This 20-person team, established by former Avalanche Studios employees, is determined to remain small. But while it helps to keep the studio agile, it also imposes some restrictions. “At the end of the project, there are only a certain number of bugs that you can physically fix during the day,” says Ljungqvist. And that is what has been a big part of Biomutant’s last year of development: bug elimination.“It’s been a lot of work for quality control, because it’s not easy to find them in an open world game,” explains Ljungqvist. “And then, once they have been found, we have to fix them, and that presents an additional challenge for us, as a small team.”
Ljungqvist is realistic about being able to launch Biomutant completely bug-free – a game with so many systems in its sandbox world is difficult to deliver without the strange problem – but he wants it to get into the hands of the players as solidly as possible. “Any game is going to be released with [smaller] bugs, but I’m talking about bugs that really hurt the game experience, ”he says. “We don’t want to send with this. I think that’s what made us wait until we were ready to do it. “
Quality assurance is not the only thing that has happened in Experiment 101 in the past year. The biomotor also mutated during this period. “If you look at the script, at the end of 2019 I think it was about 80-85,000 words. Almost a romance ”, remembers Ljungqvist. “But in the final game, it’s close to 250,000 words. That was a great thing, to end this script. “
These new words are spread across many different areas of the game, which in turn required more development work on these features. Ljungqvist notes that, as a result of the expanded script, players can expect a reactive karma system called Aura, which will change the NPC’s dialogue based on its light or dark loyalty. There is also a better tutorial system, which more effectively communicates the toy box overflowing with Biomutant ideas. In addition to the additional script that forms the basis of these features, the game will be available in 13 different languages, 10 of which are fully dubbed and, therefore, localization is required in all added words. It is safe to say that it was a busy year for Experiment 101.
Ljungqvist was careful to walk around the studio, however. “I have been doing this for some time,” he says, referring to his nearly decade spent at Avalanche Studios. “I was exhausted myself. I learned a lot about these subjects, about these subjects. I learned to recognize you. ”This somewhat explains the studio’s ‘ready when it’s ready’ approach and the lack of constant public updates. It is an approach that has been supported by publisher THQ Nordic, says Ljungqvist, on a level he “never had before”.The lack of pressure from THQ Nordic to launch Biomutant was a blessing, as the negative outcome of the crisis would be destructive for both the individual team and the studio in general, explains Ljungqvist. “I mean, the studio, we are 20 people and we cannot afford to have [staff] leave the studio or be destroyed during development. That would be devastating. “
“For certain impulses, you can do this in a limited way,” he acknowledges. “But the most important thing is that you get paid, which is not common in our industry, in a very crazy way. It also has a ‘recapitulation time’, because you have to rest. If you are doing this constantly for 12-14 hours a day, you will eventually have to pay for it. “
“I think it’s part of the studio’s DNA not to do that,” he concludes. “That’s why I think that for us, if we do, it will be controlled and rare. I think that now going to launch, we are prepared to do that for a few days, but it is not a constant thing. This will kill you. “
With the May 25 release date announcement, some fans may have been surprised to see that the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X are not listed as platforms on which the Biomutant will be released. After all, it is easy to assume the silence of Experiment 101 and the continuous development was due to the team that prepares Biomutant for next generation systems. Ljungqvist confirms that this is not the case – Biomutant is a ‘next generation’ game – but there is good reason for that.
“When we developed the game, we led the last generation,” says Ljungqvist. “And if you look at it from a development perspective, this is very important because it is easier to increase than to decrease.”
“I think for us as a team, we would like as many players as possible to play the game,” he adds, looking at the currently small installation bases for the PS5 and Xbox Series consoles. “So, if we just launched to the ‘next generation’, I think it would not have been a good way to go.”
Despite this, Biomutant still takes advantage of high specification hardware. “There is a high-end version of Biomutant already made for high-end PC versions,” says Ljungqvist. “I mean, the game already exists somehow in what you would expect on the platforms of the current generation.”
“Will you be able to play on these consoles?” he wonders about the PS5 and Xbox Series X, sparking the future of Biomutant. “Definitely. We will see in the future what will happen, but you will definitely be able to play on those consoles.”
Matt Purslow is the news and entertainment writer for IGN in the UK.