Starship Troopers: Extermination is gearing up for its 1.0 release later this year after a productive year-long stint in Early Access, but the team at Offworld still has plenty of plans for the game beyond that point. Like any good Early Access period, the game has seen numerous system overhauls, added features, and player feedback-driven balance changes that have helped improve and shape the game toward becoming an ideal Starship Troopers experience.
Game ZXC interviewed Starship Troopers: Extermination game lead Peter Maurice and lead game designer Chaz Barker, among others, about their approach to the game's development during its Early Access period, and they offered some insights into how in-development games ought to be handled. Maurice also weighed in on the importance of community involvement, admitting to spending perhaps too much time interacting with fans and spilling secrets in the game's Discord.
The Best And Worst Things About Starship Troopers: Extermination
Still in early access, here's what Starship Troopers: Extermination manages to do well, and where it could improve.
Starship Troopers: Extermination Takes Early Access Seriously
Early Access has become a polarizing subject in gaming over the years. For every Early Access success story like Vampire Survivors, there are also occasions when an unfinished game gets pushed into Early Access only to be abandoned entirely soon after. Barker says that Early Access is an effective approach to development so long as the studio handles it appropriately and keeps a steady pace with updates.
People say “Early Access is a scam” or whatever, and I’m like, “No. Not if you take it seriously.”
It’s meant to be a new way of developing games that isn't quite as obtuse or difficult to see as Kickstarter might be where you've given sh*tload of money to someone, and you have no idea if I'm going to deliver it. This is what real development is really like. You're delivering working software to an audience, and you go, “How's it going?” And they go, “Could be better that way.” Alright, cool. That's what development is and what it should be. When development goes wrong, it’s when that doesn't happen for six months and everyone’s standing around being like, “This game is terrible.”
Early Access allows players to communicate more openly with the developers throughout the process, bringing attention to bugs, balance issues, or un-fun mechanics that a small studio and limited playtester pool may otherwise have missed. Starship Troopers: Extermination is clearly interested in player feedback, as many of the changes the game has made over time are a direct result of input from players on Discord, Steam, and elsewhere.
Starship Troopers: Extermination Devs Drop Hints In Discord
Although an open dialogue between players and developers can occasionally backfire as seen with the Helldivers Discord's periodic drama, it's an overall net gain for the fans and the developers. For Maurice, Discord is also a way to engage with the community by dropping hints about future content, though not every hint has been caught by the community.
We're gamers, too. I play so many different games across all genres. We know how hard it is to find a good game to buy, but we also know how hard it is to make a good game. That's why I'm in Discord more than I should be. I love talking to the community all the time and just hearing what they think, and it's like I spoil my own secrets all the time in there. I've said three things in Discord over the last month that potentially spoil three things coming to the game within the next year that nobody has caught onto yet.
With a history of dropping teasers of content to come, eagle-eyed fans may want to take a closer look at developer interactions in Discord for some hints as to what's coming next. Beyond the single-player content featuring Casper Van Dien, Barker says that Offworld has plans for lots of additional StarshipTroopers:Extermination content over the next few years.
Starship Troopers: Extermination
Offworld Industries' Starship Troopers: Extermination is a co-op first-person shooter that is currently in early access on PC. Featuring multiple classes, customization, and base-building, Extermination drops 16 players in a war against the Arachnids, an overwhelming army of bugs.
