With Battlerite Royale's development well under way, though still in its infancy, we caught up with Marketing Director, Johan Ilves, to chat about the new mode. Here's how we got on.

Ten Ton Hammer: You’ve now revealed your first and second Blog Post detailing a lot of information about Battlerite Royale. You’ve also shown off the first screenshots of the new map! How quickly has this new mode come together, and who went about determining the look and feel on the area players’ will fight on?

Johan: Our art team members are stakeholders when it comes to shaping the world of Battlerite, and lately we have also been working with a professional lore writer to improve our universe building. The mode has been in development for 3 months now, starting with a very small team and now involving pretty much the whole studio. The potential is huge and I can see this mode grow and being refined for months after the initial launch.

Ten Ton Hammer: We’ve seen three areas so far: woodland, desert, and a tomb. How much diversity can we expect in the island, and is there any scope for weather effects?

Johan: I would say the map is very diverse compared to Arena, with the forest and the desert areas being the larger ones on the island. There will be weather effects on the map, yes.

Ten Ton Hammer: It’s interesting that players will have to acquire abilities as they play. I’m assuming everyone will begin with their basic attack (M1), or does that also need to be discovered?

Johan: You will start with the M1 and then scavenge for the rest of your tool kit and various items. This can create some really interesting moments and you can still become the last man standing with an incomplete tool kit if you play it right. We are still in alpha so just keep in mind things can change down the road.

Ten Ton Hammer: When you describe “equipment” and “consumables”, what are we talking about here? Can you let us in on a few examples?

Johan: Regarding “equipment” - these are items referred to as stats boosters, which increases the base stats of your Champion. These items can also have special effects which trigger under certain circumstances during the game. Olayers can carry up to four unique stat-boosting items.

There will also be consumables, which are one-time use items activated by a hotkey. Players can hold up to three of these consumables at one time. In the current state, all players start with a "Throw Rock" consumable as an early game defensive item.

Ten Ton Hammer: Although you already have the death vortex, are there any thoughts on adding additional environmental hazards, such as roaming creatures, vine traps or quicksand?

Johan: There's nothing planned for the release of Battlerite Royale, but it’s definitely possible for the future updates. I personally think that these kinds of environmental hazards would work very well in this mode, but can’t make any promises at this stage of production.

Ten Ton Hammer: You’ve already mentioned in your Blog Post the issue of balance. I would imagine Champions like Ulric might struggle due to their kit, and how it’s centric to buffing others, while the likes of Croak will excel due to stealth and 1 on 1 potency. Are equipment and consumables designed to help here, or should we accept that some just won’t cut it?

Johan: Yes, being well equipped and making good use of consumables will sometimes help you get the advantage needed to tackle those unfavorable situations.

When it comes to balance, we have a system in place to balance individual Champions for Battlerite Royale, though our Champions are designed to be able to stand and fight on their own regardless of role. Different Champions may require different strategies as some are stronger in the earlier stages of the game and some shine once their key components are in place.

There are many valid strategies in the earlier stages of a Royale match other than 1v1 combat prowess. The main goal is to survive and outlive your opponents and in order to do that you have to make sure you are as strong and ready as you can be for the final stages of a match.

Ten Ton Hammer: Has any thought been given to adding different levels of the island? Similarly to how Haunted Mines works in Heroes of the Storm, or a dungeon in Diablo III, where you interact with a doorway, and it takes you up or down a “level”?

Johan: We did discuss this in the early planning of Battlerite Royale and it’s still an interesting option for us for the future. However, it’s in the backburner for now. Dealing with such a huge upscaling of our game brings a lot of technical challenges and we didn’t want to risk the core gameplay by adding too much to the first version of the mode.

Ten Ton Hammer: What can we expect from supporting features for Battlerite Royale. Will there be new achievements, unique skins, titles and mounts?

Johan: There will be unique rewards if you are the last man standing on the island, that’s all I can reveal for now!

Ten Ton Hammer: Who do you think is the target market for this new mode, and what’s your thoughts on those that state it’s “bandwagoning”?

Johan: Everybody who ever enjoyed Battlerite, everybody who felt something was missing in Battlerite and any one who wants a fresh and different take on the Battle Royale genre will enjoy Battlerite Royale. There are basically no true top-down PC Battle Royale games out there today, and we are providing a market alternative.

Ten Ton Hammer: Lastly, who’s the Battlerite Royale champion in the office?

That’s one of our programmers, Daniel “Prog” Fahlström! :D

Ten Ton Hammer would like to thank Johan for taking the time out of his busy schedule to discuss Battlerite Royale. Battlerite is available now on Steam as a free to play title.