Quantum Break developer teases new multiplayer games

Remedy Entertainment had a massive year this year with the launch of Quantum Break, neck deep in a myriad of issues and launch problems, with the game being received badly - worse so than their previous game, Alan Wake.

Game Director Mikael Kasurinen sat down to an interview with Polygon, talking about various things that just didn't work with Quantum Break. He said that the concept the developer had for Quantum Break with its TV show mix in with the game itself wasn't perfect, and that it wasn't easy to combine these two worlds. He said that both Quantum Break and Alan Wake would've been better if they were less linear.

Kasurinen said: "If you go back and look at Alan Wake ten years ago you could see us talking about it about how we dabbled with the idea of driving around in a car in an open environment. You could see even then that desire to go in that direction". He continued: "One way to tell a story is to create a rich world you can get to explore. When you look back at Alan Wake and Quantum Break, you can see we spent a lot of time looking at the shape of those worlds, the cities, towns, neat characters, maps".

"We spent a lot of time in crafting those universes, if you will. The gameplay is actually a linear story through those amazing, complicated worlds. In one way, it's a bit of a lost opportunity", added Kasurinen. "I think they could have been bigger [games] easily. Alan Wake had a long history of development, but it was through years of events that it took the shape it took. A lot of concepts were created through that journey. It felt like there was this world of concept and complex storyline that was left aside. The key point that we learned from that experience is that the world building we do needs to connect with the gameplay. Gameplay needs to enable organic experiences and interactions with the world. We still want to create strong worlds, but the game should be crafted in such a way that allows this exploration".

Remedy's next game, codenamed 'Project 7'

Remedy quickly teased their upcoming game known as Project 7, as well as the ones after that - with Kasurinen saying: "The game is cooperative. That fits within the theme of the game we are creating and supports it, makes it even stronger. This is our first step toward shared experiences between players". As for the games after Project 7, he teased: "The games coming after this game will feature bigger multiplayer than this".

But don't worry, Remedy's Creative Director Sam Lake (the face of Max Payne) said that Remedy won't be forgetting their heritage. Lake said: "We announced earlier that we are exploring multiplayer elements for our future games, but that doesn't mean those games wouldn't have a strong narrative. Like Mikael explained, I feel that co-op offers interesting opportunities for storytelling in games. Also, the multiplayer is part of the long-term exploration we're doing, not the main focus of the games in the making right now".