Developer Interview: AI LIMIT
With soulslikes titles becoming bigger than ever, we're seeing a slew of new competitors join the team. What was once a market dominated by FromSoftware's signature franchises — with even ELDEN RING's previous successes restating their dominant position in the market — has grown to include multiple publishers taking a stab at difficult titles. We had the wonderful opportunity to interview the team behind AI LIMIT, Sense Games, where we tried to get a glimpse at how their development process has treated them. From their demo times and how feedback has turned the game to even how recent controversies may have affected their overall vision of their soulslike take, here was our interview with Yang Bin, producer of AI LIMIT at SenseGames!
Seeing as this is a bit of a new foray for Sense Games, including an all-new genre to explore and even quality of experience, what sorts of challenges have you faced throughout the development?
It can be said that every stage, spanning from the selection of technical frameworks and the design of levels and characters to the final implementation, was rife with challenges. Almost all of our developers were new to the industry. As such, we had to start every aspect from scratch, learning while we developed.
The soulslike genre has been growing in popularity over recent years, with many newcomers and new faces joining the genre. Why did you choose now to begin your soulslike venture?
We actually started developing this game back in 2018. The reason the main creative team wanted to make a soulslike is that we're all big fans of this genre. We've always had this itch to create one ourselves.
With so many soulslike experiences out there, what did you do to learn from the competition while still ensuring to keep a unique spin to really call your "own"?
We learned two invaluable lessons:
- The very essence of combat in this genre lies in the intense thrill of studying enemies' behaviour patterns to precisely counter their moves.
- The underlying logic of this genre lies in the rich RPG elements within the progression system, which are brought about by level exploration.
We believe what makes AI LIMIT unique are the post-apocalyptic wasteland sci-fi city setting and the Sync Rate mechanic that reflects this setting."
With AI LIMIT, how did the team approach finding a way to make balancing enjoyable whilst still offering a challenge? What were the biggest setbacks when it came to finding the right balance between skill and accessibility?
We believe that the key to achieving balance lies in the learning curve. Our primary objective is to enable players to learn how to tackle challenges by presenting them with scenarios of manageable difficulty rather than subjecting them to a cycle of purely negative feedback.
Penalties for failure can happen, but they must be carefully calibrated. This way, players will be motivated to keep trying and learn from their mistakes through repeated attempts.
Soulslike games are often more challenging. There is a significant difference in the learning speed between new players and veteran players. Some moves that veteran players find easy may require a great deal of effort for new players to learn. We are often caught between the two voices of "too difficult" and "too easy", and it's difficult for us to find the right balance.
How has the feedback from numerous events that AI LIMIT has engaged with, seeing as it has participated in a few Steam Next Fests with demos, affected the overall vision and approach that you've had with the experience?
We received a great deal of valuable feedback from players, with the most beneficial insights being related to the improvement of the game's numerical design. Players expressed a strong desire to consistently obtain positive feedback during small combat cycles. In response, we have enhanced players' ability to interrupt enemies. For instance, we extended dodging invincibility frames, which provides players with more options to counter enemy attacks.
There has been a lot of debate regarding demos being good or damaging to games; what can you tell us about your point of view on the discussion?
We believe that the demo brought more positive outcomes. It serves as an excellent opportunity for us to showcase our work to the gaming community. This has spurred us on to refine our work to a level where it is worth being presented to the world. Moreover, we can promptly make the necessary adjustments in response to the feedback we've received from the demo.
Seeing as the soulslike genre has been seen as controversial, how do you find the balance between creating the gameplay you want versus allowing accessibility and abiding by the general rules of a "videogame"?
We believe that the soulslike genre doesn't have much conflict with the general rules of games. Admittedly, soulslike games usually aren't as forceful and direct as traditional video games when it comes to tutorials. However, for players who enjoy exploring on their own, this change actually lightens their burden.
Another characteristic, fragmented narrative and static NPC dialogue, is something we believe stems from limited development resources allocated to narrative in past titles rather than being an inseparable hallmark of the Soulslike genre.
We have a very good criterion, which is the game's world-building. If certain designs can sufficiently showcase the attributes of world-building, then even if they slightly conflict with the general rules, we will still adhere to such designs or seek a compromise.
How have the recent controversies surrounding AI affected the way that you approached AI LIMIT, including its narrative and inclusion of an android-esque protagonist?
Even though the AI industry has developed rapidly in recent years, it is still quite far from the AI that often appears in science fiction.
What was the biggest hurdle faced by the team during the development thus far, and how did they go about overcoming it?
The greatest challenge was the decision to change the rendering pipeline midway through the development. This decision forced us to scrap almost all the assets, and the only solution to this problem was to invest more time in it.
When it comes to any project, the starting idea and setup are always quite different from the final outcome; what can you tell us about how the game has changed throughout development?
As mentioned above, we changed the rendering pipeline during the development. We shifted the game's art style from a relatively simple two-tone full cartoon rendering to a combination of realistic environment and character Cel shading, thus forming our own unique art style.
In addition, our combat system has evolved from a simplified imitation of soulslike games at the beginning to a significant shift of the focus of the combat system towards the Sync Rate and Spell Frame in the end.
Even then, our protagonist, bosses, and enemies have almost all gone through iterations of multiple versions.
Bonus Questions!
If you were an android, what would be your model name?
I think it might be "ANATTA", which is a Buddhist concept that I like very much. It means "emptiness of the self" or "no self".
Similarly, what would be your android's speciality/purpose?
I might be really good at telling dry-humour jokes.
A big thank you to the team for the opportunity! AI LIMIT will be released on the 27th of March! Check out the game on Steam and make sure to read our review!
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