Pixel Privateers is an upcoming game from developer Quadro Delta and pubisher Re-Logic of Terraria fame. Slated for release this year on PC, the game is a self described Squad Based Tactical RPG “Loot ‘Em Up” that will send a team of mercenaries through a mysterious wormhole on a quest to gather technology for their employer. The journey becomes a one way ticket and you and your team will pilot your ship across the galaxy, land on worlds to explore, encounter factions, collect loot, and improve your skills as the story unfolds. The game features a user-customizable experience and robust multiplayer within the framework of a deep and engaging space exploration RPG and seeks to provide a truly accessible, retro rogue-like gaming experience with broad appeal. We had an opportunity to sit down with Alex Poysky, Producer and Lisa Morrison their Community Manager to talk about the game and how it’s development has come about.

Alex: Well, we are Quadro Delta, an independent studio that started out just three years ago with our breakout game Pixel Piracy. It was founded by Vitali Kirpu, and the games here are produced by me. My role on Privateers is production. I make sure the wheels are greased, morale is high, and the workflow goes well. Vitali is physically at the office in Finland, we are an international team and have people all over the world working together. I do things from basic design to negotiating deals, hiring new staff and working together with the team to design Privateers. Most of these roles are doubled down by Vitali as well mind you, we both run the show! Lisa Morrison is our astounding community manager, and we here at Quadro Delta are blessed to have her!

Alex: Well, we’ve had a big back and forth about that precise question as it’s so hard to define a game like Privateers. My quick pitch would be “Sci-Fi Squad and loot-based RPG Roguelite with 4 player cooperative multiplayer.” Lisa, would that be accurate? or have I done something terrible to our baby?

Lisa: I call it a genre-defying game. You try to attach labels to it, and they all seem to be a bit off in one way or another. Sci-Fi squad-based, RPG, Loot-’em-up, with roguelite or rogueLIKE depending on if you play hardcore. Multiplayer is where it shines, awesome to run with friends.

Alex: Well I CAN answer that one! After Pixel Piracy, Vitali and I wanted to design a new game but maintain it in the same “universe.” I came up with the initial design document for a game that would have been something that’s very different to what it is nowadays, a game about diving into bases and seeing how long you would last, only to recover tech and equip it for your next run. At the time we hadn’t really come to terms with how successful Pixel Piracy was going to be, so we were focused on keeping it simple. Things kind of escalated to the point of requiring a large team all over the world working on it full time as opposed to how Vitali and I started out. When we worked on Piracy, we both were employees of different companies at the time and worked on it in our very limited spare time. Privateers is the fruit of over two years of non-stop work. So it’s safe to say it’s a TAD larger tan Piracy!

Lisa: Piracy was a simulator, it leaned heavily on micromanagement of crew members, very little input in combat, things of that sort. Privateers is very hands-on, very much involving the player in what’s going on. In multiplayer, it’s critical to know your role, and know how your team is going to approach a given situation. That was something Piracy never really scratched the surface of. It’s a completely different experience, coded entirely from scratch. No borrowed code, no subtle cosmetic changes.

Alex: Precisely. We’ve made it all unique to this game, a new engine, (using Unity of course!) new everything. 2, and sometimes 3 artists. A musical score composed specifically for the title.

Alex: Feel free to answer this one Lisa as you LOVE it.

Lisa: In a word: Borderlands. It’s drop-in, drop-out up to 4 players, no port forwarding, no server hosting, just jump in and go.

Alex: And “loot piñatas”.

Lisa: Donkeys, Alex, Loot DONKEYS. The game lets you choose how to divide your squad members between your team. It’s a total of 8 characters, and the people playing can take 2 each, or 2, 3, 1, 2, or whatever works for them.

Alex: Oh also “class based rpg”.

Lisa: There’s a tremendous amount of freedom and flexibility, we’ve leaned on a design that allows for many different play styles.

Lisa: At its heart, we wanted to capture the magic of games like Diablo, except with friends. We love being showered by loot raining from dead enemies, having that loot make you ever stronger, and on to the next part of your adventure. You’re always hungry for even better loot, and there’s so much to choose from. It also gives the game a very different feel from Piracy, and we didn’t want to recycle ideas, we wanted to push it in new directions. Player freedom is huge in this game.

Lisa: My favorite class is SPACE MARINES!! The marine class is my favorite, deals delicious damage!

Alex: The classes in the game are all unique, you have your frontline vanguards, your engineers, marines, medics. What else is there Lisa?

Lisa: Scouts. What makes our class system interesting is that it’s tool based, you can free-swap tools at any time to change class, and there are multiple tools per class. so in effect, they feel like subclasses, such as a turret engineer versus a weapon-jamming engineer that runs interference or a defib medic versus a healer.

Alex: A vanguard can equip a thick shield, a microwave shield, a special suit that lets him run into the fray and knock everyone around, etc. So each class can swap out multiple sub class specialties on the fly (after the mission). And each of those plays into the research system, where you get perks based on research you put in. As an example there’s one that allows Scouts to let your team see through smoke, or one that lets medics give “happy pills” to the team to buff their stats. Each of these dozens of perks costs research points and get more and more expensive as you unlock new ones and new tiers in the tree, meaning each team will focus on a set of abilities, and in multiplayer coordinating synergies with other players will be a focus. You aren’t locked into a set class, it’s as easy as equipping a new tool on the fly between missions.

Alex: Yes and no. Multiplayer adds SO much to the experience that it’s very hard to explain. With multiplayer we wanted to give players the opportunity to experience the game in it’s entirety, something we felt lacked in Pixel Piracy for example. So now we’ve added cooperative gameplay from the start, and it was probably the wisest development decision. Cooperative gameplay mechanics are seamlessly integrated into singleplayer. In a nutshell, if your friend is on and you see him playing and want to join, you can. You will experience his single player campaign in it’s entirety. And if he joins you he’s helping you on yours. Whatever you get, your levels, skills, research, etc, is then transferred to your campaign. Another game that does this is, and yes this IS a Publisher plug, Terraria.

Alex: Release will be soon. We’ve learned from our experience on Piracy that it’s not good to rush a launch. We’ll do this one right and when you’re able to play it, it will be in a state we’re proud to push forward in your hands.

Alex: Well, before going on I’d like to take a moment to thank the entire team and Re-Logic on our behalf. Jaakko, Tuomo, Nino, Ari-Matti, Mikko and the testers, as well as Maarten our temp artist, Kole Hicks our composer. Lisa obviously and our dozens of testers! We’ve learned from our mistakes and we are doing our best to make a game we are thoroughly proud of.

Lisa: As a final thought, I would love to see everyone come hang out with us on our Discord channel, we are always around to talk to the community!

Check out their website for more info on the game as it nears release, and keep checking back with us for more articles and interviews on the best in RPG and innovative gaming.