Interview: Warhammer 40K: Rogue Trader Devs May Add Cut Content In Future DLCs

Shestov: I am Anatoly Shestov, Executive Producer of Rogue Trader. I’m in charge of the project, meeting its budget and timeline and ensuring its quality.

Shestov: At Owlcat, we have always loved cRPGs and sandbox-style adventures, and Rogue Trader is perhaps the best thing to imagine in this style. The creative team behind the game played Warhammer in all its forms for many years, finishing large campaigns in Rogue Trader, Black Crusade, and Death Watch. And when the question arose about what game to make next, they easily pitched this option within the studio. Seeing a strong desire inside and the presence of cool ideas for gameplay and plot, we quickly agreed with Games Workshop and began development. So yes, from the very beginning, we wanted to do the Rogue Trader as a cRPG specifically.

Shestov: The combat in the game has gone through four major iterations. In the first, for example, absolutely any action other than movement burned all movement points. It was highly lethal and low-dynamic. In the second, stepping out of covers and zonal abilities appeared. Thanks to it, we realized what we wanted from different careers and types of opponents and decided that there was too little Warhammer in it. In the third, physical projectiles, queues, dodge with exit from the cover, momentum in a close to final form appeared. Enemies began to shoot themselves, and the player characters began to perform miracles of victory and heroism, but it still lacked variety and synergy of effects. The fourth iteration is what the players saw as a result.

Shestov: Sure. Feedback (both external and internal) plays a huge role for us. After the game is released, we can re-examine certain aspects of the game that were not included at one stage of development or aspects that need to be improved or changed. If we understand that this can improve the gaming experience, we will consider adding them in the future DLC. This is one of the most important ways of project evolution.

Shestov: Despite the first impression, there are actually few “simple and cheap” things in the game. In any game, especially one as large and complex as Rogue Trader, it is not enough to create functionality; it must be made meaningful, integrated into the main systems, filled with content, and tested. This specific content would have required months of work that was better spent on other aspects of the game.

Shestov: Every classic RPG is a long story, to put it mildly. It is expensive and very demanding of the team’s competencies. However, the repeated success of our studio and Larian clearly demonstrates to the world that this niche has an audience. This means that new projects in this genre will be more likely to appear. Whether this will become a trend is unknown, but as a player, I would be very happy about it.

Shestov: Players come to cRPGs for immersion, history, and feelings, not for the features. Nothing else will matter as long as they get what they came for.

Shestov: Certainly, the grim and dark future, where there is only war, is full of cool things that have yet to be revealed, enough even for dozens of games and hundreds of add-ons. But it’s too early to talk about our plans as a studio in this matter. Please wait for future announcements.

Shestov: Personally, I’m a big fan of emergent storytelling and would really like to do something similar to RimWorld. Regarding the setting, urban fantasy and a world of darkness, with magicians or fairies or hunters.

Shestov: To everyone who plays our Rogue Trader – thank you for playing, for sharing your impressions online, and for appreciating the game. Thanks to you, the result of three years of hard work looks even better, fatigue quickly fades into the background, and there is a clear desire to do more, to do cooler things. To everyone else, play the game because it turned out to be really good.