Interview with Once Human – “We turn gamers' dreams into reality”

Building an online game can be a bit of a poisoned chalice. Strong competition and demanding players can often put developers in a losing situation. The Once Human team is keenly aware of this and intends to put community at the center of every development decision it makes.

“Throughout the process of running Once Human, from start to finish, we always want to really listen to players' voices, as well as proactively address the issues they've mentioned,” lead designer Woody tells me. That's a sentiment he echoed again and again as we spoke during a rescheduled interview at the Tokyo Game Show.

In September, it was reported that the Once Human team was demoralized by the feedback they received about the game's second season, but Woody claims that the report was the result of a translation error. “We didn't actually mean 'demoralize,' or 'feel upset.' But we just want to eagerly address the issues reported by players,” he says.

“We want to update them on our thoughts, feelings and plans to address these issues as soon as possible. I think it is precisely thanks to this mechanism of communication between us that our community remains healthy, proactive and always communicates with us.”

“The core gameplay of our two most recent scenarios came from our communication with our players.

Community feedback is so important to the team that it has already begun to influence Once Human's development and content release. He tells me that much of Once Human's latest update, Way of Winter, was created in response to calls from its players.

“The core gameplay of our two most recent scenarios came from our communication with our players. It's the result after listening to their opinions,” says Woody. “For example, they told us that they felt the previous scenarios weren't challenging enough in terms of survival, so we added a new temperature mechanic.”

Unfortunately, while it's good for its audience, relying on feedback can have a knock-on effect on long-term planning. There's a delicate balance between player satisfaction and implementing content that the development team sees as part of the game's vision.

“We plan ahead,” Woody says, “But [player feedback] it forces us to evaluate our plans. We try to see if what we have planned is likely to have a positive or negative impact on the game, and we are very nimble in adjusting and changing things as needed.

“If it's something we're desperate to implement, we reach a consensus with our players using an internal framework and make changes accordingly. Once Human had a very long closed beta ahead of it [was] released, so we've already perfected this process, but it's an issue that happens and we need to balance it.

We are very confident in our current monetization system, as well as its future.

Early on, Once Human was praised for its “very fair” monetization, a decision that Woody called brave but “natural for us considering the type of our game.” Fans were quick to call the title “the lowest paid free-to-play game to win in a while,” something Starry Studios was aiming for. “Our game requires fairness, and while it offers challenges, we didn't want it to be harmed by numerical payouts.”

The game eschews any major pay-to-win elements in favor of a cosmetics shop. “Players have become very accepting of this and our more acceptable monetization system. So, of course, every day we get feedback from players about it, about items they like or items they think aren't good enough. This feedback allows us to optimize our store based on player voice, and we are very confident in our current monetization system, as well as its future.”

Big plans for base construction

While the community clearly helped shape Once Human's narrative, Woody shares that specific features requested by players have also been implemented into the game. For example, early on, despite being able to build some truly stunning bases, players felt the mechanics were incomplete, leading Starry Studios to make some radical changes.

“We have received feedback from many very creative actors who want to build large-scale or more creative structures in their territory. But they shared the feeling that when they build their dream places, the pieces available make it very difficult for them to get what they want. So, after this communication, we added more building structures. We've also added a God's View that can actually let you see many pieces more easily, and a grid system to make connecting structures easier.

We want to help our players make their dreams a reality in the game.

Woody tells me he was “amazed by the creativity of the players” and how they managed to “exceed what the development team can do.” He's evidently excited about what his community has created and even rattles off some of his favorite structures he's seen so far, including a warship anchored off one of Once Human's coasts, an entire city, and a “very welcoming”.

He says it's “exactly why we make games: for imagination, creativity, fun and sharing”, and the team is already thinking about how to make things even better for audiences. “We want to help our players make their dreams a reality in the game. For example, how can we make the warship move through the water, or how can we populate those cities with more real-world components and improve the sense of interaction?”

Design, development and future

Although Once Human received mixed reception upon launch, the game's world and monster designs were almost universally praised. The game's creatures, known as Deviants, may look wild, but they are all designed with the purpose of fitting into the game's overall story.

“First, we conceptualize our Deviants by giving them a high-level tag, [which is] the concept we want to represent to our players; then we shape that tag into something more specific, more tangible that resonates with the theme of our game or environment.”

Arguably, the most iconic monster in the game is The Wanderer, a giant bus with six legs and hands for feet. I asked Woody if things would get even stranger than this.

“It will really depend on how crazy it gets [we] can be,” he says before returning to the idea of ​​player happiness. “We're still trying to design new monsters and Deviants, especially those closely tied to the new scenarios and new settings. We want them to be closely tied to the environment, so hopefully that they have greater interaction with the players during their survival experience.”

The next major milestone will be our console version.

With the PC version of Once Human running well and a mobile port on the horizon, the conversation turned to a potential port of the game to consoles. Woody tells us, “After we complete development and release of the mobile version, the next major milestone will be our console version.”

Once the console version of Once Human hits the market, the team will have achieved two of its key milestones and together are already thinking about what to do next.

“When creating Once Human, we were inspired by many great shows. The Mist and Stranger Things are two. It's not an unimaginable idea to make a TV show, a novel or an animation,” Woody tells me, before quickly coming back down to earth and adding: “But the game is still in its early stages.

“We still believe we have more stories to tell and more characters waiting to be introduced and refined. We want a complete game story first and foremost, and that's where all our attention will go.”