They say if you're good at something, never do it for free. They also say if you're good at something, continue doing it at the next video game studio you join. Now, not many people may be saying that second one, but Payday game designer – now the CEO and creative director at 10 Chambers – Ulf Andersson has taken it to heart, as he spoke about his studio's upcoming game, a co-op heist based FPS.
“It feels like it’s an unclosed chapter, right?” said Ulf, in a conversation with NME. “I gotta do that properly.”
“So for me, this game is a game that just has to be made,” he continued. “I’m back on the heist shit, basically – so it’s a heist cooperative FPS, and it has a sort of a techno-thriller theme. I read a lot of sci-fi books, and so imagine everything that cyberpunk is inspired by, and a ton of other shit.”
However, Andersson was sure to mention that 10 Chambers' heist game will differentiate itself from the Payday series in a number of ways. “This one won’t be constant shooting,” he noted. “Payday had a massive problem where the action would ramp up and then it would just stay ramped up.”
He also explained that the upcoming heist game is designed to be a bit easier than the studio's previous title, GTFO. It will be "mechanically smooth, or you could say, easier to play" as compared to GTFO, where you can be punished after making a whole lot of progress, resulting in you having to do it all over again.
“We haven’t put a name on it because we might change it,” admitted Andersson. “We haven’t put a date on it, because we don’t want to miss a deadline or overpromise. We’re in pre-production at the moment, but things are ramping up quite fast.”
As for Payday's developer, Starbreeze is still losing money, according to its second quarter financial results, but not as much as it used to. Sales for the studio are almost entirely driven by the Payday series, which comprises over 96 percent of the $2.9 million in net sales.