Blind Squirrel Games might not be a familiar name to fans of such massive titles as Borderlands 2, Bioshock, Evolve, and Mafia 3, but nevertheless, the developers there have had a hand in all of these beloved titles and more. Now, the studio is preparing to launch its first original game, a team-based hero shooter called Drifters Loot the Galaxy. In honor of the launch of an open beta, Game Rant had a chat with Creative Director Haydn Dalton to discuss some of the inspirations and mechanics behind Blind Squirrel’s debut title.
Drifters Loot the Galaxy is a brightly colored, goofy, frenetic team shooter based around immense freedom in mobility and a strong set of unique heroes to play as. Every character is equipped with jetpacks to send players skidding across the map or launching upwards into advantageous positions, plus a grappling hook used to swing around tight corners or get out of a pinch. Movement is key, and the vibrant character design seems to draw out wacky antics at every turn. The first thing we wanted to know was what got the team inspired to make the game look and feel the way it does.
With a team that has worked on many engaging shooters, (Borderlands 2 and Sunset Overdrive come to mind as immediate examples), we wondered if Blind Squirrel had picked up anything from those titles that helped in making Drifters. Dalton responded that the big Triple-A titles that many team members had worked on inspired the level of quality, but didn’t directly influence the core mechanics of the game: “We leaned into their experiences and into our own expectations of what makes a fun shooter.”
Drifters has been compared to both Overwatch and Smash Bros because of its hero-based team combat and emphasis on movement. Often, players slam each other around or send each other flying in the heat of battle, with a quick recovery just as important as good aim. However, we also wanted to get a grasp on how the team came up with the game’s unique art style and character design, which goes hand in hand with a tie-in comic series by Vault Comics.
When developing an original IP, we knew that not only did we need to deliver on creating a unique experience, but we also needed to give it a visual identity that felt like its own. Art stylization was always the route we wanted to go, as it fits our universe best. Once we saw Into the Spiderverse and Blindspot (Love, Death and Robots), we believed that an illustrative styling would really bind it all together. There’s also a lot of love for anime on this team, which you’ll notice with the way we styled our vfx; we are really happy with how the visuals have turned out.
All those comparisons certainly ring true, but Drifters still has an air of uniqueness in all of its charm. Perhaps the thing that players can most look forward to during the beta and after release is the team’s commitment to interacting with fans and building the game around their needs. In Dalton’s words, Blind Squirrel is “a small enough developer to be agile to the needs of our players… we know it becomes just as much theirs as it is ours.” At the very least, it’s worth checking out the open beta just to get a taste of the drifting, grappling, rocketing movement that is the heart of Drifters Loot the Galaxy.
Drifters Loot the Galaxy is currently in open beta on PC.
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