"It's not really a good experience for someone who's trying to test a game and find all the possible things that can go wrong.
PAYDAY 2 TRAINER 1.5 MODS
It was difficult enough in the old game with complexity in the levels, but now you've got complexity in the skills, weapon mods and potentially even from items. There's so much complexity in the way things might interact that QA wants to constantly throw me off a building, I think. "It takes so long for people to understand how are going to change their experience, and the fact they work one way and weapons mods work another way, now there's armour and other things. We then played a bunch and then changed it again. We'd put it in, find it didn't work then change it again. Anyway I did a draft of all the skills, we got feedback, I did another draft, more feedback, another draft and then we started to implement stuff. "I'm still doing it now, and that's always a point of contention too like, 'should we really be changing it?' But it's like, every RPG ever has updates - any good one anyway - and you have to continue to refine things you know aren't working, but that's a whole other subject. "Man, I went through so many iterations of those trees," Goldfarb recalled. Goldfarb was instrumental to the RPG portion of the game, and helped ensure that no unlocked perks broke balance or felt redundant. The studio gave it a shot regardless and managed to make it all work, despite those initial fears and logistical problems. In part one of this feature we discussed how they weren't present at all when Goldfarb joined Starbreeze, and that the concept of adding in such a progression mechanic was met with serious doubt for the 35-40 strong team.
Payday 2's RPG elements really do set it apart. I think the comparison starts to fail at that point, at least with Payday 2." but the meta systems and the conceit - that it's a heist game and co-op, you can stealth and there's persistent RPG stuff and all those things - I think that's very, very different. "It's better to be influenced by them than any others, but I think the game is very much its own thing right now, and while we appreciate the comparisons I think at this point, they are only legitimate in so far as it's a cooperative game where you sometimes fight waves if you desire. "I think there's some pretty substantial differences, like the stealth and RPG stuff alone would put us in a whole other category, but there's no doubt that the first game was definitely Left 4 Dead-inspired, and I think no one's said anything else, as even the UI elements are kind of similar. "I mean it's great that people compare it to Left 4 Dead," Goldfarb replied. I think there was a lot of – I wouldn’t say relief – but a ‘oh, that worked’ kind-of feeling, and so it makes it a lot easier to continue." ”We all were hoping that the game would do well obviously, but it’s really nice to have such a strong response so early, so that you know you’re okay, and you can focus on whatever’s coming. In many ways its myriad systems render it beyond comparison to other shooters out there, but one big name I've often seen linked to Overkill's release is Valve's Left 4 Dead. In it, we discussed the game's early concepts, the evolution of the stealth mechanic, what Goldfarb's experience on Battlefield brought to the table and more.Īs David Goldfarb told me in part one of our interview, Payday 2 is a complex beast once you start drilling down into the RPG progression system, unlocking new perks and toying around with its stealth, espionage and coercion mechanics. Part one of my Payday 2 making of interview is through the link. VG247's Dave Cook continues his chat with director David Goldfarb about the development process and plans for 2014.
Payday 2 was a resounding success for Overkill Software, turning a profit before it even launched.