Hard Reset developer: Mainstream games are boring

Flying Wild Hog isn't interested in making just another shooter with Hard Reset, instead catering to the discerning PC gamer tired of modern tropes.

"All those modern shooters are about terrorists – after playing all those Call Of Duty games, I sometimes feel like I will open my fridge and a terrorist will pop-out to shoot me. Boring!" studio CEO Michal Szustak told Gamefront.

"We don’t want to create mainstream games, because those are boring. We made a game for all those who are tired with all the generic anti-terrorist shooters."

Hard Reset boasts a number of features rarely seen in recent shooters, such no reloading and hidden bonuses, deliberate tributes to older games.

"I believe many players around world miss those old days and old games," Szustak said.

"I also think there is too much of these ‘on-rails’ shooters on the market, so sooner or later players will grow tired and will crave something different."

Refusing to bow to modern shooter conventions means Szustak doesn't feel the need to tack on a multiplayer mode.

"Our entire team worked for two years to prepare the best possible single player experience. We could split our team and we could try adding multiplayer, but that would certainly affect the quality of our single player," he explained.

"Also, it’s rather unlikely that we would create a multiplayer mode that could successfully compete with games focused on multiplayer only. So what’s the point? We believe that by concentrating on a single goal – an old-school single-player experience we are sure we can deliver for the gamers’ satisfaction – is more important."

Flying Wild Hog eschews convention in its company and business structure as well as its game design.

"Our engine programmers and designers are working together – literally together – so any new feature request is implemented almost immediately," Szustak said. "There’s a very flat structure in our studio and virtually no bureaucracy. It’s very efficient and fast.

"Our studio is independent and we try to do things our way, and this works for pricing too. We aren’t a corporation, that spends great amounts of money on PR and marketing, forcing the players to pay more for the games, since the producers need all those fancy suits and media hype. It’s not the producers or publishers who make the games – it’s the artists, animators, programmers and other team members. Games are too expensive because of too many obsolete go-betweens!

"We know that all those people that literally make the game get just a tiny little share of the money that the game earns. So Steam and digital distribution is the most important – with no greedy middlemen between our studio and the gamers – the price will surprise you."

Flying Wild Hog expects to nail down Hard Reset's release date and pricing shortly. The cyberpunk shooter is a PC exclusive.

Thanks, Blue.