fact that it will be an open-world affair. Coming from the co-founder of Avalanche Studios and the creator of Just Cause, there’s a danger of course that players will have certain expectations that will be hard to shake. “Anyone who wants to see a Just Cause type of game
from Liquid Swords will be quite disappointed” says Sundberg. “It’s less playful,” he says of the untitled new game. “It’s more narratively driven. It’s more adult. It’s more slow-paced. It’s discovering the psyche of a human being being put in very difficult situations. It’s basically a dark family drama but in an action world.”
Liquid Swords isn’t just lacking when it comes to
beverage options, either. At the time of writing the company is still without a home. Sundberg is speaking to us from a temporary studio space in Stockholm, just across the street from what will be the permanent one. It’s a short move, but one that has been delayed a number of times, much to the obvious frustration of the boss, who admits that when the move does go ahead, he might have to invest in a coffee machine sooner rather than later, if only to keep the troops on side.
SOGGY SABRES Also sooner than later – which is to say this year if all goes to plan – Liquid Swords hopes to formally announce its first game. Very little is known about it, aside from the
“We’ve drawn a lot of inspiration from the classic tabletop games where you have a game master. We let the game be the game master, basically, to tell the story outside of the main campaign.”
While understandably reluctant to discuss the specifics
of what Liquid Sword’s debut will offer, Sundberg is more forthcoming when it comes to how an open world game should be crafted. He nods diplomatically as we put it to him that there appear to be two broad approaches: First, the Bethesda and CD Projekt way, which is to launch into a critical mass of hype and expectation, possibly not with the most polished game, but to support it with updates and content-rich DLC, and, crucially, allowing for third-party mod support to extend the life of the game. Then there is the path that Ubisoft appears to follow, which is to develop highly templated games on a more regular basis, where many of the gameplay elements appear interchangeable across different IPs and titles, which has resulted in the unfairly characterised ‘Ubiworld’ and its often unflattering busywork. “Our approach has been to first work with a licensed
tech. We’re working with Unreal Engine 5, which has been an absolute blessing, which has allowed us to focus heavily on the content development rather than all the systems behind it. “Our open world is definitely more controlled
than it was in Just Cause.” Sundberg cites Avalanche’s underrated Mad Max as a comparison. “With open world games there is so much focus on how big the
14 | MCV/DEVELOP February 2023
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