PAX Prime Gigantic Interview .

I had the pleasure of trying out Gigantic, an upcoming team-based action game developed by Motiga, at PAX Prime and then got to sit down with gameplay designer Nick Mhley. Even though Gigantic is only in its alpha infancy, it feels polished and is a blast to play. It’s definitely a game that sticks out because it’s difficult to put it into a single category. It has the level design of an arena first-person shooter, the gameplay of a third-person action game, and the team-based elements of a MOBA. So let’s find out what Gigantic is really all about, straight from the development team:

Can you please introduce yourself and let us know what you do at Motiga?

My name is Nick Mhley and I am a gameplay and level designer. I do most of the hero implementation and balance, in addition to working on the flow of the map, gray boxing out where everything is, and then working with the art team to help put it together.

 

How long has Gigantic been in development?

I believe the project has been in development for 1-2 years. I’m not sure of the exact duration because I came on the project midway.

 

What separates Gigantic from every other game on the market right now?

I think the first thing you’ll notice that there’s a lot of verticality in our maps. We take some cues from older shooters like Unreal Tournament and Quake 3. We really built in levels of verticality that matter, but not too much, and we borrow a lot from shooters. A lot of people look at our game and go ‘that’s just another MOBA,’ but in reality it’s more like playing a third-person shooter. You are a team of five and picking unique characters, but outside of that there isn’t a whole lot in common.

What other games has Gigantic been compared to?

One could argue that Monday Night Combat would be similar in some degree, but that followed the format of what a MOBA is really closely. Where as we don’t have minions, we don’t have towers, and we don’t have jungle creeps. We have a guardian, which is a big boss that rampages through the map and knocks the other one out, and we have creatures that you summon at controls points to do specific things. They have a lot of strategic value when you place them; one creature will provide a healing aura to a large portion of the map for your team and another one will reveal enemies on the minimap where otherwise you wouldn’t be able to see them. There’s a lot of benefit to where you place those things and when you place them.

Gigantic has a very colorful and unique artistic style. What prompted its aesthetic choices?

It’s all credit to our art team. We have a fantastic art team. We don’t actually have an art director, they collaboratively art direct themselves and have built this style. It’s turned out to be pretty awesome, but it’s just something I know they love; it’s really colorful, it’s really attractive and it’s more accessible than a lot of the other styles.

What future updates or content is scheduled for Gigantic?

So we will have a number of maps. We have another map that changes the gameplay pretty drastically without changing any of the rules. We do have more characters that we just show internally. We have 20 characters and right now we’re only showing 12. We will probably have more than that, but I can’t say for sure. There will be more creatures than we have right now and all of the standard things you’d expect in a product like ours. We will have matchmaking, some sort of ranked or league play, and spectator aspects.

Would you like to see the game reach the Esports scene?

That is our goal. Obviously we’re going to just make the game fun and if the community doesn’t want it to be competitive than it probably won’t become competitive, but we’d like it to be. When you played the match you noticed that even though one team might be down the game’s never over. It’s going to end because you’re actually losing and they’re actually killing you. If your team is able to stand up against what they’re doing, even if you’re losing a little bit there’s always potential to come back.

What’s your favorite thing about Gigantic?

One of my favorite things is something that I put in that’s a call out to the Tribes games of old. If you play HK-206, the big machine guy, he can get an upgrade to his mortar shot to shoot really far. One of the gimmicky things that happened in Tribes competitive gameplay is heavies would lob mortars way across the map like artillery. So this gives you the option to branch out and have a totally different style of play. Sure you can’t see where you’re hitting, but it just feels really cool when you randomly lob one where you think it’s going to hit and you see the number pop up.

I’d like to thank  you for taking the time to discuss Gigantic with me today and is there anything else that you’d like to say to our readers?

There are a lot of games out there in the competitive PvP market right now, but I’d say that our game stands out as being fresh and unique. I encourage everyone to give it a look and keep it on your radar. At first glance it might seem like another game you might have played, but it’s really unlike anything else.