It’s impossible to talk about new studio Bit Reactor without mentioning XCOM. Fifteen members of the team, roughly a third of the studio, are former Firaxis developers and veterans of the series. This includes co-founder, CEO, and creative director Greg Foertsch. Speaking to him and lead animator Hector Antunez, their enduring passion for the XCOM games shines through. So, it’s not surprising to discover that the Star Wars project they’ve been working on is going to be a tactical strategy game, drawing on all that experience for what they hope will be a step forward for the genre.
Innovating Tactical Strategy
“I think [tactical strategy], it’s a space that honestly has the most room of any genre to grow, through immersion and storytelling and visual presentation and pacing,” says Foertsch. “It’s got a lot of space to innovate in. And so for us, those are kind of the things we focus on. And I think we’ve made a few games in the past that have displayed those things that are just like tips of icebergs in a lot of cases.”
So, in theory, the right people are in place here—but how do you push the genre forward? Though the pair aren’t able to talk in specifics yet about the game, they give a sense of their vision, and it seems to be a more cinematic experience, but without skimping on strategy.
“I think Hector and I have a little bit of an axe to grind in general with the genre. There’s this idea that depth costs you elegance,” says Foertsch. “Like, oh, if it looks prettier, if it’s immersive, if it’s got a good story, well, something else got compromised. I say no, not really. I think that you can have both.
“I don’t think that complexity equals depth. And I think that that’s really what we’re focused on. Differentiating that nuance between those two things.”
Accessibility and Appeal
The other key element is accessibility—making sure this is strategy that can appeal outside of the already committed audience, again without diminishing the tactical depth.
“When we’re talking about growing the genre and expanding it, a big thing for me is going to be getting it in more people’s hands,” says Hector Antunez. “There’s tons that we want to do with the game that are like building on things that we’ve been able to do in the past. When we’re talking about growing the genre and expanding it, a big thing for me is going to be getting it in more people’s hands. It bums me out that more people don’t play these types of games, and when we dig into that, we get into hearing these preconceived notions.
“So every time we’ve made a game, we’ve focused on, what are going to be inviting things, for others that know nothing about this? Because everybody that does play [this genre] does end up finding something new, something fresh, right? They may be used to more standard fare, shooters, all these games that are awesome… but I’m just like, ‘You have no idea what you’re missing!’ There’s this genre with this very specific type of gameplay, with new ways to experience stories and characters.”
Chewbacca Squad
Those goals perhaps go some way to explaining the game’s unusual publishing situation. It’s being published by Respawn—the studio behind Titanfall, which is itself owned by EA. It’s an odd situation for any studio for its publisher to be another studio at a larger publisher, but particularly you wouldn’t associate Respawn with complex strategy experiences. But it does have expertise in cinematic, broad appeal Star Wars games with surprising depths, as seen in its Jedi games, Fallen Order and Survivor.
“Respawn really treats us like an internal team. They’ve been really good to us,” says Foertsch.
