Hello, Insiders! We are very excited to tell you about Robocraft Infinity, an awesome game that is coming to Xbox One very soon. In fact, Freejam and the Xbox Insider Program are teaming up to host an open beta this weekend for all Xbox Insiders! We met with Andy Griffiths, Communications Manager for Freejam Ltd., and asked him about Robocraft Infinity and Freejam.
Independent Studios are very popular this day and age, and it’s so cool to see awesome games come from them! How long has Freejam been a studio, and can you give us a little backstory?
Indie studios are certainly blazing the way when it comes to exciting, experimental game concepts, and we like to think of Freejam as being part of that trend-setting wave.
Freejam started life in 2013 in Portsmouth, UK. Our five founders had an awesome idea of building a unique sandbox experience where players could choose from dozens of different weapons, movement types and cubes and then take those weapons into combat online – think LEGO with guns! After two months in development, we popped the game that came to be called Robocraft onto PC through Steam and the game soon became massively popular. That core build-em-up concept, where players could build something very personal to them and use that vehicle was something our fans told us they hadn’t seen before.
As the game grew, so did our team and now Freejam has over 50 developers on staff and multiple projects in production, including not only the original Robocraft (PC) that we still regularly update but also Cardlife, Robocraft Royale and of course Robocraft Infinity, which is launching exclusively for Xbox One in the coming months.
Fast forward several years, and Robocraft (PC) has accumulated over 13 million users worldwide and received countless content updates – the best of which we’re bringing to Robocraft Infinity.
Where did Robocraft Infinity come from and what is the experience you are trying to create for players? If there’s a cool story, like this started in your basement, we’d love to hear about it!
Like most good development ideas, Robocraft Infinity as a concept really came from the fans. Since Robocraft has been available on PC, we have constantly been asked when we were going to take the game to consoles. Players across the world kept telling us that they wanted to play the game on the sofa with their friends, and we felt that the Xbox One was the perfect platform for us. Our game engine, Unity, plays very nicely with the Xbox One and very soon in Infinity’s development we got the basic Robocraft experience in place. This gave us ample time to build on the concept, optimize the experience for gamepad and make it very different from its PC cousin.
Fundamentally we want players to feel empowered, inspired and excited when they play Robocraft Infinity. Empowered to create the robots of their dreams, be it a cool T-Rex armed with a Chaingun Shredder, super-fast race car, intergalactic spaceship or anything playfully inspired by their favorite TV show, game series or meme. Inspired by the creations they see in the in-game community and the competition they meet in battle. Excited by what future components we’ll give them to create new robots and improve their existing designs.
Ultimately, we view Robocraft Infinity as not only a place where you can have awesome 5 vs 5 online battles, but also a regularly evolving sandbox for player expression.
What is your favorite robot in the game? Is there one that’s underestimated that should definitely be checked out by new players?
When you start out in Robocraft Infinity, you have four different robots to choose from; one of which is a massive green T-Rex. That guy is made up of lots of blocks and is perfect for soaking up damage and sitting on a point. He’s probably my favorite at the moment, but to be honest I find a new build that I like every time I play. One of our Alpha Testers, FlyingPig, managed to create an awesome Flying Spider bot that could not only zoom across the map super quickly, but he could also snipe enemies from afar with his Laser Leviathans. That’s one of the great things about Robocraft Infinity, you never know what kind of enemy you’ll face next!
Why should players participate in the upcoming beta weekend?
We are really, really close to launching Robocraft Infinity. We believe that all the major game-breaking bugs have been squashed, and we’re looking for help from the awesome Xbox Insider community to weed out the annoying ones that we may have overlooked.
We’ve done some mass tests for around 100 people to test our server infrastructure. We believe we can support over 10,000 players [at once], but we need to test that before being confident we’re ready for launch.
Help us, Xbox Insiders – you are our only hope!
What players will see when they take part in the beta is almost the full game experience. Players can build robots, view the Factory, and take part in both of our match types – Battle Arena and Team Deathmatch. We’re confident that anyone who has always liked building robots or who enjoyed smashing together LEGOs as a kid will get a kick out of our game.
The Xbox Insider Team has definitely been enjoying the game, and we’re all very excited to open it up to all Xbox Insiders starting this weekend! The playtest schedule is as follows:
- Begins: Friday, March 2nd, 12:00PM UTC (4:00AM PST)
- Ends: Monday, March 5th, 11:59AM UTC (3:59AM PST)
While there are no requirements for joining (outside of being an Xbox Insider), we’d encourage you to keep an eye out for the title in our “Insider content” tab on Xbox One, as the number of spots offered for this playtest are limited and available on a first-come-first-served basis. Thanks to Freejam for giving us their time and providing us with a super cool game, and thanks Xbox Insiders for helping us make it even greater! See you in game.
-Ashley
