11 bit studios on Frostpunk 2 and making meaningful AAA titles that respect players

Frostpunk creator 11 bit studios is ready to step into the world of AAA games. But instead of playing by the industry’s rules, the team wants to keep its own approach to the development process to make meaningful projects.

Frostpunk 2

11 bit studios opened up about “meaningful games” and how it wants to bring them to the widest audience possible in an interview with Game Developer (formerly known as Gamasutra).

This War of Mine and Frostpunk, which explore human relationships and their nature, are examples of meaningful games. And the studio’s upcoming game Frostpunk 2 won’t be an exception.

“Going back to how we create our games, and how we approach creation of our games, the main thing is that whenever we started our games, we started with an idea,” 11 bit CEO Przemyslaw Marszal said.

While the idea always comes first and guides the design, the next thing the team thinks about is how it can specialize in specific genres. It means that 11 bit wants to make Frostpunk 2 a much better game in terms of ideas, gameplay mechanics, and concepts that it couldn’t implement before.

To move towards the AAA developments, the studio decided to abandon its own Liquid Engine because it simply couldn’t suit all of its needs. “And so we understood, okay, our focus is not in creating engines, we should focus on creating games,” Marszal explained.

The next step is to invest more into third-party titles with the same “meaningful” approach. Marszal said that he wants to make titles that respect players and their time, and that his kids would like to play.

The full interview with 11 bit studios can be found here.