We are the developers of the SUPERHOT game, AMA!

• What is the hardest feature to program?
• Where did inspiration for SUPERHOT's unique "time moves only when you move" concept?
• What is the estimated price of the finished game for pc?

Piotr: there wasn't any big problematic feature, but polishing takes a lot time and iterations. For instance the exact way time behaves when you move is not a thing that has been done in games so it's up to us to find a way to do it right. We've put a lot o time (pun intended) into making the basic movement feel right - we've added a slight acceleration, to give precision on very small movements, not sacrificing the dynamics of the game. Lots of small tweaks really!

The concept came from clashing different genres one with another. I came from flash game development and it's a popular way of crafting the gameplay on the flash portals. For SUPERHOT it was "turn based FPS". Other inspirations were flash game Time4Cat and Braid (of course).

Estimated price for the full game is $15-20, but whatever the price will be, I want the game to be WORTH IT.

This might be a touchy subject, but I'd like to ask how you came up with that potential pricing. I really don't understand how game developers figure this stuff out.

I'm also curious why so few game companies price things really low. I mean, I'd understand if you had concerns like packaging and shipping, but digital distribution is almost always a flat rate (30 percent-ish).

Marek: Touchy indeed. It all comes down to everyone being happy at the end of the day: The player needs to feel that he spent his money well and got more fun out of it than should he have spent it otherwise. For us it's essential that the game will be worth the price we are asking for it! On the other end, the developer needs to get enough to pay for his tools, licences, running costs of office space and whatnot and still earn enough to keep doing what he is doing.

Where does the name SUPERHOT comes from?

Piotr here - yep, it's a strange name for the game, isn't it? Definitely something that can't be rationaly explained and not a title a big game company would give to a game. It came to me spontaneusly, and quickly catched up in the team. Whenever someone used word SUPER, immediately another would respond with HOT. So it worked in the office during development and really resonated with the players.

Where does it come from? It's a trigger word. Something devoid of meaning, but repeated many times burns into your head so you can't forget it. I wanted to have a Manchurian Candidate feeling to it. We will build upon that in the storyline.

What if the player, as a manipulated being, has his brain super stimulated so that he is able to move and think so quickly? Or the result of him slowing down time so much for himself so that he is forced by physics to move at relativistic speeds and gets very hot. He can survive the heat long enough to complete his mission because according to those he fights he only exists for an instant, like anything else moving that quickly. Either scenario results in his entire body and brain being extremely hot. In the end the heat destroys him, but during his brief existence he is matchless. I can think of a lot of fun ideas that could be written in that could account for the name SuperHot. But really it is all about the gameplay, so the name is small thing of course.

I like your way of thinking! Explaining superhot by the body temperature of a person in this intense state was one of ideas, actually (but we're probably not going this direction). Cyberpunk is a great inspiration. Gibson novels ("Neuromancer", "Count Zero", "Monalisa Overdrive"), Dollhouse series, "Ready Player One". I'm taking details from everywhere and make it into our own thing.

Is it 100% sure you will not make a level editor if you do not reach the 300,000$ goal?

First we need to deliver a game that is great by itself. If the community will show a lot of interest in adding the level editor after we launch, then we will do it :)

Could you give us a few other big features that you plan on having in the full game?

Most importantly, a single player story based campaign, with new challenges and obstacles every now and then, such as different types of enemies. Also, some replayabiliy features like a speedrunning timer, a new game+ mode (with modifiers, such as KATANA ONLY mode) and of course, the infinite arena mode where the waves of enemies never end.

Is the speedrunning going to be based on actual time, only the time you are moving, or some combination of both?

[Marek] We are thinking about both

Loved it since the game jam and supported the kickstarter. Are you doing anything different when developing for VR (Oculus Rift support)? What are some of the challenges unique to VR that you are experiencing? Keep up the inspiring work!

Marek here: Developing for VR is a lot of fun but also a bit of a challenge indeed :) Apart from the technical issues, like rendering the UI and crosshair in 3d or fine-tuning the movement speed to comfort the player, there is a lot of game design work to be done. For one thing, the player has a completely different perception of his body than compared to playing on a normal display - it's essential to redesign the hitbox of the character, especially in a game where you can see the bullets so well :) Sound is also a big concern - having properly simulated 3d sounds gives so much to the immersion! Finally, with the head-tracking feature of the DK2 we could allow the player to dodge bullets by moving his body around and that proved to be a lot of fun indeed :)

Will SUPERHOT story have amazing plot-twists? How will the story surprise us? (if possible to tell without entering into spoilers).

Or at contrary, is a more arcade experience based on pure level design?

Piotr here: well, it would't be a twist if I gave it away right now ;). We're currently prototyping one big twist when it comes to game mechanics and I'm very excited about it. When it comes to story we have at least one awesome, mind bending Moment, but it's all about staging it right and we'll know for sure only when we'll have it working.

There definitely will be a story, but we're also taking advantage of what works best in SUPERHOT - dropping the player right in the middle of the action. The story will heavily rely on player figuring it out by himself.

Gravity changes?

Piotr here: I'm rather going into more real scenes, not too much sci-fi. I want the player to get the kick from being inside those somehow recognizable places. So I don't find a way to fit it into current story and game design. BUT: enemies on the walls like in the third Matrix movie - awesome idea and we actually thought about!

What kinds of recognizable landscapes?

[xulm] elevators, highway tunnels, rooftops -- those are the first that come to mind (and also the ones we were working on lately, but shhh)

Piotr here: like imagine shootout in the elevator, very very close combat. Or on a highway between speeding cars (that move only when you move). Those settings use our mechanics well and are not quite possible in a normal FPS game.

Did the matrix help in any way?

Piotr here: Matrix was a great inspiration. When we developed SUPERHOT prototype for the 7 Day FPS Challenge, the minimal plan - if everything fails - was to make one level. This level was meant to be something like the lobby from The Matrix lobby.

What was your inspiration for making the game?

Piotr here. I was a flash game developer and loved exeperimenting with different kinds of gameplay. Take a genre and clash it with another one and see what comes out. For SUPERHOT it was clashing an FPS game with turn-based strategy. While turing the concept around in my head it came out that what works better is making the game's turn totally fluid - so we arrived at the "time moves only when you move".

I knew it could work, as I've seen the similar mechanic in brilliant flash game "Time4Cat": http://www.kongregate.com/games/Megadev/time4cat

Are there any issues with VR sickness in the Rift that you've had to design around?

For example, I noticed in your KS video that when you die, you fall back--my understanding is that moving the player without their control is a big VR-sickness inducer. Are you changing the game in any ways for the Rift version?

Marek: Some changes were indeed necessary, like the death sequence that you keenly noticed. Same with respawning - a short fade-thrugh-black was added so you don't "teleport". The people from Oculus were very helpful and offered a lot of guidence! As for other, more game-design modifications for VR, there is an answer to that already here somewhere.

Will there be weapons other than a plain glock?

[xulm] Sure! We already have shotguns and machine guns -- and lately we've been experimenting with granades and rocket launchers. And bullet-slicing katanas.

Final roster is yet to be decided on, though -- keep in mind that we want all those weapons to shape the gameplay and timebending mechanic in their own way and we don't want to include them just for the sake of diversity.

Mechanically, this game looks superb. The new trailer seems to lack a bit of personality or flair though. How do you plan to add intrigue into the characters and setting of the game?

Piotr here: the trailer could have been better. The current version of script has new characters and more personality (I know it's important! Good point!). SUPERHOT works best when player is dropped right into the action and we build a story around it. It won't be a story told too directly and we'll let the players figure many things out for themselves. It's all about inspiring player imagination, but I agree that one of the risks of this approach is blandness. I will work my ass off, to make it awesome, but the our core is gameplay.

Will superHOT be multilingual? (i.e. eng/ru/de/pl e.t.c.)

Kuba here: No plans at the moment I'm afraid, but one day we might bring some СВЕРХГОРЯЧЕГО to everyone ;)

SUPER HOT main mechanic could be easily integrated into other genres.

If some other studio exported the concept of times-move-only-when-you-move to another game, what would you be the most ok with?

Everyone here agreed: Hotline Miami!

How big did you think SUPERHOT would be? Were you surprised by how big it became?

Piotr here: it started as a 7 Day FPS Challenge game. Gather friends and make a game. From that point, everything is this awesome surprise.

My approach is to focus on making a great game. You know - with this kind of sudden success, you could approach rest of development very safe, like partner up with a bigger company and play safe with the design. It's not the road that we're taking, we're aiming to make something absolutely special.

What platforms will be supported for the first release of the game? (operating systems along with consoles if they is foreseeable)

What language will the game be programed in?

Will there be more than just the element of time moving when you do?

(sorry if multiple questions arn't allowed but i would rather them be in one comment rather than spam a bunch of questions.)

Kuba here: 1. At the moment we're aiming for PC/Mac/Linux at launch. Consoles are surely foreseeable and we would love to bring SUPERHOT to as many players as possible, but I don't think we'll be able to release game on both PC and consoles simultaneously. 2. The game is programmed with Unity Engine, as of language we're using C#. 3. One good mechanic is enough ;) However, there will be full-fledged story mode, additional challenges, wicked level design forcing player to use various gameplay styles, additional weapons and a lot more surprises.

As I said: would you rather fight 100 duck sized horses or 1 horse sized duck?

Piotr here: in SUPERHOT time moves only when you move so in this case it would be easier for us to handle one big enemy rather than lots of small ones. Thanks for the classic question!

Any plans on multiplayer later down the road?

Kuba: We did some prototyping and had quite a few different ideas for that, in the end we realised that multiplayer would in fact be different game. But we're positive that it would be very hot as well and we would love to create that one day ;)

Pvp would be cool. Or capture the flag.

Well the flags would wave nicely on the wind with our time mechanic :)

As a game dev what is your opinion on Steams early access system, do you think it is ;in favour of the consumers, giving them the game earlyer for the people who realy want it; in favour of the developer allowing extra financial support or against consumer delivering a unfinished game and alowing some devs to flog a unfinnished game for a quick cash in with no end goal?

[Marek here] Working with the community can be beneficial for the quality of the game, and delivering a good game should always be priority number one for the developer. That said, it may be difficult and distracting, and as you mentioned - can be abused. But we shouldn't judge the system for how it is used in individual cases, the same goes for Kickstarter, or pre-ordering in general, there will always be good and bad examples.

It seems like more and more cool games are coming from Poland. How is the gaming culture there, both on the development side and the player side?

Poland's gaming culture is heavily skewed towards PC gaming. I don't have the exact numbers, but a lot of gamers prefer PC to consoles. Sony has probably the biggest foothold; Microsoft is the distand second place, while Nintendo is basically non-existent.

When it comes to development - the scene's still a bit small, but it has been rapidly growing over the past few years. There are both indies (Sos Sosowski, Crunching Koalas, The Astronauts, MoaCube) and big studios (Flying Wild Hog, CD Projekt Red, Techland) working on various cool projects.

Will there be more weird FMV sequences in the full game? I really want more of that.

Piotr here: I'm glad you liked it. It was actually me on the video and shooting it was awesome fun. I liked the idea of suddently a full-screen person talking to the player DIRECTLY from the screen. I want to do someting similar in the full game, but I'm not sure if it's going to be a video or some kind animation.

The idea behind doing the video in the 7 Day FPS version was that it's not difficult to make, it's awesome and for some reason almost no one does that. I loved how Nameless Mod guys approached it in the Shadowcode ending sequence - check it out it's an EPIC, AWESOME Deus Ex Mod.

http://youtu.be/15MzdJGJQGk?t=29m5s

Do you think this concept of the time slowing down when you don't move would work with another style of game? (not FPS). Plus after the kickstarter is done will is still be $14 for the base game since I can't buy it atm but I'd love to soon?

Kuba here: Of course it would, actually we've seen some 2D top-down clones that were really fun to play (Frozen Synapse like). Also, we've prepared SUPERHOT Text Adventure where time moves only as you type as an april's fools joke ;) (playable: http://superhotgame.com/text/ ). Price of full game on Steam will be between 15$ - 20$, but after KS campaign you will still be able to preorder it on our website via Paypal for 14$.

What has been your biggest surprising since the Kickstarter began?

Kuba: Cliff Bleszinsky designing level for our game: https://twitter.com/therealcliffyb/status/466704561936531456

Piotr here: I'm totally thrilled with CliffyB backing the project and selecting the "co-design arena stage" tier. That means we will work with the creator of Jazz, Unreal and Gears of War. Awesome. Awesome. Awesome. We were not sure about this tier, but the way it came out was better then we could have expected.

Any plans to bring it to Xbox One or other consoles?

Kuba: I'm positive it will happen, but we're fully focused on PC right now.

Are you guys big fans of Killer 7? This game seems to draw at least some stylistic inspiration from those games.

Piotr here: actually I didn't play it, but I love the style from the gameplay I've seen. But when it comes to style of the game we're looking for our own way.

What is the best video showcasing your awesome game that you've seen on YouTube?

[Marek] Hard to say, there has been not only a lot of them, but with plenty of variety! We had some amazing speedruns, some reaction videos full of enthusiasm, we have our trailers, and of course, some reddit-made hilarious parody videos :) I can't pick a favourite!

What has been the biggest challenge integrating VR support?

Marek: Integrating VR is easy to do, but challenging to do properly. From the technical side it's a breeze, but you then need to spend a lot of time fine-tuning nearly every aspect of the game - movement speed, player hitbox size, aiming, UI, difficulty, sound effects and so on.

Thanks for the reply, that's really interesting! Is the VR version independent from the regular version? Or does the fine-tuning of the movement speed etc for VR carry over to the regular version?

the fine tuning is separate for VR mode and "normal display mode" - since you perceive movement speed, the position of your body and other things differently. It needs to be separate. Smaller details that are only noticeable one you are immersed in VR, like the sound effect fine-tuning are carried over.

The graphics of the new version of SuperHot look super amazing, but will the game be playable in PCs with not very powerful hardware?

[xulm] That's one of our main goals. You could think that in a game where time stops constantly framerate wouldn't mean much -- yet we found out it means very, very much.

We're focusing on a really smooth and reactive experience -- all the effects and cool art fluff have to come second (no matter how cool the art fluff's going to be) (it will be very cool, though).

superhot fire, i spit that.

sike! that's the wroooong numba.

Piotr here: supa hot is awesome, I didn't know him before we released the game and comments pointed us to it. This looped gif is amazing.

http://i.imgur.com/VQLGJOL.gif

How awesome are the team at Oculus?

Marek: They are quite awesome indeed, It's so nice to work with them :) Especially since they promised us lunch for all the hard work!

You can't prove that!

Oh I can pretty easily prove the first part, at least :P

In the demo, time still moves slightly, even when the player is completely still. What is the reasoning behind that, and will it behave this way in the final game?

Yes, it will stay that way.

In the original prototype we experimented with making the time stop completely, but it made some players think that the game has crashed. Besides, it looks a lot cooler when the bullets are slowly spinning in the air.

[deleted]

Marek here: We used Unity3d and the power of imagination :)

Will you guys feature timed level challenges? As in beat this all the levels as quickly as possible?

We will have a speed run mode, where you simply run against the clock and try to complete the game faster then anyone else.

Who exactly came up with the time-only-moves-when-you-move mechanic, and how was the development process of it?

Piotr here: it was my idea and design and I came from the idea of clashing FPS with turn-based gameplay. The development was fun as hell. In the early design, levels were meant to be more like in traditional shooter games, but it quickly came out that it just doesn't work. SUPERHOT mechanics shined when you were dropped right in the middle of the action. That was the most important change that happened between early game design and during development.

I know you mentioned combining FPS games with turn-based strategy, which I love. But do you guys have any specific games which have influenced the creation?

[xulm] Piotr always said that Time4Cat and Braid were his main inspirations if it comes to gameplay mechanics.

How do you guys stay so cool?

[xulm] Air conditioning helps in summertime, that's a given.

• What is one tip you would give for aspiring game designers?
• What is a feature you'd like to see implemented in the Unity3D engine?

Thanks for doing the AMA, you guys rock!

Piotr here: do a lot of games and experiment a lot. For me, the best school of design was making flash games. Few years ago the market was really great in the flash space and it actually valued innovation. So there was an incetive for developers to try making totally new genres rather then doing the "check-box design", where you make a "genere" and need to include all the features that other games in that genre have. Making flash games was a lesson in building gameplay from the ground with minimal means.

When it comes to Unity3D I would welcome the idea of nesting prefabs, ie. putting a prefab inside another prefab and still being able to work with them separately as prefabs. The way it works now is a bit cumbersome.

Glad you kept the art style. when will I be able to pre order the game?

Kuba: You can back us on Kickstarter right now and you'll get copy of the game once it's released ;) Alternatively, you can preorder it via PayPal on our website ;)

Hi Guys! Thanks for doing this AMA! Me and all my friends are huge fans of the game (We have speed run competitions in class).

What was your favorite part of designing SUPERHOT?

Speed runs were a big surprise for us, watching people speedruninng the game was a great inspiration and a reason behind including Speedrun Mode in the full game.

Other inspiration we got from watching the players was "Katana Mode" - I've seen players doing runs without any guns so we're building a mode around it.

Best part of designing SUPERHOT is building levels. That's the point where all the simple features - weapons, enemies - come to life and you produce the gameplay itself. It's awesome, everybody should try it.

I love your game! I got my school to play it. What is your next project going to be after this is finished?

Piotr here: I don't know for sure yet. I will sure want to experiment with something totally different. Trying to make something exclusively for the VR helmet would be fun. I didn't make an FPS shooter before SUPERHOT and I think that my next thing will also be totally different.

You guys are fucking awesome, just wanted to say that first.

Do you have any plans for more games down the line, or is it just going to be SUPERHOT for the foreseeable future?

Also, Matrix-based DLC? Perhaps a level where you fight that one kung-fu guy from the movies in slow motion.

Edit: Forgot about this until I read another comment. Will shooting bullets with other bullets be a feature?

Piotr here: I'm nor sure about bullets hitting bullets - don't get me wrong, it's totally awesome, but it happens too often by accident as bullets in SUPERHOT need to be big to be visible. I will experiment on it some more, that's for sure.

We have plans for other games, I'm sure that it's not my final word in games :). But for now, the laser-focus of our's is SUPERHOT.

Matrix based DLC would be awesone, but the licensing would be tricky. Who knows, maybe Matrix movie should get a reboot and then SUPERHOT style mechanics could get handy?

Are you still using the Unity engine or have you made your own?

Piotr here: We're still using Unity. Awesome engine. One could say that graphically it doesn't look as well as CryEngine or Unreal, but what it loses on the visual side it gains on the ease of use. With engine easy to you can generally produce more playable and interesting content. That's our approach - live with the limitations of Unity and get the best out of the good parts.

Playing the demo I loved it, will there be an option for make your own level type things once the game get's released?

Piotr here: That was our stretch goal on Kickstarter, but we didn't reach it! I hope that the game in it's basic form will be successful, so we can add a level editor later on.

There are some technical/licensing problems with including level editor. For instance, the static lighting in the levels is baked using Unity's lightmapping system (Beast) and bundling it with the game would mean that we need to include this system in the game. The licensing could be costly.

One way to get over this problem would be to make all community levels in different style - like more abstract cyberspace, similar to time trials in Mirror's Edge.

I like to imagine the main character to be a contemplative man who's seriously and bitterly questioning the path he has taken in life and what his life has become, because he's had to time to think about it while he works. My theory was inspired by the music in the prototype. Is this an acceptable interpretation?

Also, will there be any live-action sequences in the full game like the one in the prototype? Because that ruled.

Piotr here: glad you liked the video, it was me and it was hell of a fun to record. I would like to use something similar in a full game, but I'm not sure if it would be video or just full screen animation of a face staring and talking from the screen.

The "contemplative man" is awesome, I didn't think about it that way, though we considered making all the action scenes like those normal everyday situations that cause frustration - long queues, elevator ride, traffic jam - but with guns. So levels would be you imagining different scenes and trying to beat your fantasy.

SUPERHOT will be open to interpretation, I always assume that those things that you don't see but imagine - they are much more powerful then the things that are shown.

Do you have any advice for people who want to go into game dev?

Piotr here: do a lot of games and experiment. Try new things, not just game's you've already seen - where's the fun in that. Try clashing different genres and gameplay styles and build gameplay from the scratch. I learned games by making flash games, a lot of unreleased experiments (or just failed projects) and participating in jams.

Jams are awesome way to learn the craft, but don't overestimate them. It's not about performing well in 48h, it's about hard and persistent work, always.

Do you have any tips and tricks for indie developers? What engine did you use?

Piotr here: do games and try building gameplay from nothing. Think about a person in front of a screen. He clicks on your game and he's yours. Think about simplest interactions that can hook and engage the player. Don't think in genres, like in "i'm making an RPG", but use the elements from different games fluently.

We're using Unity and it's currently the most awesome way to get into games.

If given an unlimited budget and team size, what would you want SUPERHOT to be? Do you see it as something that could advance storytelling in FPS games, as a really good mechanic that could be expanded upon, or would you just make more of the same thing?

[Marek here] unlimited you say :) Well if we where to go all they way to the stratosphere with speculation on what is possible then sure, we'd think of a lot of things that could be implemented to make not more, but to make BETTER. Since our time mechanic gives the player a completely new way to observe the world - being able to look closely at extremely dynamic situations, there is a lot of detailing to do here. Like having unprecedented details in the character animation of the enemies - so you can see the force they put when they take a swing at you with a melee weapon, or you can see how after getting hit by a blast wave, an enemy tries not to fall over. This is just from the top of my head, but there are plenty of aspects that an infinite budget might make amazing :)

Will the final version include elements from the story in the demo? I always thought the voice, face, and suicide at the end was a little weird.

Piotr here: It was my face and voice :D, but I know what you mean. The story will be independent from the demo, totally new, but it will use the same themes.

I didn't see it as a stretch goal, but is there a chance the guys who did this music from the Looper trailer could help on the soundtrack if it's in the budget?

Piotr here: that music is awesome, I love the rawness of the sound. Music in SUPERHOT is tricky. We want it to react to the time and simple experiments weren't too satisfying. It worked well only with very simple ambient-like music and gave a great dreamy feel to the game. We'll probably be building some more complex system for the music - there's a lot of experimenting still ahead of us.

We're not fixed on using any big names - what would be more valuable is working with a musician on site, as the game's music will heavily depend on the procedural effects and time-bending it.

Maybe my question is a little too simplistic, but how'd you accomplish characters with animation transitioning to ragdoll as well as a fragmented head in unity?

That's pretty easy: you need to turn off the animation controller and switch the rigidbody "isKinematic" property to false (having it "true" while you have the animation)

Have you considered adding something like a "real-time replay" that would allow players to see their actions in a level played out with a constant time scale?

[Marek here] Yes! We were thinking about that from the very beginning, and even had a very rough prototype of it long ago, but it was made in the crudest possible fashion and worked very bad. Doing it properly will take a lot of effort, so we decided to have it as a stretch goal on our croudfunding campaign, and said goal was reached, so YES we will have real-time replays and they will look nice!

Did you figure something out to get a feeling of your hitbox in the first person perspective? I found that really weird in the demo.

We did fine-tune this significantly and the feeling is much better now. This was an issue indeed, since you can see the bullets so well, but it's all good now.

Did The Game Ever Make It Through Greenlight, If So When Will Their Be A Pre-Release For Sale?

We did go through green light. Even better, we were the fastest game ever greenlit by that time! (but later we got beaten by "Crawl", excellent game as well) As for the release date, it's the same as for the regular kickstarter pledge, so June 2015.

[Rift Q] Will the $14 Kickstarter game work for Occulus Rift too?

Yes.

How long will the gameplay be?

We're thinking 2-3 hours of the main storyline.

Have you considered having surfaces that reflect bullets? meaning that the players focus would be split a bit more.

Piotr here: It's a thing that sounds awesome on paper, but when we tried it in the game it was too random. But spliting the player's attention is a good point - that's needed in SUPERHOT. The game shines where you're dropped into those hectic intense battles and try to stay alive. We planning to give more these kinds of situations by introducing enemies with different behavior patterns. Like melee enemies that charge on you and can be killed only from behind - so to eliminate the you have to let them get behind your back.

It's still a concept in development though. I can't say for sure if it will make it to the full game.

Any thoughts on, or plans for, motion controls?

We don't have any at the moment. We experimented with Razer Hydras, and while it was quite fun, adding motion controls also introduced a lot of problems like guns clipping through walls.

Will there be any puzzle elements in the game? This game really remind me of portal in the idea of you have to think differently to start getting good at the game.

Piotr here: Portal is a great inspiration, but the main focus is not the puzzle aspect. SUPERHOT sometimes feels like a puzzle, but at the core, it's never about simply "solving" a level - it's always about moment-to-moment execution.

It's a bit like Hotline Miami - it's also sometimes called a "puzzle game", but I don't feel it captures the core of the game well.