Fortnite – ‘Pac-Man Mega Tunnel Battle’ devs reveal 1 secret to battle royale success

Most individuals affiliate the time period “battle royale” with shooters like Fortnite, Apex Legends, and Name of Obligation: Warzone.

Driving the tsunami of Fortnite’s success has come a collection of weird new video games that aren’t shooters however incorporate comparable components: Tetris 99, Tremendous Mario Bros. 35, and Fall Guys: Final Knockout stand out, particularly. The most recent of those is Pac-Man Mega Tunnel Battle.

This battle royale stars Pac-Man, one of the crucial in style online game characters of all time. Not solely is it a Google Stadia unique, nevertheless it may simply be the cloud gaming platform’s finest unique but. It is also a testomony to what makes battle royales so participating, even when it proves that no franchise can go untouched from the battle royale craze.

Within the sport, as much as 64 gamers pilot their very own Pac-Man, gobbling up snack pellets throughout interconnected mazes that steadily dissipate, forcing all of them into nearer quarters till the final Pac-Man is left alive.

Inverse spoke with a number of of the sport’s builders from Bandai Namco and Heavy Iron Studios across the November 17 launch to be taught extra about how Pac-Man was tailored into the battle royale format. Pac-Man: Mega Tunnel Battle Design Director Chris Cross tells Inverse that the most important problem was in figuring out these mystical components that make battle royale’s participating whereas preserving what Pac-Man does finest.

“The trick for us was to verify the sport felt like Pac-Man first after which layer on the brand new options,” Cross says. “The underlying feel of the original game is what ties it all together.” Each nice battle royale has two key components, Cross says. Gamers should battle to change into the final man standing in a tightening atmosphere, they usually should combat for sources early within the sport.

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A storm closes in on gamers in video games like Fortnite, forcing gamers to remain cell whereas looting. How do you simulate that very same feeling of hysteria if you play as a chomping yellow sphere who eats pellets and dodges ghosts?

Invasion Gates in Pac-Man: Mega Tunnel Battle let gamers go from maze to maze and likewise lessens the variety of mazes over time. And solely let sure gadgets like Sensible Bombs seem within the early sport, which gamers can hoard over the course of a match. It’s maybe an important mechanic within the sport, Cross tells Inverse.

“There are two slots players can save or store power-ups for later use, introducing some long-term tactics and strategies for players,” he says. “I’ve seen players save [smart bombs until the end of the game. It’s impressive to know they’ve been hanging on to that thing for several rounds … to preserve the chance to use it to win in the final maze.”

For extra particulars concerning the sport’s improvement, right here’s extra from Cross and Stephanie Fawaz from Heavy Iron Studios, together with Model Supervisor Pearl Lai and Producer Frank Horn from writer Bandai Namco.

Inverse: At what level throughout improvement do you know that Pac-Man Mega Tunnel Battle was going to be a Stadia unique? How did you come to this choice?

Pearl Lai: Pac-Man Mega Tunnel Battle was one thing that was conceived particularly to leverage what Stadia and cloud gaming have to supply, such because the promise of having the ability to deal with large simultaneous multiplayer, crowd interactivity, and the flexibility to play on any system with out the barrier of individuals needing to buy moreover bespoke {hardware}.

How does creating a sport for a cloud-based platform like Google Stadia differ from creating for a standard console or PC?

Stephanie Fawaz: On the event aspect, COVID-19 pushed our complete studio to work remotely, which we had by no means accomplished earlier than. There have been some rising pains to work out with this main shift within the workflow, however our sport improvement proceeded totally on schedule attributable to two issues.

Stadia is a platform designed from the bottom as much as be a distant console, so we couldn’t have picked a greater platform to enter right into a earn a living from home workflow with. Our improvement workforce was each extremely diligent and passionate, and their flexibility to alter to a distant workflow and maintain working at 100% output was massively commendable on their aspect.

How does Stadia will let you put options in Pac-Man Mega Tunnel Battle for Stadia that wouldn’t have been attainable on different platforms?

SF: We noticed a possibility to make use of Stadia’s cloud platform and networking capabilities to carry the traditional Pac-Man gameplay to a brand new fast-paced, massively multiplayer atmosphere. The mechanics of Pac-Man are so versatile, and we jumped on the likelihood to carry these mechanics and total really feel right into a extra fashionable sport style.

What steps did you’re taking to make sure that the sport doesn’t really feel overwhelming for brand new gamers, regardless that there are 64 gamers in a single spherical?

Chris Cross: Core gameplay corresponding to controls, ghost AI, maze measurement and development, and Pac-Man motion all leverage the unique sport as a beginning place. Then, we layered on tips on how to go from maze to maze and a number of Pac-Man characters in a maze whereas preserving that authentic really feel. After that, we added the brand new Energy-Ups methods, after which the battle royale gameplay helped us form issues like maze measurement and structure.

How do you propose to help Pac-Man Mega Tunnel Battle after launch? Will it have seasonal content material like different battle royales?

SF: We do see Pac-Man Mega Tunnel Battle as a dwell service, and are already planning upcoming content material for the long run!

Is Pac-Man Mega Tunnel Battle only a timed Stadia unique? Are there plans to carry the sport to consoles or different cloud platforms like Amazon Luna?

PL: Right now, there aren’t any plans to carry Pac-Man Mega Tunnel Battle to different platforms.

Pac-Man: Mega Tunnel Battle is out there now for Google Stadia.