Inventive base-building, dungeon-delving, player-versus-player grindhouse Meet Your Maker made a splash when it landed in the Red Sands of post-apocalyptic Earth in April 2023. With its first major post-launch content, Behaviour Interactive’s Meet Your Maker adds the moody atmosphere of New England to its frenetic gameplay.
The update added a lot more than dense fog and Dreadshore decoration, though. From new traps and guards to a new Custodian, there are new elements in Sector 1 to make the raiding and building of Meet Your Maker's Outposts more rewarding and dynamic. These include the maritime horror-inspired Nautilus, the new Sentry Beam trap, and the Ravager guard–provided courtesy of the monstrous experiments from beneath an old New England lighthouse. Meet Your Maker’s Creative Director, Ash Pannell, spoke with Game ZXC about the best ways to hoard genetic information or make off with someone else’s in the new Dreadshore expansion
Drawing on familiar elements of horror does change the atmosphere of the Outpost raids, but it’s the new tools for Builders and Raiders that really shake up the nuts and bolts of the game. For instance, he shared insight into tackling the new trap, the Sentry Beam. “The Sentry Beam is an area denial trap designed to pin unsuspecting players down. As it bounces off walls, it brings a nice new sense of randomness that helps break well-known patterns of play,” he said. “Raiders should be cautious when noticing the sentry beams and slow down to analyze its trajectory.”
Of course, knowing how to handle one trap isn’t going to help those taking on the daring raids of others’ Outposts. Doing those daring raids can be easier when not going it alone, but under any circumstance, it rarely is easy to swipe GenMat from another hoarder. Still, Pannell was willing to give some insight into how he personally takes on those challenges.
“For Raiding it’s all about being methodical for me. Make sure all your angles are covered and move forward making sure to clear a path for the way back. I always use the Phoenix Pods when I am deep into an outpost in case I get caught out, because that happens all the time! You really must get into the head of the Maker–look for patterns they use and exploit them with the tools at hand. If I come across something really challenging, then it’s time to roll up my sleeves, break open the loadout, and start picking some specialist equipment.”
Raiders are pitted against Builders, players who have designed their bases like deranged Mario Maker levels to provide death to Raiders at every opportunity. Delves often go mere seconds without death visiting a Raider, and extensive trial-and-error is required by both the attacker and the defender in Meet Your Maker’s system. Thankfully, Pannell has advice for the Builders as well. And it’s through building that Pannell sees the creativity of the community.
“For building, it’s about getting into the heads of the raider instead! I always build to provide an experience, making sure all my traps and guards are distributed throughout the whole experience. Why? Because I love accolades more than deaths (although I want them too) and I want to get as many accolades as I can. I also enjoy using verticality and wide-open spaces too so I am always building up, then mixing it up with tight corridors … It's amazing to see how [creators] can take the tools and assets provided in the game and transform them into over-the-top environments that transport players into other realms and narratives.
The game is all about problem-solving, from the Builders trying to shore up the weaknesses in their defense to the Raiders seeking out those weaknesses and finding new ways to exploit them. In that, Pannell is constantly impressed by the game’s community. That cleverness is rewarded in the game’s ranking system, which was reworked in Meet Your Maker's Dreadshore update. Pannell said matchmaking has been improved, and the points needed to advance in rank have been set to a more gradual pace.
The goal of the ranking adjustments is to match players more appropriately based on ensuring both attacker and defender a reasonable challenge while preserving a sense of progression as players gain more skill and experience, to better push one another to be inventive in design or approach.
“The ways people go about playing as Builders or Raiders can often surprise us. Players exhibit remarkable creativity in base designs, employing intricate trap setups, clever decoys, and unexpected combinations of elements," he said. "Similarly, Raiders display ingenuity by devising unique approaches, exploiting unanticipated weaknesses, or utilizing unconventional strategies. It's always a delight to see the devious minds of Builders and the will to conquer from Raiders.”
Meet Your Maker is available for PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
