Pawel Smolewski is a military enthusiast who loves everything about shooting games. He always dreamed of creating a new title for like-minded fans, so in 2016 he invited developers who share his passions to join forces and help bring an idea into life. This is how top-down shooter “Thunder Tier One (TTO)” started. KRAFTON launched the game globally in December last year, drawing lots of positive feedback from across the globe. KRAFTON Blog spoke to the developer to get the behind-the-scenes story.
Hello. Let’s first talk about yourself and your career. What is your role at KRAFTON/PUBG STUDIOS and in the Thunder Tier One dev team? What are your daily responsibilities?
My career dates back to my teenage years when I first picked up modding. At the time I was heavily involved in the Operation Flashpoint game series which is now ARMA 3. I worked on a whole host of things including animations and scripts. That experience helped me land a job at Bohemia Interactive where I worked on ARMA 3 for five years before joining PUBG in 2016.
Fast forward to today and I am a Creative Director at KRAFTON and an Executive Producer for TTO. What that means is my work is varied and I am kept very busy! On any given day I could be managing others, leading design discussions, working on expanding the creative vision of PUBG: BATTLEGROUNDS or even doing some dev work myself.
Can you tell us what kind of a game TTO is? And personally, what are your favorite features of TTO?
TTO is a top-down tactical shooter which challenges fans to use leadership skills and think strategically when leading a special ops team. The game appeals to those with an interest in military tactics, offering players a wide range of different single and co-op game modes. Fans can also play a nine-mission story driven campaign where they are tasked with stopping a dangerous terrorist network in the fictional Eastern European country of Salobia. My favorite thing is the shooting. I love how the weapons feel and how both the recoil and aiming systems work.
One of the known facts about TTO is that it was developed by a small team. How would you, as the leader, describe the team, its philosophy, vision and culture? Also, please introduce your team members and what they’ve been doing on this project.
The team comprises of passionate, talented and ambitious people who are always up for a challenge. They are also super committed; they live the project and are all proud to be part of it. Collectively our aim was always to create a game that we ourselves would want to play as we are all like-minded fans of military titles.
In terms of our team, Nelson Duarte is a lead programmer and the mastermind behind most of the gameplay systems. Pedro Pinho and Nacho Talens are programmers who work with him and resolve lots of engineering tasks. Jorge Aguiar is in charge of the environment art team, and we have Ricardo Sousa, Joao Rebelo and Arseniy Smirnov who are dedicated and talented designers and artists! Then there is Michal Flodrowski who has been with us since the start and is responsible for taking care of weapons and character equipment. Our lead on sound is Lorenzo Salvadori, and Tormod MacLean heads up the QA team. Ricardo Mota is in charge of Community Management.
One of the features that both TTO and PUBG: BATTLEGROUNDS have in common is realistic gunplay. How did you get into guns and gunplay?
Shooting games have always been a big part of my life. I am a huge fan of all things to do with the military. I love reading about it and watching army films in my spare time. I think that passion probably comes out in the work that I do!
Tell us about the differences that you have experienced in making PUBG: BATTLEGROUNDS and in making TTO.
We have a very different approach to each game as they are by nature very different titles. For example, PUBG: BATTLEGROUNDS was never meant to be a super realistic tactical shooter, it has always been intended as a middle ground between more casual and more tactical games. We wanted gunplay to feel immersive but not take it to extreme levels. This means we approached each game with different mindsets.
It must have been quite difficult to lead the dev project amid the ongoing pandemic situation. How did you and the team deal with the difficulties, and how did you keep the teamwork intact while having to work remotely?
Working during a pandemic was definitely a big challenge but we dealt with it well because we are quite a remote team anyway – many of our colleagues are based in Portugal with others scattered around Europe. We developed a remote-working culture that means we moved all decision-making meetings and coffee catch ups to an online environment. We also made the most of all the tools at our disposal that help foster a remote culture and ensure work is not too heavily disrupted by the pandemic.
What are the biggest lessons that you and the dev team learned from this project?
To get a personal project off the ground like this took a serious amount of dedication and I think as a team we learned how to effectively plan and manage such a significant task without being overwhelmed by the complexity of it.
We also learnt that it’s possible to make a great tactical shooter with a top-down perspective, I think a lot of people would have doubted that in the past!
You’ve been in the gaming industry for quite a while, and we all know that it’s not easy to stay creative and vigorous in one’s sector for a long time. What’s your biggest driving force to keep going?
What fuels me to keep going and work hard on developing new experiences is seeing the creations of other developers and in part being inspired by these to design my own new take on things. My colleagues here are also a huge source of inspiration and motivation, their passion helps me to stay on top of my game.
Is there anything you want to say to your colleagues in the TTO dev team?
I simply want to thank them for all the hard work they have put in making this project a reality. I am really proud of what we have achieved together.
<About Thunder Tier One Team>
The Thunder Tier One concept was first conceived of in 2016, by KRAFTON Creative Director Pawel Smolewski, who began working on the game as a personal project with a small independent team. In early 2020, Smolewski pitched the game to KRAFTON, Inc. who recognized its potential and decided to collaborate with the team to help introduce Thunder Tier One to a wider audience. The original team is now working under the KRAFTON, Inc. umbrella.
