We sat down with Nick Clifford, the Marketing Director of Phoenix Labs, the studio behind Dauntless, and got some insights into what goes on behind the scenes.
So, tell us a bit more of yourself and what Dauntless is all about?
Thanks guys, pleasure to be here. My name is Nick, the Marketing Director at Phoenix Labs. I’ve been with the company for about 5 years now. Basically, I ensure that players worldwide get a chance to download and play Dauntless, so that includes fun stuff like trailers and packs, but I also do things like localisation and distribution as well.
Dauntless has been around on live services for four years now, dating way back to when we had our closed technical alpha, closed beta, and then PC open beta, now on console and also the Nintendo Switch.
Really at its core, the game is all about feeling like a badass while you hunt these savage, larger-than-life Behemoths in this really cool science fantasy setting that we call the Shattered Isles.
What would you say are the key ingredients in making a game like Dauntless?
It was very important early on that we had Dauntless operating as a live service because you know really before we even had the concept for the game, we knew it was going to be an online game of some kind and at the time PVP was super popular with games like League of Legends and PUBG.
So we opted for something that was a bit more co-op focused, games where you collaborate with your teammates instead of fight against them. We really wanted to bring together that experience, since a lot of us are old school WoW players and we were harkening back to the days when we would slay Onyxia for the first time.
New features like Escalation, the Hunt Pass and Trials modes are kind of like a refinement and evolution of the Dauntless experience, but it was the community feedback that was integral in developing these features and was a huge part for us.
How is the team coping with developing a game while in lockdown?
We have our headquarters in Vancouver British Columbia Canada, we have another office in San Francisco California and then another one in Seattle, Washington.
We are fairly well versed at collaborating digitally and remotely with people, which manifest in terms of things like stand-ups and checking in with people every day, but it also manifests in terms of our build pipeline.
So, making sure that folks have like VPN access and high-speed internet so that they can check in and check out code really quickly. We were closely following the guidelines and recommendations from the WHO and CDC, kind of leading up to the moment when we decided to to work remotely.
Myself and a couple of other folks put together our top 10 tips for how to work remotely, including stuff like make sure VPN works, desk placement (maybe try to be near a window), make sure that you don’t stand at your computer for 8 hours a day, go for a walk and once in a while and be physically away from your desk.
We really tried to share these best practices with the studio as well and it happened to be about 2 weeks before our Scorched Earth update, so it’s actually really fortunate timing for us to put a lot of that into practice.
How did your experience in Riot Games influence Dauntless?
So myself, Jesse Houston and Robin Mayne, who are two of the three co-founders, actually met prior to us working in Riot Games. We were with EA and worked on the Mass Effect Trilogy together. After we wrapped up work on the original trilogy of games for several years, I joined them shortly at Riot Games.
I think that’s where we met Sean Bender, our third co-founder as well. I think the thing that we learned the most was just the power of free-to-play, the power of online games, and the power of accessibility.
As we started Phoenix and started thinking about the type of game we wanted to make, we wanted to knock down all barriers to entry so anybody worldwide can join Dauntless, download it for free, hop in and play . We really want Dauntless to be like a seamless, fun, and easy to get into experience.
Can we expect more weapons and Behemoth types in the game?
Behemoth types are always getting patched in, like in December we launched the Switch version of the game that coincided with the release of a new game mode, Escalation. Malkarion was kind of the boss of that game mode and he was a new behemoth of the time.
We just launched Scorched Earth, which was our second season of Escalation that has Torgadoro as the boss of that mode. So, we’re trying to get new Escalations and new Behemoth encounters out every quarter or so, and really that’s kind of the sweet spot for us, in terms of how long it takes for us to for develop that game mode but also give players enough content to can keep coming back and keep playing the game.
In addition to doing the Escalation game modes, with the new Behemoths and the new variants that come with it, we’re always developing new features like new weapons, new armour sets and new island experiences. We are actively developing the next weapon as well – I can’t really share a lot about it because it’s still very much in the concept phase.
Where do you see Dauntless five years down the road? What more can we look forward to?
We got about 20 million-plus players who have logged in and played the game, which is by no means a small amount, but we have ambitions of turning Dauntless into the largest free to play MMO and we recognize that it’s a multi-year journey for us.
It’s not just going to happen overnight but with that, we want Dauntless to go from 20 to 52 million players worldwide and include things like mobile launching in additional languages and in additional regions. We really want to turn this into a global product that’s open and accessible to every device in the world with cross play, cross progression, and cross save.
What was the inspiration behind some of the monsters, like Valomyr and Riftstalker?
Behemoths come from a variety of different sources. Sometimes it begins with an artistic inspiration. The Shrike is a great example of this; we asked ourselves what would happen if an owl and a bear were a Behemoth.
Other times it was something like: “What if we could have a monster that could use portals and drag you to another area?” That’s how we got Riftstalker.
What more can you tell us about the mobile port of the game?
We are developing on the mobile platform but we don’t have a date to share just yet. In addition to getting it to run on a phone, we also have to start thinking about things like the UI in the game and the controls and the UX in the game. We need to create mobile-first controls whether that’s a digital joystick or something else.
It’s a pretty big undertaking and we don’t want to just kind of like rush it out the door, so we’re still pretty much in the thick of it.
What are your personal tips and tricks for the game?
I use the axe, because personally I like seeing really, really big numbers. So firstly, find a weapon that you like, and do a lot of Patrols kind of early on, because it gives you the crafting materials for you to build an arsenal of weapons and armour, and then really pay attention to your armour as each piece has its own set bonus as well.
So if you craft all five of the Embermane gear, you get really cool perks. Pay attention to the elemental modifier as well, so for example, if you craft the Embermane’s gear, you’ll get a lot of fire resistance. So take that into a Hellion fight, don’t take it to Pangar fight because it actually has penalties against Frost damage.
That’s not even touching on the Cell system which is how you can get even more upgrades into your gear and use loadouts as well. Once you start figuring out what your different builds and your new different setups are, we have a Loadout feature that lets you save a couple of different loadouts, then you can unlock a couple more as well and quickly toggle between them.
Favourite game and console growing up?
I would say probably my favourite game of all time is Ocarina of Time for the N64, next most favourite is probably the original NES Zelda. It’s definitely my favourite. I’m also a big fighting game player, so I grew up in the arcades playing Street Fighter II and Mortal Kombat, with the original Street Fighter II having a special place in my heart as well.
What’s your advice for people to get their foot in the door in the gaming industry?
I’d say think about what you want to do in the industry, if you’re an artist, spend time drawing. If you’re a writer, spend a lot of time writing. If you’re a designer, design a couple of board games so you really can practice and hone your craft a bit.
And don’t be discouraged if you have to start in a department that you may not want to end up in, like I will fiercely advocate for everyone to spend time in QA because I think it teaches you on how games are made. Just get your foot in the door, get experience in and meet a lot of your peers in the industry.
The Mars Gamers 