Quantum Break Developers Talk Difficulties of Making a Single Player-Only Game, Delays, Music and More
Quantum Break is finally out for everyone to enjoy, and developers at Remedy Entertainment have taken to Twitter to express their feelings about the game.
Writer Mikko Rautalahti opened the dances, explaining how in the current business environment it’s hard to be able to make a single player-only game that doesn’t try to monetize at every corner:
Here's another thing about Quantum Break: we're all about that well-crafted, atmospheric single-player experience.
— Mikko Rautalahti (@MikkiRMD) April 5, 2016
We don't have multiplayer. We don't have endless gameplay. We don't have a season pass, and we're not selling you hats.
— Mikko Rautalahti (@MikkiRMD) April 5, 2016
(I'm not passing some kind of shitty moral judgment on those things, that's not what I'm about. I'm just talking about where our focus is.)
— Mikko Rautalahti (@MikkiRMD) April 5, 2016
This isn't easy to justify in a modern business env. These days, games kind of aren't like this anymore. There's great pressure to monetize.
— Mikko Rautalahti (@MikkiRMD) April 5, 2016
We've been lucky enough to get to be ourselves to a great extent. Remedy's not a huge studio. We pick our battles, focus on what we do best.
— Mikko Rautalahti (@MikkiRMD) April 5, 2016
So what you get with QB a carefully crafted experience. It's by no means perfect, but it's as engaging and unique as we can make it.
— Mikko Rautalahti (@MikkiRMD) April 5, 2016
I hope it's the sort of thing people appreciate. It's definitely the sort of thing I like to create as a writer.
— Mikko Rautalahti (@MikkiRMD) April 5, 2016
Rautalahti also talked about the game’s delays, which are actually only one delay.
Oh, and that "Quantum Break has been delayed repeatedly" thing? Not true! Regardless of what everybody knows, we only got delayed once.
— Mikko Rautalahti (@MikkiRMD) April 5, 2016
Before that, the internet just decided what our release date OBVIOUSLY is, and when we announced the actual date, people lost their shit.
— Mikko Rautalahti (@MikkiRMD) April 5, 2016
(And then we did get delayed, sure. But only once.)
— Mikko Rautalahti (@MikkiRMD) April 5, 2016
Incidentally, thanks to Rautalahti, we also learn that Finnish physicist and cosmologist Syksy Räsänen helped with the development of the game. Remedy consulted him on the physics of time travel.
The game #quantumbreak is out today from @remedygames, who consulted me on the physics of time travel.https://t.co/2ai4ms8h5a
— Syksy Räsänen (@SyksyRasanen) April 5, 2016
He even mentioned the game in the homework he assigned for his General Relativity course. Where do I apply?
A little time travel calculation from my General Relativity course (problem 3). You may see it in #quantumbreak.https://t.co/nKaK3jRUq1
— Syksy Räsänen (@SyksyRasanen) April 5, 2016
Actually, I better not apply. I can’t understand a single word of that…
Composer Petri Alanko also talked about the game’s track “Doubt, Despair, Hope:”
In #QuantumBreak’s “Doubt, Despair, Hope”, a percussive piano sound: upright piano wreck processed w/splintering laminated glass samples.
— Petri Alanko (@Peppepappa) April 5, 2016
By itself, it sounds like a broken space, mirroring tiny pieces of sound back. Perfect for a convolution. #QuantumBreak
— Petri Alanko (@Peppepappa) April 5, 2016
The song's about rebuilding yourself, regaining strength. I had a strange feeling the night this was mixed. #QuantumBreak
— Petri Alanko (@Peppepappa) April 5, 2016
As a final bonus, Senior Sound Designer Ville Petteri Sorsa provided a picture of a cute ad that appeared yesterday night at the local GameStop in Espoo, where Remedy is located.
Remedy advertisement on local GameStop store #remedy #quantumbreak #xbox #microsoft #gamedev pic.twitter.com/5triDiNdl5
— VilleRMD (@VilleSorsa) April 5, 2016
