Despite Sharing A Setting, Redacted And The Callisto Protocol Could Not Be More Different

[REDACTED] exchanges The Callisto Protocol’s third-person action for something more akin to Hades.

You need a javascript enabled web client to watch videos.

Want us to remember this setting for all your devices?

Now Playing:[REDACTED] - Official Gameplay Reveal Trailer | Gamescom 2024

Walker: It really came organically.

We were finishing up the DLC for [The Callisto Protocol].

It kept growing and growing and growing.

So things definitely turned more towards the fun aspect of it and not so many constraints.

And then the rest of the team seeing it and adding to it.

Art came in and they’re like, “Hey, what about this really cool comic style?”

Okay, that’s great.

It’s part of what we were doing when we were having fun and just playing around.

We weren’t really expecting it to go anywhere.

We were just working on stuff internally.

What about the people that work there?

What about just the regular guards?

What would they be thinking?

What would they be going through?"

They’re not trying to save the world.

They’re not trying to do all these things that we do and have fun with in other games.

We just looked at the other side of it.

And so since [then], we were based [on] that line of thinking.

In that TCP kind of universe, but it’s a different kind of game altogether.

One, we’re really just focusing on cool characters and fun gameplay.

Usually, things are a lot more structured and planned out and stuff.

Internally, how do y’all refer to [REDACTED]?

Is it a sequel, prequel, something else…?

Or even vice versa.

They’re two separate games.

There’s some very loose connection based on the location.

But as Ben said, we’re not trying to save the world.

We’re trying to get out.

You’d be trying to find your way out of there as fast as possible.

And we just thought that sounded fun.

It led into some of our unique mechanics like our rivals.

Is that part of the reason for the Rival system?

To differentiate this game from its roguelike contemporaries?

Walker: It was a system we hadn’t seen anywhere before either.

What are these other people doing?

So trying to put the mechanics together behind that.

And so that kind of just naturally paired together well with that.

We call it the rival attacks or the room modifiers.

And so all of their attacks can happen in any different room, in any different combination.

So it’s just a matter of keeping things, the player always guessing a little bit.

And then, I don’t know if you noticed.

They only attack you if they’re in front of you.

If you kill a Rival, are they gone, gone?

Do you just not see them in a run ever again?

Papoutsis: There’s a bit of a surprise, I guess.

I don’t know how much we want to give away.

But it’s a video game, so you’re going to have the Rivals.

So I mean, it’s interesting.

There’s a lot of different approaches right now in games.

People doing early access, people doing betas, things of that nature.

So you kind of know.

But we were on a much different track when we started.

They’re completely different.

You don’t need to know one to enjoy the other.

But if you don’t know what they are, it doesn’t change the game.

It’s just like you said, “Oh, I recognize that.

I remember that,” for the people who enjoyed that other one.

I think it was just because of the way the game naturally formed.

And at some point, it just felt wrong to change it because everything was going so well.

And so it was just there from the start.

How did the art style and sound design come together?

The comic book-inspired art and rock music makes for a very different vibe from The Callisto Protocol.

Papoutsis: The inspiration for the art, I think it comes from a bunch of different places.

And then, the other part of it was really trying to make it have its own visual identity.

I think with The Callisto Protocol, it is a highly detailed, more photorealistic world.

I’m very proud of the visual achievements the team was able to achieve there.

But on this, we wanted it to feel different.

And that art style really resonated with us as we looked at it.

It was just like, “Wow, this looks really different.”

It fits into the general feeling we want players to have, which is primarily fun.

That’s the first thing.

We just want people to have fun.

Everything really tied off of the controller.

And so having that visual identity just felt natural to that style and approach.

So it just hearkens back to just older games.

Somebody saying, “That’s not what that looks like.”

In this world, it can look however we want it.

And so I think that’s very liberating in terms of your creative freedom with the art stuff.

And so there’s no room for subtlety in this.

And that enabled us just to help pull all those gameplay elements and those different experiments together.

This interview was edited for both brevity and readability.

Got a news tip or want to contact us directly?