Kaos: FPS devs need to take more risks

By Fred Dutton Published 25 February, 2011

Innovation is "up to the little guys".

The FPS genre needs more developers willing to take risks and break new ground, so says Homefront developer Kaos Studios.

Speaking in an interview with CVG, lead level designer Rex Dickson explained that gamers don't need any more Modern Warfare or Halo look-alikes.

"As a game designer and someone who plays games I really want some people to start pushing boundaries," he said. "Kaos could have made another modern combat game in the Middle East, or an armoured fighter in space versus aliens but does the market really need any more of that?

Dickson went on to explain that if big publishers weren't willing to take these risks, responsibility falls on smaller teams to step up.

"If you want to break the mould of what everyone else is doing there is going to be a certain amount of risk involved. Maybe that's not okay for people like Bungie, Microsoft and Sony but for us, the little guy - and THQ as the third publisher - we have to take these risks and break out.

"If the big guys aren't going to take the risks they're going to just keep making the same game over and over with each iteration then it's up to the little guys to make these games and try and break the mould."

"There's no fear really," he added, addressing the pressure of launching a new IP. "I think I'd be more afraid if we making another Halo game or another desert combat game. The fact that we're offering something unique and different removes the fear, that's what we should be doing."

Homefront, which sees you defending America from an invading Korean army, launches on PC, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 on 18th March.

Picture of Fred.

About Fred Dutton

Fred Dutton is Eurogamer's US news editor, based in Washington DC.

Read more articles from Fred by visiting the Fred Dutton archive page.

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Comments (24) Latest comment 1 year ago

Comments for this article are now closed, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • ro-kurorai #1 1 year ago

    Nice talk, but sheeple are still gonna buy the annual COD re-skin and sequels.
    Can't see Homefront succeeding as a "franchise".

  • Shikasama #2 1 year ago

    First step: Make an proto-American, explode-fest stuffed with typical 'Fuck yeah' gruff marine types!

    Damn thats risky. Damn.

  • arcam #3 1 year ago

    gamers don't need any more Modern Warfare or Halo look-alikes.

    If I hadn't just Googled this I honestly couldn't tell you which of about 10 games this is from: [link url=http://www.dealspwn.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/Homefront-MP04.jpg
    ]http://www.dealspwn.com/wp-content/uploa...[/link]

  • DJMC2412 #4 1 year ago

    Funny considering Home Front looked pretty similar to loads of FPS games. Sometimes I feel the fps genre as a whole just doesnt allow for any real innovative mechanics. You can tinker with the atmosphere and setting but at the end of the day they all feel very similar to me. Maybe I've just been made cynical from all the clones.

  • Indy #5 1 year ago

    Clearly Kaos aren't part of the little guys.

  • jackdoe #6 1 year ago

    I think Kaos definitely is feeling fear; the fear of releasing a bomb and losing their jobs.

  • Triggerhappytel #7 1 year ago

    It's an interesting sentiment but considering Homefront looks so similar to Modern Warfare 2 and Battlefield BC I don't really see how it's innovative. Bioshock was innovative. Portal was innovative. Homefront looks like any one of several other FPS series.
    Edited by Triggerhappytel at 25/02/11 @ 20:23

  • Olemak #8 1 year ago

    MW2 had a fair bit of combat set in urban and suburban USA. How original is it really to make an entire game based on the same premise? Which Red Dawn also Did 20 years ago.

    If the extent of their innovation is limited to the setting, then I won't be impressed.

  • Gojiratron #9 1 year ago

    The market needs more consumers willing to take a chance on games that dare to be different.

  • kevwinter #10 1 year ago

    Frontline fuel of war was by Kaos and was quite good and had lots of cool future weaponry but it wasnt as polished as Bad company etc. Home front should be decent.

  • Mister-Wario #11 1 year ago

    My immediate reaction to this is a resounding HELL YES. We have Bioshock Infinite to look forward to, which is a step in the right direction.

  • metalangel #12 1 year ago

    I have faith in Kaos, they took Battlefield 1942 and somehow made it better with Desert Combat.

    They made a superior multiplayer combined arms game to Bad Company 2, two years before Bad Company 2, with Frontlines.

    Bitch all you like about the silly looking singleplayer element. Just like CoD, the meat and potatoes are in the multiplayer.
    Edited by metalangel at 25/02/11 @ 23:20

  • ExplodingClown #13 1 year ago

    @Olemak:

    Yes indeed, and Io Interactive did it more recently with 'Freedom Fighters', and Massive with 'World In Conflict' (ok so it's not a shooter but the idea's no different). Don't forget 'Invasion USA' where Chuck Norris dispenses bearded vengeance to invading commies!

  • DirectAim #14 1 year ago

    Homefront won't let you level past level 5 if you have bought it preowned, due to this I won't be buying if no matter how awesome it is, I'll stick to halo, cod and duke thx

  • Triggerhappytel #15 1 year ago

    @Olemak - bearing in mind also that it was written by the same guy as Red Dawn. Thus I guess the plot is deliberately similar. But yeah; regardless, it's hardly an original premise.

  • louyfitz #16 1 year ago

    Why with all the talk of innovation has no one made a realistic damage model for what modern weapons will do to a human being?

    The dead on CoD or Halo (for emaxple) look like they died of natual causes after taking a .50 cal to the face a granade to the nads.

    Its morbid innovation to say the least, but theres a lot of work to be done there.

    F.E.A.R. kinda had a go at this and soldier of fortune on PC, but I think it would aid in making games true to the horrors of real warfare, a task that many developers have claimed to be working on, only for the finished product to be about as horrific as a pokemon battle. ;)

  • God_Octo #17 1 year ago

    From what the previews are saying about Homefront, its not the gameplay that's new, but the storytelling. I think better storytelling in games- especially FPS- can only be a good thing. There's only so much you can change the gameplay really.

    But, as some you you folk have said, it doesn't exactly look different does it? That shot arcam posted could have easily come from CoD or Battlefield. Someone needs to make a distinctive style- The best bit of Borderlands for me was the Cel-shading. It looks lovely and means you can instantly tell what game it's from.

  • Murton #18 1 year ago

    Homefront isn't innovating, it's taking a risk with it's setting though and kudos for that. The Americans tend to get a bit touchy when you write a story about them being invaded or portraying them as bad guys, but Homefront isn't really breaking new ground there either. The entire Tom Clancy group of franchises is based on America being threatened in one way or another, then there's stuff like Resistance 3 which will feature US landmarks in disrepair following an invasion, Fallout 3 with the Washington Monument etc.

    I think DJMC is on to something with his post, there's no real innovation left for FPS. We've done all we can with shooting games, you can tinker around the edges with some cool weapons or swap the guns for gizmos that pick up objects or create portals to make a puzzle game but that's about it. I think the next direction for FPS is probably to tack on features from other genres, in the late 90s we saw the beginnings of FPS/RPG with System Shock and Deus Ex, we've seen it come back with Fallout and Borderlands, Bulletstorm gives us an FPS score attack game and there are plenty more hybrids out there waiting to be made, that's the exciting new direction for anyone who wants to innovate and take risks, but FPS devs seem to have forgotten what innovation means and simply making the same game over and over in a different setting each time.

    Kaos asks how many "Modern Warfare" games we need, well thanks to you we have one more, so I guess you answered your own question there didn't you?

  • ExplodingClown #19 1 year ago

    @Murton: Please refer my earlier post. I think you're way overstating the "risk" they're taking with the 'occupied America' plot. This is from John Milius, remember? It'll be tub-thumping jingoistic macho hooey, probably with some cowardly unpatriotic collaborators, noble heroic sacrifices etc etc and more stars-and-stripes than Uncle Sam's underpants. In no way will this do anything but pander to the more unquestioning elements of the North American market.
    As those wretched looping banner ads - oh noes! a tank runs over an abandoned teddy bear, what will the Axis of Evil stoop to next! Oh the pathos! - will ceaselessly remind you, he wrote Red Dawn. Where teenagers defeat the Red Army. The guy's completely loopy, he makes Tom Clancy look like a liberal pacifist.

    Good point about the hybridisation though - mixing genres can produce some rather pleasant surprises. But often these need settings and backgrounds where the innovations fit in organically plot-wise (such as in Portal or Bioshock) which means getting off the beaten track. Until another games market exceeds the commercial potential of the US mainstream, we're going to be stuck with a lot of the same "hoo-ah, semper fi" retreads.

  • CaptainKid #20 1 year ago

    I"m pretty interested in Homefront but don't see how it is unique.?
    I mean Modern Warfare 2 did the whole war in the USA thing already so it's not the setting.

  • Silvervein #21 1 year ago

    Without playing homefront, it's hard to say how different to other fps's it is. But the materials they released so far don't promise too much new stuff.
    I was positively surprised by bulletstorm though. Played it on my pc, and had a blast with it. Strangely enough, it does bring something new to the table.

  • gav082 #22 1 year ago

    Had my eye on this until they announced their on line pass. The innovative title for spring will be BRINK now.

  • Murton #23 1 year ago

    ExplodingClown: I'm not that familiar with his work to be honest, though from your description there's a good chance that I've seen something of his before without recognising the name. There is of course no risk in depicting an invasion of the US if we largely see burly marines "pwning" commies and reclaiming towns, but if we get to see some wreckages of Americana as we do in Resistance 3 or even Fallout 3 then at least they're trying to do something with their setting, from the sounds of it though it seems quite unlikely.

  • Alf-Life #24 1 year ago

    Homefront looks like COD meets HL2.

    While I agree, he's the wrong guy to spread this message; HF's not exactly Portal.