There is never a shortage of interesting PvE games launching into the marketplace. One recently unveiled game that sparked my attention, and I’m sure yours, is The Forever Winter. It’s a fun-looking concept that Fun Dog Studios is currently working through for a launch on PC.
If you haven’t encountered this game, The Forever Winter is a looter shooter with a slight twist. It’s all about survival with you and your crew. We’re roaming around in this futuristic Earth that has become a battlefield between two warring factions. With colossal mech-like machines and elite forces patrolling the areas, you might expect the game to thrust you right into the action.
But that’s the case here. As mentioned, this is all about survival, and you’re just one of the few unlucky folks caught up in the chaos. You’re out for yourself and your squad. But with fewer resources available, how you manage to scavenge is where the real fun begins. Will you go guns blazing and hope to overcome the odds? Sneak around and steal some goods without raising too many bells? Or will wait for the two enemy factions to engage with each other so you can run away with the loot?
We might be a long way off before The Forever Winter graces the marketplace. However, we spoke with Miles Williams, the CEO and Creative Director of Fun Dog Studios. Miles was able to shed a little more light on this new IP.
Gameranx: Am I correct that The Forever Winter is the debut title under Fun Dog Studios?
Miles: Yes, The Forever Winter is our debut title! We wanted to take our experience working on incredible games like Horizon, Killzone, Hawken, and dozens more and apply it to new IPs. The Forever Winter represents a lot of what we felt it might be impossible for us to work on inside a AAA studio, and having the freedom of going independent means we get to prototype these wild ideas and mechanics to really make the game different, exciting, and worth playing.
This wouldn’t be possible without the democratization of technology like Unreal Engine 5. That engine is absolutely key – it allows us to quickly stand up and iterate through the course of development. These new tools mean it’s more possible than ever to make a AAA-style game without the backing of a “true” AAA studio.
Gameranx: Could you give us some inspiration behind The Forever Winter?
Miles: There are a ton of sci-fi influences like Terminator 2, The Animatrix, and more. But the genesis of the game idea stems from my childhood playing the classic RTS games like Dawn of War, Command & Conquer, those were the real classics! I remember spending ages building up armies in those games and then just hitting “play” and watching them do their thing. There’s something captivating about watching NPC enemies fight each other, and we wanted to give you the incentive to do so, stealthily and secretly. That’s where our whole take on the looter-shooter came from – incentivizing players to stop, evaluate, and problem-solve vs. automatically going in guns blazing. You get rewarded for collecting valuable tech, not for outshooting everything.
Gameranx: What can you tell me about the story?
Miles: So first up, you’re on a future Earth. This is a war-torn planet that’s suffering the effects of the Kessler syndrome – which says that if you destroy only about 7% of the satellite’s currently in orbit, the space debris created would cripple the planet. It would knock out long range communication, destroy our ability to share information, and ultimately lead to absolute chaos. You’re here on this post-apocalyptic planet, caught in the middle of factional warfare. Survival is the ultimate goal as they navigate through the maze of enemies.
Gameranx: From my understanding, there are two warring factions, and players are not members of either faction. Does that mean these factions are not necessarily setting targets on you initially?
Miles: Correct, players are not a part of the two warring factions! You’re just a lowly, unaffiliated scavenger trying to keep a small community of survivors alive. This means you have to traverse the battlefield and try not to get caught up by the enemy. And since you’re looking for extremely valuable and extremely finite resources, those factions can and will notice. They don’t want you just taking their stuff, and they’ll deploy active countermeasures against you if you raise their ire. This includes Hunter killer units in the vein of Mr. X, more on that later!
It’s up to you and your squad to choose how to proceed. Do you engage in combat to get their resources? Sneak around them and set up an ambush? Try to draw another faction into the fray and have these two gun it out against each other (instead of you?) It’s all about choosing between a set of circumstances that may not have a truly right choice. This is what we mean by applying real-time tactics because force won’t always be an option to solve these combat puzzles.
Gameranx: Is this a strictly multiplayer-focused gameplay experience, or can players drop into the game alone?
Miles: Players can drop in the game alone but have the choice to recruit AI-driven squadmates to help get through the carnage. It’s definitely a lot more rewarding to get through the battlefield with your squad all intact. This was largely inspired by a love of games like Freedom Fighters, Graw, Brothers in Arms Conflict Desert Storm, and quite a few others. It’s a bit of a lost mechanic and we gotta bring it back because it was beautiful.
Gameranx: How big of a party can players expect to have in this game, and will we see other teams scavenging for loot?
Miles: Squads of up to four players (or AI-driven squadmates) either fight or sneak by the hordes of enemies. Because our game is all about a massive power imbalance between you and the enemy, we intentionally chose to steer away from PvP. This game isn’t fair but it is somewhat balanced – and that’s by design. The enemy will pretty much always be stronger than you. And that just doesn’t work for PvP!
So, it’s PvE only, meaning you won’t see other player squads, but you will see the other NPC factions fighting.
Gameranx: Okay, spill the beans here. Can we pilot these massive-looking mechs we see in the gameplay trailer?
Miles: No beans to be spilled — you can’t! The only advantage you have is the ability to run like hell so they don’t kill you first. That said….the smaller exo units….have a human-sized harness in them….so….maybe one day!
Gameranx: Can you share where we are in the development process and the confirmed platforms at the moment?
Miles: We’re in alpha and developing on PC first. I can’t share much more than that today, but we’ll definitely have more to talk about soon!
With all that said, I hope this answers some of the questions you might have had regarding The Forever Winter. In the meantime, while we wait for a future update on this game, you can view a recent trailer drop in the video below.
