At TwitchCon San Diego 2024, gaming enthusiasts gathered to hear from Nikita Buyanov, the founder and lead developer of Battlestate Games, the studio behind the hardcore first-person shooter Escape from Tarkov (EFT). In an engaging interview, Nikita shared insights into the game's development, future plans, and his philosophy on game design.
At TwitchCon San Diego 2024, Nikita Buyanov, the head of Battlestate Games, took the stage to provide candid insights into the current state and future of Escape from Tarkov (EFT). In a revealing interview, Nikita addressed pressing topics from the community, ranging from the game's economy and hardcore philosophy to long-term development plans and community engagement.
He openly discussed the challenges faced during the game's development, acknowledging longstanding issues and expressing a commitment to making EFT even more hardcore. Notably, Nikita emphasized that EFT is not meant to be a "fun" game in the traditional sense but is designed to provide a challenging and intense experience. He also shared his vision for the game's future, including plans to support and develop EFT for at least another ten years.
The interview shed light on several key areas:
Game Economy and Progression: Plans to slow down player progression in future wipes to align with the game's hardcore roots.
Hardcore Gameplay Philosophy: A reaffirmation of the game's challenging nature and the intention to make it even more demanding.
Future Content and Endgame: Introduction of a Prestige system and the focus on comprehensive storyline quests.
Community Events: The possibility of hosting a dedicated TarkovCon to bring the vast community together.
Long-Term Support: Commitment to ongoing development, updates, and community engagement over the next decade.
Below is a detailed summary of the main points discussed during the interview.
A Decade of Development and a Vision for the Future
Nikita began by reflecting on the significant milestone of ten years of development on EFT and outlined his vision for the game's future, committing to at least another ten years of support and growth.
Ongoing Commitment: Emphasized continuous development, including new content, updates, and expansions.
"It's almost ten years of Escape from Tarkov... The game will be here for a long time, at least for ten years."
Community Appreciation: Credited the passionate player base for their role in the game's longevity.
"It's a miracle, not only by ourselves but for you guys, the players, and all of these engaged people who are into this Escape from Tarkov miracle."
State of the Game and Economy
Addressing the game's economy and player progression, Nikita acknowledged that recent updates have accelerated progression more than intended.
Future Adjustments: Plans to slow down progression in upcoming wipes to return to a more hardcore experience. Stating that in the current wipe it is indubitably too fast.
Dynamic Changes: Each wipe will continue to introduce new experiences and balance adjustments.
Each wipe is like an experiment and it's OK that this one had such a fast progression. They should be all different, so the player experience varies and they can try out different settings.
The Hardcore Philosophy of EFT
Nikita delved into his vision of EFT as a hardcore game, not intended to be "fun" in the conventional sense.
Challenge Over Fun: The game is designed to be difficult, providing a sense of accomplishment through overcoming hardships.
"I'm a fan of the game being hard on you... EFT is not a fun game. It's not for your pleasure; it's just the pain in the ass, basically, and it's okay because you will receive that emotion when you finally complete, when you finally win the raid."
Development Challenges: He also mentioned that creating the game is a tough process, filled with obstacles and hardships, which he believes adds meaning to the work (making a parallel with how the pain players feel playing EFT add meaning to the game).
"The development of EFT is not a fun development... everything is surrounded by suffering, and it's kind of okay... it allows us to understand that what we're doing is important."
Desire for More Difficulty: Expressed a preference for the game to be even more difficult and hardcore, aligning with his original vision.
"I was always a fan of hardcore type of game... the initial concept was about actual struggling... I was always a fan of that, so it's like hardcore type of thing."
Balancing Accessibility: Recognized the need to balance the game's difficulty to accommodate a broader audience without compromising its core challenge.
"Due to the expansion of the game... it was too hard for them to actually understand and play the game, so we decided to make the game not super hardcore, like mid-core or something."
Future Direction: Storyline Quests and Endgame Content
Nikita discussed the ongoing development of storyline quests and the goal to "finally escape from Tarkov."
Endgame Focus: Adding content centered around raids and comprehensive quests.
Prestige System: Introducing a system that allows players to restart the game with new challenges and rewards.
"The most important thing we're doing is the endgame content—storyline quest preparation for release... you will experience that, and yeah, that's the most important thing."
The Flea Market Debate
BSG boss touched on the controversial topic of the Flea Market and its impact on gameplay.
Potential Changes: Possibly making the Flea Market optional in a hardcore mode.
Personal View: Believes the Flea Market may disrupt the game's intended progression.
"I personally don't like the Flea Market... We will think about it in the future."
Long-Term Support and New Projects
Buyanov reiterated commitment to EFT's development and hinted at new projects.
Continuous Updates: Plans for additional content and support for at least another decade.
New Game Development: Mentioned that a new game is in the pre-production phase.
"The game will not end with the release... there will be DLCs and stuff... The game will be here for a long time, at least for ten years."
Modding Support and PVE Enhancements
Nikita acknowledged the popularity of PVE modes and the desire for mod support.
Official Modding Tools: Plans to introduce tools to allow creators to develop mods for PVE.
"I like the idea that players and creators will have an option to actually create mods for the game... we 100% support it."
Technical Updates and Future Testing
Outlined plans for technical improvements and updates.
Unity 2022 Transition: Moving to a new engine version for better performance and future features.
Expectations: They are high for this transition but it will take some time before the performance improvements will be big. The new engine gives them more tools for this, but they will need time to implement the changes.
Testing Servers: Utilizing ETS for testing new features and gathering feedback.
My 2 Cents
I personally appreciated Nikita Buyanov's interview at TwitchCon San Diego 2024, and I think his words were sincere and honest. While I am puzzled by some choices made by BSG (Unheard Edition, etc.), I also think Nikita's vision is very important to keep EFT true to its nature (though it has already been changed both because of development limitations and players' preferences).
I think interviews like this highlight how important communication is, and that every time Buyanov finds the time to share his thoughts with the community, it renews our faith in him (at least partially) and in the development of EFT. We all know BSG's many flaws and faults, but I am still positive EFT will improve and become better, while I am also aware it won't ever be perfect and will always have some disappointing aspects.
To delve deeper into Nikita's insights and hear the interview in full, watch the complete video on YouTube, shared by Gigabeef. A heartfelt thank you to Gigabeef for providing valuable content and consistently supporting the EFT community with informative videos.
Keep following The Tarkov Central to stay updated on Escape From Tarkov and upcoming events.
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