Games
How a small team aim to avoid the fate of No Man’s Sky and create the perfect space sim.
No Man's Sky has to rank as one of the most divisive games of recent memory. From its initial announcement, to release last year, the game was lavished with praise and hype, but while the finished product is a long way from being a failure, some fans felt developer Hello Games perhaps over-promised on some elements. It's a trap that industry veteran and Fenix Fire CEO Brian McRae is keen to avoid with Osiris: New Dawn, a thematically-similar title which is currently riding high in Steam's Early Access program.
McRae's new studio may be small, but his history in the games arena is anything but diminutive. In the 16 years he has worked in the games industry he's been employed at studios such as High Voltage, Midway and Blizzard; at the latter he was involved with the cancelled Starcraft: Ghost. He's also worked on many of the tech demos which sold the dream of the Oculus Rift VR platform, including the EVE: Online demo and Tuscany World.
Given his prior experience in an industry which is renowned for slavishly following trends, McRae is well aware that comparisons will be drawn between his game and No Man's Sky – but he insists that the two are in fact quite different propositions.
"The games are similar in that they feature survival in space, but we're going for more than just that," he tells Red Bull Games. "For example, we've added horror elements – just wait until your first night alone, when the monsters come out. Also, in No Man's Sky, the focus feels like it's on exploration and jumping between worlds, whereas with Osiris, it's all about making the most out of the world you're on, and then moving to another potential planet to colonise – and it’s especially great to experience the game in our online multiplayer modes, both PvP and PvE."
While McRae is sympathetic with the issues that Hello Games have experienced, he maintains that the way in which Osiris is being developed means that Fenix Fire shouldn't fall foul of similar problems. "It's unfortunate that they came right out of the gate with a huge list of promised features that, honestly, would be pretty hard for any developer to nail by launch, especially with a smaller team," he says of No Man's Sky. "I like doing Early Access instead, as it lets us announce a few features, test them out, and then announce some more, all with the community's feedback. For example, and this is not to pick on No Man's Sky in any way, we're doing this one planet at a time rather than promising entire explorable galaxies."
The emphasis on exploration may have dominated the procedurally generated No Man's Sky, but it's the need to survive which is the true heart of Osiris: New Dawn. "Originally, it was a 'what if' scenario," continues McRae. "As in 'what if you crash landed on an alien world, and had to figure out how to survive?' The idea continued to expand as I thought about 'How did humanity get into space?' and 'How would we explore and colonise new worlds?' I really liked the ideas behind the book The Martian, where you're all alone on a world that wants nothing more than to kill you and you have to figure out how to survive, and hopefully thrive, in the situation."
Osiris: New Dawn pushes you into an unfriendly world armed with only basic tools and weapons with which to defend yourself, at which point you're expected to craft items, find resources and keep the hostile natives at bay. "You've crash landed and your face shield is broken and leaking oxygen, so you need to figure out how to fix that," replies McRae when asked to recount a typical session in the game. "Once that's done, you hunt for supply packs from your crashed ship, which include an inflatable Hab so you can have someplace to sleep – and hide. From there, it's really up to the player, as they'll explore the world, find the minerals, metals and materials they need to build different tools and devices, and build a bigger habitat. While out on the planet's surface, things can get dicey, as we have plenty of alien creatures for you to encounter and either run from, or fight."
With more than 15 years of games development under his belt, McRae has unsurprisingly picked up plenty of points of inspiration for Osiris: New Dawn – both inside and outside the games industry. "When I was with Blizzard, I worked on Starcraft: Ghost and just loved the science-fiction universe of Starcraft," he says. "Especially the way all the parts of the Terran base complemented each other and served special purposes, yet provided a perfect 'rock, paper, scissors' strategy against the alien races. The Metroid series, especially Metroid Prime, was one of my favourite games that captured the feeling that I was truly exploring another world, both mysterious and dangerous.
"Mostly, I just enjoy anything to do with space and space travel. Seeing the original Star Wars in the movie theatres as a kid sparked my interest science fiction. The list of movies is equally endless: Starship Troopers, Aliens, Pitch Black, Event Horizon, Europa Report, and so on. I also was an avid Dungeons & Dragons player and I find D&D to be very similar to the survival genre, so I'd say that was definitely an inspiration."
What makes Osiris: New Dawn truly remarkable is that it's largely the work of just two people – McRae and programmer Manny Flores. "We've been working on Osiris on and off for over five years, and we didn't show anything about it until we really felt ready," McRae explains.
"Each day we asked ourselves 'what is the most important feature to add next?' We would then peer-program the feature, which is essentially working on it together. In fact, we peer-programmed most of the game for the first part of the week and then split up to work remotely: myself on the art and Manny on heavy systems like the inventory management."
The tiny size of the team is one of the biggest headaches that McRae has had to contend with during the production of Osiris: New Dawn, which went live on Steam's Early Access programme last year – but as the project has gathered momentum, that has changed.
"The biggest challenge right now is growing the team in a sensible, workable way," he says. "We’ve been experiencing some very fast growth. I typically don’t like to hire more than one person a month to allow proper acclimation, but that pace is far too slow for Early Access. Luckily, I’ve built outstanding working relationships with some of the best developers in the industry. When word spread about Osiris it was easy to get a rockstar team in place. It’s just the logistics of getting the office together and everyone up to speed on a large project, all while running to keep up with audience feedback."
The positive reaction the game has received – both from players and critics alike – has ensured that the hard graft has all been worth it. "It's really been awesome seeing the positive feedback on Steam," McRae admits. "Even when we make a blunder on a patch or update, the fans have been positive and give us feedback as to where we messed up, and how they'd like to see us handle it. We've sitting at 'Very Positive' reviews on Steam with over 3,200 reviews from players, so that feels great.
The awards given to the game at PAX last year were very affirming, too. Five years spent on a passion project all being confirmed as well spent by getting those. And it's really not just the awards; it was so much fun at PAX seeing people come up to the game and have a great time with it. When someone plays your game, leaves, and then comes back with friends in tow saying 'You guys need to play this now!', it's hard not to feel fantastic."
Osiris: New Dawn isn't quite finished yet and McRae is making sure that player feedback is factored into ongoing development to ensure that the final product is as good as it possibly can be. "Osiris is not just 'our' game any more, it's the community's, as they provide feedback to us every step of the way," he says.
"We look at all of it, see what makes sense and is worth exploring as a new addition or change to the game, and take it from there." A new update has just gone live which introduces the icy moon Aziel for players to explore, along with new tools and weapons to craft. Aziel is about three times larger than the first world, Proteus II, and shows Fenix Fire's commitment to expanding the scope of the game.
It's hardly fair to claim that Fenix Fire are taking baby steps with Osiris when the game has been in production for almost half a decade, but it's clear that McRae and his small team are taking their sweet time – and the result looks set to be worth waiting for.
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