not going to tell you how. 01:50.000 --> 01:55.000 So you need to keep going around the planet, finding new things and hints that will help you get in there. 01:56.000 --> 01:59.000 And we're not just in this alone, we can bring other players into this. 01:59.000 --> 02:04.000 Is this something where multiplayer really helps us speed up the adventure? 02:04.000 --> 02:11.000 Or is it we're going to be in the same sort of boat, whether we bring our friends along or not, except that we're just sort of doing it with buds? 02:11.000 --> 02:19.000 Yes, we balanced it around the single player, because we don't want a single player to feel bogged down with a lot of grinding or anything. 02:19.000 --> 02:22.000 So rather, if you do bring your friends, it's going to speed things along. 02:22.000 --> 02:24.000 But you're probably going to distract each other a bit more. 02:25.000 --> 02:29.000 But yeah, generally, if it's more players, obviously things are going to go a bit quicker. 02:29.000 --> 02:34.000 Maybe you'll be arguing a bit over which upgrades you want to have and who gets them and so on. 02:35.000 --> 02:38.000 So speaking of upgrades, actually, and the customization that we get. 02:38.000 --> 02:43.000 We're going to be able to differentiate our mechs from our friends, because there's quite an in-depth customization system. 02:43.000 --> 02:48.000 How deep does that go and does it include both upgrades and sort of painting your mech a different color? 02:48.000 --> 02:57.000 Right, so we kind of split apart the upgrades from the customization, because we didn't want players to feel obliged to make their mech look in a certain way to get some kind of power. 02:57.000 --> 03:04.000 So instead, you can upgrade your mech in one way, but also change out the different parts, make it look different according to the way you like it. 03:05.000 --> 03:12.000 You were speaking as well before, when we were just playing the game, about player feedback and how you guys have built the game consistently around player feedback. 03:13.000 --> 03:16.000 We've seen Lightyear Frontier for a little bit now, we've seen its journey. 03:16.000 --> 03:24.000 Where do you think it's at right now with how the players have influenced it and how much do you guys like to welcome player feedback consistently? 03:24.000 --> 03:32.000 So far, even though the game has only been playable at events like this and so on, we've obviously tried to be as open as we can with our players. 03:32.000 --> 03:34.000 And we already get a ton of feedback from the players. 03:34.000 --> 03:42.000 They see things, they ask about things, they help us figure out what is important, what should we focus on, what do the players expect and want from the game. 03:42.000 --> 03:46.000 And I only see that relationship tightening even more as we go into release. 03:46.000 --> 03:53.000 They can actually play all the time and really start dreaming up where should we go next, what should we focus on. 03:53.000 --> 03:57.000 Just going back to the mech really, I just wanted to ask a bit about the tools that we've seen. 03:57.000 --> 04:02.000 So we've seen some really fun stuff like chainsaws and the animation that you guys have put into this. 04:02.000 --> 04:05.000 It's really, really tight and really, really crisp, especially the visuals. 04:05.000 --> 04:11.000 Do you have inspirations from other mech genres that you take with you into Lightyear Frontier? 04:11.000 --> 04:13.000 Because this feels quite unique. 04:13.000 --> 04:15.000 Inspirations are from everywhere. 04:15.000 --> 04:18.000 It's hard to pinpoint one exact one. 04:18.000 --> 04:24.000 Obviously we have a pretty big team by now, 15 people, and all of them bring their own ideas into it. 04:24.000 --> 04:29.000 So obviously our animator, she has things she looks at and takes inspiration from. 04:29.000 --> 04:34.000 And then our designers have different ideas and sometimes they bring those forward, talk to the artists and so on. 04:34.000 --> 04:37.000 So it's a huge mix of everything mech, essentially. 04:37.000 --> 04:42.000 If there is mech media, we probably have taken a look at it and some kind of inspiration from it. 04:42.000 --> 04:45.000 Brilliant. And just one more thing. 04:45.000 --> 04:48.000 Personally, when I looked at it, I thought of, it's a bit of a niche reference, 04:48.000 --> 04:53.000 but there's a Love, Death, Robots episode on Netflix where there's people farming in mechs, 04:53.000 --> 04:55.000 but they are attacked constantly by aliens. 04:55.000 --> 04:57.000 Are we going to see a similar level of combat? 04:57.000 --> 05:01.000 Because I think Lightyear Frontier, correct me if I'm wrong, but has a much cozier vibe to it. 05:01.000 --> 05:04.000 And that's something I personally would like when I'm playing a nice farming sim. 05:04.000 --> 05:07.000 Yeah, so we've focused entirely on the peaceful, cozy vibes. 05:08.000 --> 05:11.000 The plans are not to add combat, really. 05:11.000 --> 05:17.000 We want to add some tension, but the tension comes from your crops being in danger and you want to protect those, 05:17.000 --> 05:20.000 not really you being in active danger. 05:20.000 --> 05:24.000 So we're not really looking at things like huge alien invasions or anything like that, 05:24.000 --> 05:29.000 because I think that would probably break the cozy farm experience entirely. 05:29.000 --> 05:31.000 I believe that's all I've got for you today. 05:31.000 --> 05:35.000 Apart from, when can we see Lightyear Frontier and what platforms will we see it on when it comes out? 05:35.000 --> 05:38.000 Yeah, so it's coming out for PC and Xbox and it's coming out early next year.