Open betas are more "marketing tool" than "actual test" for bugs, says GTFO developer

Den Of Wolves developers 10 Chambers have Thoughts about open betas, and whether they are genuinely designed to test for technical difficulties or are simply there to boost pre-orders. That's in addition to a grab bag of new details about the forthcoming meatpunk shooter's missions and possible map fixtures such as in-game augmented reality devices.

You'll hopefully recognise 10 Chambers as the handsome fiends behind GTFO, an amazing co-op horror FPS that transports you deep into the bowels of a cryogenic prison. Harrowing stealth segments and desperate gunfights aside, it's notable for taking a strong stand against "P2W or shady loot box-type microtransactions", to quote the official site, though with a console release in the offing, the developers concede that "we might add some cosmetic 'support the devs' type DLC".

Similarly, there are no current plans for a Den Of Wolves battle pass or any kind of seasonal progression with microtransactables. Studio co-founder Simon Viklund and his peers aren't dead against the idea, but in a new interview with MP1st, he commented that "it just doesn't feel like us".

"We don't like trying to nickel and dime people and trying to trick people into committing to something before they know whether it's good because that feels like what Season Passes often are," Viklund observed. "Again, it goes into our philosophy to try to under-promise and over-deliver. We're not the kind of company that would have an open beta a week before release and then not fix the bugs that come up in the open beta."

Open betas, Viklund went on, are better thought of as "a part of the hype" rather than an opportunity to catch bugs. "It's a marketing tool and if you don't use it as an actual test, and fix the things that you become aware of when you have the open beta, that feels fooling, try to fool the consumers. We're not about that."

In Den Of Wolves, players carry out jobs for competing corporations, with missions ranging from "snack-sized prep missions, where you sort of smash and grab" to drawn-out infiltrations based on previously gathered intel. There's a story to follow and you'll be able to replay missions to experiment with different outcomes, using different tools.

Den of Wolves "revisits" ideas once planned for GTFO, and expands on things the developers felt GTFO could have done better. For example, 10 Chambers are considering AR-style elements that are comparable to GTFO's in-world terminal commands, but make it easier for other players to see what the operator is doing.

"The game helps you share that information so that everyone knows what the rest of the team is trying to do," Viklund commented. "Standing over, huddling over a terminal, wouldn't be conducive to that experience. It would be like, if hacking is part of that experience, it would be brought into the 3D space, and then you'd see someone hacking, and you'd see them move around, and see them, see what they're doing, and think in a different way."

Den Of Wolves will also be an easier game than GTFO. "In terms of difficulty, it is much more comparable to Payday 2," Viklund noted. "Mechanically, it's a continuation or further investigation and refinement of mechanics. But GTFO was such a detour into a hardcore world. We're coming back to something that's more a continuation that also still has the DNA of mechanics and how things work in GTFO, especially with that sort of struggle for control and the fact that you can get back into stealth again. Elements like that I think it's really interesting."

The game will be "most fun" with four players, he added, but you can also rub along well enough as a duo. It's not a good fit for solo players, though 10 Chambers are looking into adding bots, as with GTFO. After all, when's the last time you tried to pull of a bank heist single-handed? Let alone a bank with fleshy bits.