Recently, I posted a preview and a Q&A with developers 11 bit studios about their upcoming title, The Alters. During the same trip, I also got hands-on with Frostpunk 2, specifically the start of the campaign mode, which is a direct follow-up to the original game.
I also talked about my time with the earlier beta and Utopia mode of Frostpunk 2, my hands-on with the start of the story, and my time with the original, all with Co-Game Director and Design Director Jakub Stokalski. I also have a hands-on preview from my time on Frostpunk 2, so keep tuned for that.
I’ll start by saying I played the living hell out of the first game and quite a bit of the earlier Utopia Mode beta. Starting with that, what made you decide to create the procedurally generated utopia mode from the beta? Is it to increase the replay value?
It’s one of the things we were working on immediately after Frostpunk 1 launched. We launched it in three scenarios.
The endless mode was the top-requested feature from Frostpunk 1 immediately after release. So, we ended up adding it, obviously, post-launch. But you know, the game was made in a way that it was endless only to an extent. There wasn’t, let’s say, some end-of-content to this, to this endless experience.
Knowing how important it is for players and for, I guess, players in the genre specifically, we decided to start with this from the get-go. This also enabled us to develop the game in a slightly different way. We focused on and expanded more on the mechanics to ensure that replayability was present. It’s built-in but bolted-on.
But when we started telling the world about the game from this utopia builder angle, it didn’t mean that the scenario was at any time in the backseat, right? From the beginning, the story mode was always planned, and it is the beating heart of what Frostpunk 2 is about.
Excellent. With the Utopia Builder mode in the beta, I reached one of the endings where I found the oil.
Congratulations. You’re in the minority, I think. Most of the players didn’t do that. They reached the 300-week gap.
Yeah, I also reached the 300-week gap on my first attempt. I think it was the third attempt I got to the oil. So, with the Utopia mode, how many endings do you have?
The beta was specific because we wanted to give a slice of the game, so we specifically turned off progression. We mean for the full Utopia Builder mode to be endless.
There is a structure to it that will enable you to achieve a specific type of ambition. You might have gleaned that in the beta, right? There’s a specific set of end goals you might set for yourself. Yes. But we plan to enable playing after the ending for however long you want, right?
So that was scratching the surface.
Exactly.
Are there other little secrets that might crop up in the Utopia Builder mode? Is there anything you can share?
Well, it wouldn’t be much of a secret if I did!
That is very true, but I have to ask.
We plan for this mode to be responsive to how you play. We hope that what you saw in the beta was just a slice of its structure and context. So, yeah, it’s got more communities and factions, and we hope that the interactions of these systems will provide an endless stream of surprises.
Let’s look at the story now. In the prologue, I just went through the first part; I managed to die first and succeed the second time without sacrificing the old people or Seals.
So you managed to reach New London?
Yes. I’m in New London and wanted to take the Seals with me. How does the prologue relate to New London and how it survived? I’m in one area, and then suddenly, I’m jumped right back into New London.
There is a story to it. The prologue will come back later in the campaign. But this is part of what we mentioned earlier. As we made the story mode for Frostpunk 2, we were surprised at how easy it was to grow. Let’s say complex is a bad word, I guess, in how many different ways you might play.
And we decided to embrace it. So, in truth, the story mode in Frostpunk 2 is much longer than any of the scenarios in Frostpunk 1 and is also a lot more replayable, as some choices you might make ripple down much more than anything we did in Frostpunk 1.
We hope that some of the choices you made in the prologue and your continued playing of New London will contribute to this unique story of the city’s legacy.
With the gameplay, you’ve expanded from just having the core city, which feels like a natural progression: you start with the city and want to expand outwards. What were the choices in how you create a district? You start with six tiles, and then it’s the expansion. What was the thinking behind that, and also any limitations?
This is our thinking of how the game had to expand in scope and size, both time-wise and size-wise. We were thinking about how to incorporate and devise a new take on these construction mechanics that will, in Frostpunk 1, have these heat zones, obviously, and the zones of the special buildings like the church and stuff like that.
We were figuring out how to make a fun gameplay mechanic out of it, expanding on this type of a new, larger scale. So that’s why we decided on districts that are a fixed size because of the central hub’s heat capacity, a bit reminiscent of the Steam Hub for Frostpunk 1. But also, these zones give you boosts if you build correctly. If you plan your city well, you can get significant boosts from placing your districts well and the terrain; you might have noticed some gameplay-related areas on the map.
This is how we are also thinking of creating an interesting construction system on this larger scale, one that may not exactly repeat the mechanics of Frostpunk 1 but still gives you an interesting gameplay challenge.
What was the decision-making in selecting these districts and how they function? Have you considered having more districts like a specific coal mining district instead of a general extraction one?
Yeah, it was a balancing act of making the game support the larger scale but also not making it overwhelmingly complex, right? We ended up having a common baseline of tools that you use to expand your, expand your city, but then the buildings that you uncovered from research and allow you to specialize your city in different ways, also supporting other types of, you know, Zeitgeist of the city, right?
These are your ways to adapt your play style, favouring progress or adaptation. On top of that, there are the hubs. They can also support different types of strategies that you want to use. For example, air transport is good for optimizing the workforce. When there’s a heating hub, your heat situation will be eased.
We use these three building blocks to construct the city-building system, which we hope will be an interesting gameplay challenge for you.
Beyond the city, in Frostpunk 1, you could send people to different areas. From what I’ve seen so far, I assume it’s the same, but again, on a larger scale. Plus, you can physically see your people go out and build paths and railways where necessary.
Yes, the scale is larger there as well. And it also plays a much more significant role in your economy if you want it to. Well, we can depend on Frostland much more if this is your way of playing, right?
You can specialize in exploring and finding spots that supply your city with resources. There is a surprise, I guess. At the end of the demo, there is another layer to Frostpunk, let’s say, that you can uncover and play on a completely different level as well. It’s in the demo, so fingers crossed you can uncover it.
Hopefully, I’ll see that. So, will we ever see a new Warsaw or another new city? We’ve got the impact of people, and you would think that not only one city survived. Will we have a moment when your city comes into direct contact with them?
Oh, yes. Well, we’ve already established that in Frostpunk, right? All of the scenarios had a different city that was telling a story of a different city. So, yes, the world itself is much larger.
In Frostpunk 2’s story mode, you will encounter old and new places. However, one of the allure of this IP is that we can think of how to expand. Like what you’re saying, this is a natural train of thought: I survived, and now we’re on a much larger scale, so what happens if we come into contact?
Certain bits and pieces already in Frostpunk 2 are related to that in this scenario. I guess not in the scope of what you’ll be playing today, but in the scope of the story mode. But it’s also something we’re excited about in the future if people like it, right?
We’ve had many ideas about how to support the game post-launch, and this is one exciting way we could do so.
I can’t see people not liking it, particularly from what I’ve played. Also, it’s a follow-on from the original, which was probably quite a surprise hit.
We hoped it would do well, and it did pretty well, better than we hoped it would. So we were super happy about it, right? That the game did so well. It is a bit of a source of anxiety, making so many changes, but at the same time, we didn’t feel making the same game twice would be satisfying to the players, so we decided to do what we did. To an extent, I would say that it’s not the same game, but it is still Frostpunk.
That’s what I’m seeing. The base is still there; you’re in the same world, building up and facing human challenges.
Exactly. We hope people will see that what made Frostpunk Frostpunk is still in the game. It has a different shape, but the decisions and choices matter.
Perfect. Thank you.
