The Indie Game Magazine May 2015 | Issue 49 | Page 15

of games?
UWE: When games are made by a
closed team, their quality depends
on the skills of that closed team, and
the information that team seeks out
actively. That means the new information
that can enter the development process
is limited. With a true open development
model, anyone that encounters our games
can introduce new information, feedback,
knowledge, and energy into the development process. While it is sometimes difficult
to parse all this inbound information, we
believe it allows us to make better games
than if we were in a traditional closed shop.
IGM: When you first announced Subnautica,
you stated it would “combine elements
of role playing, sandbox, exploration and
cinematic games to create a unique experience, the genre of which we do not believe
has yet been invented.” It’s been about a
year since then; do you think the game has
found a name for its genre yet?

we’re not sure what genre of game Subnauticais. placing terraformed world chunks. Other
Steam itself has recognized this by replacing traditional advantages of first-person, such
set genre labels with user generated ones. as not having to do avatar animations and
full body models, are no longer applicable
IGM: What is your ultimate goal for Subnaubecause of the rise of virtual reality.
tica? What do you hope players take away
from the experience?
IGM: What made you decide to create alien
aquatic life, as opposed to setting the game
UWE: Everyone on the Unknown Worlds
on an Earth-like planet with different realteam has different goals, and we don’t really
have a unified vision for what an ‘ultimate’ life species?
goal might be. Charlie often speaks of the
importance of bringing fun non-violent game
mechanics to the fore. Cory is keen to weave
a strong story with hints and connection with
other universes, and so forth. Generally, I
think we agree that we want people who
play Subnauticato have lots of fun!

IGM: Was there any debate before deciding
to make the game first-person versus thirdUWE: No. Traditional genre labels are not person? Are there alternative benefits to the
very helpful in our case. They lend themselves first-person perspective beyond a potentially
to understanding a game in a soundbite. If greater sense of immersion?
we were running a $200 million marketing
campaign on billboards, then we might be UWE: I recall there being some debate on
more concerned with putting Subnauticain this point, but can’t recall the specifics. Firsta genre bucket that could be understood in person view does tend to lend itself to fine
three words. But we aren’t, so it’s OK that manipulation of game objects: For example,

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UWE: I don’t have a clear answer for this.
Unknown Worlds has a history of being interested in extra-terrestrial life. Ironically, it’s
very hard to make underwater worlds look
alien: Earth’s own oceans often look more
‘alien’ than that of Subnautica.
IGM: Are there any creature designs that
are currently shelved or were already cut
because they were too complex or resource
intensive?
UWE: Too many to count.
IGM: The two major updates Subnautica
seen since its Early Access debut are the
addition of the Cyclops submarine and, most
recently, Seabases. Have you gotten any
specific feedback about these two features

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