10 Chambers, the developer of GTFO, revealed that its next game is a “techno-thriller” set in a future influenced by dystopian ’90s movies.
CEO and creative director Ulf Andersson and narrative director Simon Viklund spoke to NME at Gamescom about player agency being an incredibly important tenet of 10 Chambers’ new venture. Comparing GTFO to Left 4 Dead, Andersson argued that while he enjoys the latter, he prefers having more ways for players to tackle missions.
“As a designer, the way I think about it is, I’d rather fuck up,” he continued. “We’re leaning into losing and regaining control. Humans love control.”
“There are concepts in the game that allow us to create scenarios where it’s like, it starts off full action,” explained Viklund. “And then on the flip of a dime, we can go into a stealth scenario and up to the action again, or the other way around – start sneaking, and then it builds up to something intense. ”
While GTFO is adept at creating and maintaining high levels of tension over long stretches of time as a psychological horror, the new game “tried to get rid of that slowness”.
Very little was shared about the actual pitch for the game, but the narrative director added that it is a heist game like Payday. “Putting the game in the future and introducing futuristic concepts allows us to play around with ‘what is a heist?’” explained Viklund.
“You can only rob so many banks,” added Andersson. “We call it a ‘techno thriller’. We’re trying to get that serious vibe of some ’90s and 2000s movies, we really tried to get it gritty enough.”
The CEO also named Black Mirror and Blade Runner 2049 as influences on the dystopian setting, with emphasis on the desperation and sadness of living in a corrupted city.
Though GTFO is famous for its intense difficulty, 10 Chambers’ next game will not be as grueling as GTFO. “It will be a lot more welcoming,” clarified Andersson. “But that’s not a high bar.”
“The thing that we want to work on is matchmaking incorporated into the game world instead of a list of servers,” he said, adding that it is something similar to Payday 2‘s Crime Net.
On the other hand, GTFO players will see a “somewhat satisfying” story ending for the game while 10 Chambers continues to support it into the future. “It’s not sequel bait or anything. It’s just, you know, it can’t be too nice,” qualified Viklund. “Then it’s true to the tone of the game.”
Every announcement, reveal and preview from Gamescom 2023 are in NME‘s live blog covering all of the great games we’ve seen this week. Check it out here.