If you’ve got that itch for arena shooters, but want a brand new spin on them, then you should check out Diabotical Rogue. Making its debut yesterday on the OTK Games Expo 2024, The GD Studio’s latest release, Diabotical Rogue, is set to combine slick FPS gameplay with roguelike elements.
Esports.net was able to sit down with studio founder James “2GD” Harding ahead of the game’s announcement and shadow release on June 4 to speak about the new game. So if you’re wondering about everything from what type of game Diabotical Rogue is going to be, to its roots and development, and the future of the game, look no further!
Credit: GD Studio Inc
If someone’s just discovering it for the first time, what can someone expect from Diabotical Rogue?
James “2GD” Harding: “So it’s really for FPS enthusiasts, for sure. It’s a custom-made engine that we’ve put 10 years of work into to get a really good FPS feel. If I’m going to sum it up quickly – Imagine you’ve got some Overwatch abilities, maybe some guns from Doom, some guns from Apex, and in early access, three different classes, in a 4v4 arena.
We’ve got some more to come and we want to start working with the community. And essentially, we’re pitting your FPS skills against other people in a 4v4 game mode where the more you die, the longer your respawn time. So you’re going to have to really push your limits in terms of what you can do.
What kind of shooters is Diabotical Rogue similar to?
2GD: “So we’ve seen people from all different games come into the playtest, Apex pros, Counter-Strike pros, even Quake pros on the tournament and stuff. And they all can compete. So it’s kind of fun because at the end of the scoreboard, sometimes the CS guys are up there, sometimes the Fortnite guys are up there, etc.”
What’s changed since Diabotical?
2GD: “What we’ve done since Diabotical is put two years into upgrading the engine. So this is like our version of going from Source to Source 2. Then after the two years, we started working on a few different game modes, mainly on PVP.
The one that we’re putting out first, which is quite competitive in terms of fun, I hope, is a 4v4. But we also do have a nice little place where you can kind of frag, warm up, test, test your characters, test different builds, in a 16v16 environment.”
Diabotical Rogue allows you to choose between random perks each round. Credit: GD Studio Inc
Why Diabotical Rogue?
2GD: “It’s called Diabotical Rogue because it has roguelike elements. So you’re not only going to be testing your skills, you’re going to also get the option for this or that. And do you want to upgrade the ability that if you’re the last player standing, you get vampire kind of health skill? Or do you want to upgrade the quick scope on your sniper? Etc.
So you’re going to make some choices between rounds and even during the rounds, but then you really just have to execute. So, I think it’s kind of fun. I hope so, I’ve worked on it!”
What does the future of Diaboitcal Rogue look like?
2GD: “What we’re working towards with the classes is we’re going towards a MOBA-inspired FPS. I think a lot of people have tried to tackle this problem of MOBA FPS. I think one of the fundamentals that they maybe make a mistake on is boiling down to five players. It doesn’t feel like enough. Because when I’m playing FPS, say I’m in a lane, like if I was in a Dota match, in an FPS game, if I see you, I want to shoot you. But you can’t really do that in a MOBA.
But I do feel that because we’ve worked on the engine and we’re trying to optimize, we could maybe bring in 16v16. Or 8v8, we don’t know exactly where it’s going to land, but later during early access, we’re going to start throwing that up to the community, and then seeing what they think, maybe just for a weekend”
I was a fan of the original Diabotical, and I was also a Quake 3 player back in the day. Does Diabotical Rogue keep that feel, those same kind of movement techniques for the game flow, or is it something different?
2GD: “So there’s no strafe jumping. There’s no hidden skill mechanics that you need to invest six months of your life to start having fun. I mean, we all love the Quake games because we can strafe jump, bunny hop, and all that stuff. And what we really wanted to do was put out an FPS and I wanted to put out the best kind of 4v4 combat, arena style mode that I think that you can play no matter what game you played before.
Because if you wanna move, it’s on your abilities. If you wanna move more, upgrade your abilities so they’re less cooldown or they give you bonuses. Really customize and specialize your character. So if you’re a fan of playing a sniper, and playing very selfish and just showing off, there’s a class in there that has, you know, a revolver, a sniper, and it has hookshot. But because it’s not a constant kind of strafe jumping speed you use your movements when you need them aggressively, defensively, positional play and stuff. But essentially you can jump in and if you’ve got skills from the other competitive FPS games, they transition over.”
How important was it to maintain the Diabotical community?
2GD: “I mean, we want to talk to that community and see if they want to come into Diabotical Rogue, because obviously we’ve got the map editor, which is massively upgraded. We’ve worked with people that worked, because we’re essentially ex-pro gamers, hackers, modders, mappers, right? And now we’ve got some really great industry vets in the studio, as well as newcomers to the industry.
But we also reached out beyond to some people that we really admired their work. So the guy that did lighting on Wolfenstein and Doom, we were like, can you consult on our engine, how you would solve lighting for our map editor? And the gentleman that did VFX and led VFX on VALORANT and League of Legends, we were like, can you come in and tell us what we need? Because we’re building the VFX in our engine as well and all this stuff. So we want everyone to try it.”
Diabotical Rogue currently has three classes to choose from, with more coming in the future. Credit: GD Studio Inc.
So why introduce the roguelike elements? What made you want to combine those into the FPS genre?
2GD: “I blame Bruno (Bruno “Statsman Bruno” Carlucci) that I used to cast Dota with because one Christmas he came over and made me play Slay the Spire. And then I just got addicted and I was like, “oh my god, roguelike systems are so much fun!” Because you get this meta game, you get these early decisions that could make huge impacts later on, etc.
So I just felt like I wanted to challenge the FPS players with this, in the idea of, “yeah, you’re really good, and you can execute. But can you adapt?” Because in Counter-Strike, you’ve got some money and now here’s your AWP, here’s your, whatever. You’re used to it.
And so I think the rogue-like system puts FPS gamers in situations that they might not have been in, in terms of upgrades and builds and choices that hopefully it challenges them. And it also does sometimes create fun power spikes, you know, like meeting someone in round two that, you know, hit an early legendary upgrade.”
So how does the roguelike progression reset? At the end of the round or the match?
2GD: “You take your roguelike upgrades per round, but it’s for the whole match. But you can switch your classes per round. So if you’ve spent some upgrades on a sniper, but you feel like you need another class to counter the opponents, you know, that’s a choice you have to make, right? But since we don’t really mess the TTK (time to kill) so much, as long as you can execute, you’re still going to feel very viable.”
So you’re keeping that level satisfying while still giving people things like health upgrades and shields and stuff, without taking away the feeling of being able to kill your opponent?
2GD: “Yes, so you really need to play with the nuances of the roguelike system right now. Because you’re going to have moments where that upgrade saves you, just getting around a corner. Because maybe you got a burst of speed on headshot kill. And then you might even get other upgrades on headshot kill where you get increased faster reload time. So the roguelike system allows you to kind of play around with it.
But it also allows you to go from maybe season to season, vault some stuff, put in some new stuff, and re-challenge players and play with the meta. And it’s Bruno’s fault. And it’s all Bruno’s fault.”
Credit: GD Studio Inc.
So you’ve mentioned some of the kind of upgrades and abilities and roguelike things. Do you have any favorite abilities from the game so far that stand out as things that you’re just like, “oh, I love this.”?
2GD: “This is the one that I love the most: There’s one upgrade which is you can keep firing and not have to reload but it costs you health. So I’ve probably killed myself a few times with it but I’ve also clutched a couple of moments because of it. As long as you’ve got the stack, you know, you can kind of go guns blazing, but it does cost. Yeah, and there are moments where you do forget. So it’s kind of fun, because the nice thing about roguelikes, you know, sometimes it’s a plus, sometimes it’s a minus. Ours effects are quite light right now, but we’re gonna see what the community think.”
If people do want to support Diabolical Rogue, get involved in the community, how can people who are interested in the game kind of join and help with that process?
2GD: “So we have a nice Reddit that people have always given great feedback on. We’re quite light on moderation apart from spam, so voices get heard. It’s important that we don’t have egos at a studio because, you know, I think everyone’s got valid feedback. You just have to understand, you know, where it’s coming from. And then also, you know, our Discord server. But it’s, you know, our Discord server currently right now is people who have been kind of just memeing, you know, for their own entertainment, waiting on the next thing from us. So they’d be happy to have some friends!
And then of course the game is $19.99. It’s a premium game. I mean the thing is I would love it to be free-to-play. I think free-to-play makes sense. But I mean, we’re a self-funded game studio. I wanted to focus more on the game modes than microtransactions. So we’re premium with zero microtransactions.
That’s how we just want to welcome people in and then it means that we can keep a lightweight team that hopefully is sustainable, and we can focus on gameplay rather than turning half the team into a cosmetic pipeline.
But also the game is going on discount on launch, 25% off for two weeks, so $14.99, and I hope it’s worth the money, and I hope people come and try it out, and that’s really… Yeah, and so we’re incredibly nervous because we’re also shadow dropping which is probably really stupid!”
Harding closed out the interview with some reflective thoughts about Diabotical Rogue and The GD Studios.
Credit: GD Studio Inc.
2GD: “I hope the story goes well for us in terms of people understanding what we are as a studio. Because I kind of feel I was one of the first to leave esports to go to game development and start a studio. And I kind of feel a little bit that The GD Studio feels like the retirement home for pro gamers.”
So you feel like the game’s success would kind of make it feel like less like that?
2GD: “Well, it’s more the fact I always felt that traditional game developers always had a wall between them and the esports pros. And it always frustrated me when I was giving feedback and I always felt and I think other people felt as well, that it was a wall.
The door was still kind of locked. And so I just wanted to be like, “no, fuck it, we’ll do it.” I’ll take a risk it with, I’ll put my coin in, I’ll say I’m doing it first. And then we’ve got to a point now where I think we’ve excited a few people that want to join this kind of journey to see if the community in the ex-esports pros can kind of have a voice and directly touch the DNA of a game with high-level decisions.
So I’m super excited. I think we’re like eight ex-pro gamers now at the studio. And we’re world champions in Overwatch, Quake, Unreal Tournament, Counter-Strike. And we’ll see. We’ll see what we can make. Or we’re all full of shit. And then, you know, and we should just leave it to Blizzard and Valve and Riot.”
Diabotical Rogue available in Early Access now on Steam and Epic Games Store.
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