Key Giveaway: Remembering DESOLATE early days

All games come through many iterations, and very rarely the game retains all its features. And today we wanted to share some of the details about the development of Desolate!

At the early stages of development, the game was set to take place on another planet. A fragment of introductory mission sheds light on more details:

" was sent here, to Ansora island, for researching and uncovering data about the great calamity that happened on planet Eilot a few years ago and forever changed it.”



But despite being set on another planet, the visual style of the game did already resemble that of dystopian USSR. Building a world similar to ours, but, at the same time different, also proved to be quite difficult - as well as conveying it to the player through the game’s surroundings. This two factors became the main reason to change the setting of the game to an alternate history USSR.

Back then the game also had a bigger emphasis on online . Upon starting the playthrough, a player had to start a server, that could incorporate up to 12 players! Ultimately, though, it didn’t go together well with the core design of the game -- the players were mostly completing solo story missions and their interactions didn’t go much further than engaging in PvP combat. As such, the system was scrapped and instead remade into online co-op for up to 4 players.



Other main components of the game remained mostly the same through the years. The only exception being the firearms and shooting mechanics. In the early stages the combat was melee-oriented.

Talking about old iterations of the game is always bittersweet. It’s fun to find out, how the project could turn out to be, but, ultimately, it would be a different game. And while we all can miss some of the earlier features -- with all things considered, the final product is almost always the best version of the game!