Interview: ACONY Games Creative Director, Jan-Eric Lauble Speaks On The World's First Reality Show Shooter

Image via Complex Original

We wanted a game that was sexier, and had a more media-driven feeling to create an obvious hook to attract players. In a society obsessed with celebrity, the idea that there could be a reality show that broadcasts live, lethal combat game programming around the world just made sense. The game takes a lot of inspiration from movies and TV as is only fitting for a game about a TV network. The story and setting owes a lot to movies like Running Man but we wanted the game to have a certain swagger and style. Internally we used references from movies such as The Losers, Smoking Aces and even Romeo and Juliet to try and get the right pitch of stylish violence and sexy attitude in the game. Beyond that, as the game is set in the very near future we thought about what a media-driven world would look like eight or ten years from now so films like Minority report and Gamer gave us some cues for future tech, augmented reality and so forth. Finally when we were fleshing out the story, we had a central character - John J. Lazar - who is the man behind the whole enterprise. When we were describing him we’d say, ‘Ok, you know Tony Stark from Iron Man? Well he’s a bit like that.’ That helped people to get what we were aiming for there.

Originally we were looking into different game modes in the context of a military themed shooter and we kept thinking, ‘This is cool but why would someone actually do this?’ If you break down the mechanics of a lot of games and try to fit them to what actually happens in a real battle, there’s a big disconnect. This game is actually a game in which you can do all kinds of crazy and interesting things without needing to work in any rationalizations. All games have arbitrary rules whether it’s chess or pro-wrestling so, by acknowledging that out of the gate, we have a lot of creative freedom. We don’t need to explain why you have to press the big red button, it’s just the rules of the game.

Players that purchase the optional membership receive convenience and savings, such as discounts on items. The game itself will always be free. Players will be able to buy clothes and items for their characters, options for their weapons as well as improve their abilities. All of these options are available to both free-to-play users and paying users. We want the game to be the same experience for all of our players regardless. Players who pay real money might be able to acquire those items faster and they’ll be able to buy services that will help their characters advance more rapidly by earning more Credits and more Fans per match. It’s a time versus money choice that each player can make for themselves; playing for free gives you access to the same in-game items but you can cut a corner and get them quicker if you want to. We’re aiming to sell convenience rather than power.

We’re working on systems scheduled to appear after launch that will add a lot of depth to the experience. We want this to be a way for players to rank themselves against their friends and provide some longer-term challenges. This will include special rewards for the players who do particularly well.

That’s all in the future but right now we highlight the players who manage to achieve things like the most Heat after a match or who have the best Style. The game is all about bragging rights and individual style so for sure we want to give players things to aspire to.

The focus of the game is firmly on entertainment, not just maximum killing efficiency. The audience wants to see you put on a show, so you progress to fame faster for playing in a more spectacular way. This is tracked through a system called Heat which is a measure of how much the audience is loving your performance so far. That said, shooting someone gets you Heat, but sliding on your knees down a corridor while popping headshots with dual pistols earns you a whole lot of Heat. In Bullet Run, it isn’t enough just to be good. You have to look good doing it.

You can also significantly increase your Heat in a match by taunting. This really lets an opponent know that he’s been schooled – the player you just killed has to watch you perform your victory celebration to the crowd and it’s exactly the sort of entertainment that the audience is paying to see!

This is definitely something we’re looking into. The setting lends itself very naturally to be presented in different ways. One of the great advantages of working on a live game like Bullet Run is that we can prioritize our development based on the feedback from the community – if there’s a lot of demand for this kind of feature, it’s possible for us to try and wrangle it into the schedule.

We have two commentators who play off each other during a match. One is a former contestant who tends to get a bit carried away while the other is the archetypal professional sportscaster. We’ve recorded a lot of different lines to try and keep the feeling of repetitiveness to a minimum while still accurately describing the action.

The way we’ve done this is to have a bunch of different lines that are triggered by various events. For example if you kill someone they’ll talk about that, if you kill someone with a headshot or kill your nemesis then that will trigger different voice over tracks relevant to the action. This makes the system very personal for each player; every significant action will be mentioned by the team. On top of that, the commentators are also discussing the general state of the match so they’ll be taking note of the scores – for example, if the lead changes, when the time is nearly up and so on. When the match is over they’ll also deliver a summary of how well or badly it all went for you.

Finally the commentators will just chat with each other if there’s a lull in the action; they’ll talk about the arena, the game mode or just other events that are happening on the network.

As you earn more Heat, you’ll unlock progressively more powerful abilities to use during the match. Choose from, say, a heal injector, a flying drone, a mortar strike or a sentry turret. Each of them gives you new ways to use the terrain and different options in combat.

After the match, the Heat that you earned is converted into Fans and Credits. The more fans that you have, the more famous you are so this is a very obvious progression for the player. As players become more famous they’ll get access to different equipment, more clothing options and so on. The really flashy and outrageous outfits are reserved for the most famous characters so you’ll be able to tell who’s on the way up by the way that they dress.