After our 1-hour hands-on gameplay session playing Foamstars, SEA media sat down with Foamstars Producer Kosuke Okatani to talk more about the game especially as it will be launching in just a matter of weeks. It was during this interview that we discussed more about the nitty gritty details of the game and discovered that one of their main directions for the game is to make Foamstars friendly for Casual and Hardcore Players.
Foamstars Producer, Kosuke Okatani
In our first impressions article, I mentioned how the game has a core mechanic that’s simple enough for casual players to just go ham on while having enough depth to it that advanced play can definitely shine. This was supported by Okatani-san revealing to us through various points that the game is aimed to be friendly for both casual and hardcore players.
First off, they emphasized that gameplay-wise, there were a lot of things that were done just to make it more palatable to casuals by making the game easy to pick up and figure out from the get-go. There’s even no role system in the game which assigns your character as DPS, Support, or Tank like how games like Overwatch did with them citing that they “don’t limit players from I guess, doing certain things in game”. Even the game modes, on the surface, are pretty straight-forward where it seems like fun was the first priority. During our hands-on session, we were pretty much just messing around with the game but it still let us have fun and the modes seem basic enough to understand.
“We wanted to create a game where both [hardcore] players and casual players would both have a fun time playing together so we want to create a game that would make it fair for even casual players to go up against these [hardcore] players… [where] even if they get chilled a lot or taken out a lot, they can still have fun”, said Okatani-san.
Hence, they just poured their focus on enjoyable / interesting game modes and making things like level design, characters, UI, and music (music which happens to be one of Okatani-san’s most favorite parts about the game so do look forward to that when you do play) really stand out.
This doesn’t mean though that there’s not much in Foamstars for hardcore players who really look for advanced gameplay and tactics. Mastery of foam usage and placement is definitely going to be a factor for those games as you’ll be able to manipulate terrain to your advantage. You’ll also encounter meta changes as more characters, game modes, and maps get added into the mix. Okatani-san even mentioned that they do have a schedule for additional content right after the game’s release but, after that, things will be quite flexible. “So currently we are planning to release characters at points where I guess users may begin to want play a new character… we are offering content updates for a year for this game [but] we definitely think it will be important to look at user reactions for when the best timing to release characters.”, says Okatani-san. It was also even mentioned that future tournaments are in the plans but they are also careful to not just label it as “esports tournaments” so as to not cause a disconnect between the game and more casual players.
As time passes after the game’s release, the Foamstars team will be looking at various platforms for feedback from the community and they’ll be using that as a way to steer the game and make adjustments on the fly. Hopefully, the game does succeed in finding that sweet spot that makes Foamstars friendly for Casual and Hardcore Players which will, in turn, give us a new multiplayer game that will be accessible for newcomers but also have a high skill ceiling to keep it exciting with advanced gameplay.