Deep Rock Galactic Interview

Summary Season 5 DLC for Deep Rock Galactic will allow players to access past seasonal content, enhancing replayability.

Introducing past seasonal content poses challenges in managing cosmetic items and developing a working interface for players.

The Danish developer, Ghost Ship Games, actively engages with the community to balance player feedback with surprising new content.

Deep Rock Galactic was a surprise hit when it was released in 2020, and it hasn't slowed in momentum since. The first-person shooter, developed by Ghost Ship Games, puts players in the role of dwarven space miners who plumb the depths of procedurally generated, destructible cave systems on the planet Hoxxes IV. Whether diving in solo or co-op, players can choose from four character classes, each with its own strengths for missions involving gathering resources and combating alien monsters. With its engaging gameplay, clever design, and active community support, Ghost Ship Games has made Deep Rock Galactic an enduring title.

Since November 2021, the Danish developer has continued to support the popular game with waves of seasonal content updates that keep the player base coming back for more. By actively engaging with its passionate community, the developer is able to keep tabs on what the audience is asking for and the best ways to improve the game's existing elements. Ghost Ship Games recently announced that their Season 5 update for Deep Rock Galactic would allow players access to past seasonal content. Additionally, they have introduced new missions, enemies, and cosmetic items that further enrich the game's immersive experience and replayability.

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Screen Rant interviewed Søren Lundgaard, CEO of Ghost Ship Games, to discuss the upcoming season of content.

Deep Rock Galactic's Season 5 DLC Will Bring Back Content From Past Seasons

Players Can Now Enjoy Past Seasonal Content They Might have Missed

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Screen Rant: Opening access to past seasons is definitely a benefit for gamers who now get a chance to experience past content. In what ways do you think this will be beneficial for Ghost Ship Games?

Søren Lundgaard: By making it possible to play past seasons, we are expecting new players to keep playing Deep Rock Galactic for even more hours than they did before. And every hour played equals a fan who is continuously engaged with the game. They will get their friends to play and they will evangelize the game. Which, in the end, should result in even more players joining in. So it’s also a good business decision.

Why do you think most other developers/publishers don’t do the same?

Søren Lundgaard: As you build on top of an existing game, adding system after system, you risk making everything more complicated - especially for new players. Adding a system for accessing past seasons is yet another complication to understand how the game works. And it also complicates things in development as you have to make sure you are not breaking things for past seasons. So, if your goal is to keep things simple for your team and for the players, then it’s maybe not the right thing for your game.

How does allowing access to past seasonal content affect the team's ability to manage the new content with the old? What are the challenges in accomplishing this?

Søren Lundgaard: The old content is already there – so the major challenge here is a technical one, in making a working interface that allows players to select different seasons. Another consideration was how to manage all the cosmetic items that we’d originally introduced as seasonal rewards. Once the season ended, we just put those items into the game’s other loot pools, so you could still earn them regardless. We wrote a bit more about the challenge of what to do with those seasonal items (Editor's note: you can read about that here). But generally, the challenge was to make sure introducing this feature wouldn’t take anything away from players who didn’t ask for it, or maybe who wouldn’t use it anyway.

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You have done an excellent job blending the 4 classes to work cohesively as a unit. What is most important when creating unique classes, each with their own sets of pros and cons?

Søren Lundgaard: It would have to be the tools that each class brings. While weapons are certainly important for giving a unique feeling to each class and helping them establish a combat identity, it is the Driller’s drills, the Gunner’s shield, etc. that make each class or team composition feel different to play and makes you really feel it if any one of the classes is missing from your team.

Which classes do you personally prefer when playing?

Søren Lundgaard: When it comes to helping out the team, diving into the Driller class is my go-to option. I feel this class is the one that makes the most use of the environment, as the Reinforced Power Drill allows me to create pathways and opportunities for the rest of my team to grab the most precious and sought out resources. It’s also great at tackling large waves of enemies when the situation starts heading south.

Deep Rock Galactic Is Also A Compelling Satire

The Game Satirises Predatory Corporatism

There is a clear element of satire running throughout the game, especially in regards to the corporation Deep Rock Galactic. Predatory corporatism is a very real and serious issue that we see every day in the headlines. Was this commentary intentional, or a happy accident?

Søren Lundgaard: Intentional. We’d have to live under a rock to make this game and be completely unaware of its parallels to real life, especially when you look at the mining industry and its labor history. That said, we didn’t set out to make this game specifically as some form of commentary on big corporations. It’s more accurate to say we use those inspirations for in-game flavor – to give realistic details to the world, as a source of grim humor, and to shape a player’s relationship to the game. It’s easier to get into the world of Deep Rock Galactic when you can recognize its parallels to our own real world.

After exposing the game to players it was clear that there was a real craving for a proper dwarf-centric game.

I’m very fascinated by the lore of the corporation and the planet Hoxxes IV. Do you ever hope to expand the lore in other forms of media? Or even other games?

Søren Lundgaard: We’ve had lots of people approach us with pitches for all sorts of DRG adaptations. So far, we’ve preferred to expand the lore through new games, or working in really close collaboration with others (like for the board game adaptation, or Deep Rock Galactic: Survivor). The idea of a DRG TV show is cool, but it’s unlikely it’ll happen. If we did it, we’d really want to do it right, and we just don’t have the bandwidth for the effort that’d require. There’s plenty of non-official fan art and adaptations out there, and it’s really cool to see how this game has inspired folks’ creativity in all sorts of directions.

The blending of dwarves with futuristic science-fiction was a novel choice. Why dwarves as opposed to humans, cyborgs, or any other entities typically associated with science-fiction?

Søren Lundgaard: The game was always about being a tough-as-nails hard-working dwarf. Setting it into space and adding sci-fi elements allowed us to take all the true-and-tried dwarf tropes and refresh them with future technology and modern guns. Initially, we did discuss if there should be other races (like humans), but after exposing the game to players it was clear that there was a real craving for a proper dwarf-centric game. And we certainly delivered on that.

Ghost Ship Games Is Active In Its Player Community

The Team Is Always Listening To Valuable Feedback

The team is very open with the community when creating new content. What is that balancing act like, taking feedback from the players, but also wanting the content to be surprising and fresh? ​​​​​​

Søren Lundgaard: The main thing is to be open and curious, but not to over-promise. We hear lots of good ideas from our fans, and encourage people to come with feedback. But if you let your enthusiasm get out of hand and make people feel like you say yes to every bit of input, you’re setting everyone up for disappointment if you don’t deliver on that.

What were some of the feedback points you’ve gotten the most, and how do you plan (or not plan) to implement that? ​​​​​​

Søren Lundgaard: As one example, we heard a lot of fans (or at least a few very vocal ones) saying they were getting tired of the Rockpox theme in Season 03 and 04, especially last fall, when we announced there’d be a bit of a delay on Season 05. The Maintenance Updates, especially the ability to disable seasonal content, was our way of listening to that feedback and implementing it into the game. We wanted to make it optional though, because some folks were just fine with the Rockpox gameplay, and we didn’t want to take that away from them. You’ve got to consider whether meeting some fans’ demands might create new problems for others.

Screen Rant: Each mission being procedurally generated keeps every dive fresh. On the development side, what sort of surprises come out of using procedural generation?

Søren Lundgaard: Back when we started development on Deep Rock Galactic we tried out some more free form procedural generation. The tech allows us to have cave formations to intersect with each other, creating truly unique and often bizarre structures. But while it was always surprising to see this, it actually didn’t work very well with the gameplay. It was too random and often not good for combat. So we ended up restricting the procedural generation a bit to have some more control on the experience while still creating a ton of variation.

What is the team's long term goal for Deep Rock Galactic?

Søren Lundgaard: It’s hard to say. We don’t do a ton of detailed long-term planning here, so there aren’t a lot of concrete limits on what we will or won’t do. Right now, we’re working on getting Season 05 ready for June, and making it the best and biggest that it can be. After that, we’re shifting our focus on Rogue Core, and that’ll take priority until we get it into Early Access. If you like, you can check out a bit more of our roadmap plans, as we discussed them in our recent ‘On the Horizon’ dev livestream.