[REDACTED]is an isometric roguelike shooter set in the same universe as Striking Distance Studios' breakout title,The Callisto Protocol. Both games may share a setting in the zombie-infested Black Iron Prison, but[REDACTED]is neither a sequel nor does it carry the same serious, horror-movie-like tone of its predecessor. Instead,[REDACTED]is a tongue-in-cheek action-packed roguelike full of humor, comic book aesthetics, and an intense focus on the addicting roguelike gameplay genre fans can’t get enough of.
Every good roguelike game ought to have a gimmick or two that pushes the envelope, and in[REDACTED]’s case, its standout feature is its rivals system. As players progress throughThe Callisto Protocol’s Black Iron Prison, they’ll also be racing against several competing NPCs to reach the prison’s only escape pod. The added time pressure and various interactions that arise from this race against rivals are a brilliant twist on the roguelike formula, though it’s only one of many examples of how seriously Striking Distance took the task of entering such a competitive genre.
In an interview with Game Rant, Striking Distance CEO Steve Papoutsis and creative director Ben Walker to discussed[REDACTED]‘punk rock inspirations, its fighting game-inspired gamefeel. and how rivals system came to be.They also weighed in on how the team tackled some of the most commonly faced problems when developing a roguelike game such as delivering a satisfying power fantasy and curbing repetitiveness.This interview has been edited for brevity and clarity.
Going from The Callisto Protocol to [REDACTED]
Q:[REDACTED]’s tone and style is completely different fromThe Callisto Protocol. What inspired you to go with a punk rock comic book style?
Walker:I think it started with a few of us here as we were wrapping up DLC on the last game, exploring combat mechanics and a faster pace overall. That sparked the feeling, and it snowballed a little. We got some good-feeling combat, faster shooting, and worked on the synergy between the two. That pace and tone just fell in line with the punk rock vibe I’ve always been into. A lot of the team really liked the comic style, so it started layering on. A little bit of the artwork came in, we started seeing that cool style, and the VFX followed. It all came together pretty organically.
Papoutsis:And I’d add to that, a lot of people in the studio arefans of comics and graphic novels. What we really wanted was to do something that felt very different fromThe Callisto Protocol. We didn’t want people mistaking this for a sequel, which it’s not. We wanted to present more of that energetic, frenetic, almost DIY style of approach. It started as an experiment—we were just playing around with things, and it snowballed. Eventually, we showed it to the public, and they seemed to like it, so we stuck with that.
Q: Where does[REDACTED]sit in heCallisto Protocoluniverse?
Walker:On our side, we didn’t want to take it too seriously. So we started thinking, if there really wasa zombie outbreak in a prison, what would people actually do? The first thing that comes to mind isn’t “save the world,” right? We thought about the people who work there—like the kitchen staff, janitors, or security guards. They’re probably not thinking about being heroes; they’re thinking, “I need to get out of here.” That’s where this all sprung from—wanting to show the other side of those characters, but in a fun way. The whole time we’ve been making this, the question has been, “What’s the most fun thing?” That’s the angle we’ve approached it from. So we started creating these crazier characters that you wouldn’t expect in this type of game. It’s a departure. It takes place during the outbreak at Black Iron, but it’s loosely tied in, more like a parallel universe.
Q: Were there any elements ofThe Callisto Protocolthat you felt were important to bring into[REDACTED]either in gameplay terms or conceptually?
Walker:I think the biggest thing is the prison and that’s the anchor of it. From there, we pulled a few things— our hand cannon and our shotgun, and stuff. That’s where we started on our weapons. But then we wanted to add more fun, bigger weapons, and melee options, even to the point of adding broken bottles as weapons. It’s a little silly, but it’s a ton of fun to play. So we went with fun every time we had to make a decision.
Papoutsis:Another important thing for us was making sure[REDACTED]didn’t feel like you had toplayThe Callisto Protocolfirst. We wanted it to be accessible to anybody that’s a fan of fast, frenetic, roguelike-style games. So while there are some similarities with weapons and locations, we really see this as an all-new game. It’s important to us that players don’t feel like they had to play the other game to enjoy this one. Hopefully, players can just pick up this game and enjoy it based on this one game.
Q: What do you feel are[REDACTED]’sdesign pillars? Are there certain things you felt the game ought to have or shouldn’t have?
Walker:It all centered around the controls. We’re big fans of fighting games and RPGs with builds, and so we tried to merge the two. We looked at a lot of traditionalold fighters likeStreet FighterandSuperSmash Brothersto figure out what makes melee combat feel really good and tried to bring some of that in. Then we looked at fast, top-down shooters—like old-school twin-stick shooters—and thought, “Can we merge these two things together?”
On top of that, we wanted that instant feel, that really good snappy responsiveness on top of these builds. Since roguelikes are shorter, and I’ve been enjoying shorter games myself, we wanted that chance to rebuild those builds over and over again.League of Legendsdid this some ways back, and I think that’s what pulled me into that game—I could have fun setting things up the way I wanted without a huge time commitment, and being able to try over and over. Those were the three big things on the gameplay side that we’re looking for.
Q: Were there any moments where you tried to implement some feature or idea in the game and it just didn’t quite work out?
Papoutsis:One of the areas where we had to do a lot of revisions and experimenting was the rival system. It’s something that’s pretty new that we feel is unique. When we started out I think we called it the survivor system, and it was pretty different from what V1 is. As we continued to develop the game and play it as a team, we got feedback from others, and each time, we found something we could improve or tweak. That particular feature underwent probably four big revisions before we landed on what we have right now.
Q: We haven’t really seen anything like the rival system in other roguelike games. How did this idea take shape and what were your goals with it?
Walker:Like Steve was saying, we started with something we called the survivor system, which was a very simplistic way of saving people and getting rewards. We felt like it just wasn’t really hitting the tone or mark. Sowe went back into our fiction—what are all these people trying to do? That’s how it turned into this race. We played around with how much you interact with them, in the same room or remotely, and came up with the remote attack system that turned out to be pretty fun. We went through a few iterations on how exactly it worked, and then figured out a nice way for you to cross paths with them. It all worked out with the with the voiceover and the characters we’re trying to sell along the way. You’re talking back and forth and so it really feels like that a race.
Q: Something that’s always a struggle is balancing the game so that it’s challenging, but players can also sometimes find themselves on an unstoppable run. How did you approach that balance?
Walker:We’re just playing it constantly and playing different angles. You definitely want to give players meaningful upgrades, so we always start there. If we find one thing is really powerful and fun, we look toward the other stuff and ask, “Can we make that just as fun?” as opposed to dragging it down. Every once in a while, something gets out of hand and we have to pull it back. We just try to figure out that baseline, then look at how much time people are putting in—like the playtime overall on a run or many runs—and see if we’re hitting the milestones that we’re intending. It’s a lot of iteration, going back and forth, and playing all the different combinations, which, in games like these is a ton. It’s a lot of fun and it’s a lot to go through, too.
Papoutsis:Another thing we hope players get a chance to experience and enjoy is what we’re calling our security measures. Once you do successfully make an escape, you actually have the ability toincrease the game’s difficultyby adjusting several different parameters. That’s there so that players can cater the game to the difficulty they want. What’s fun about the way we implemented it is that when players take those risks and bump up that difficulty, they actually get more rewards. They’ll get more of our meta currency and things that feed back into the meta game so you continue upgrading your suits, weapons, and guard character.
We’re really looking at all the different angles and hoping we have things that appeal to a variety of different players. As people that play roguelikes, we know that sometimes people think we finish it once and we’re done. But I think we’re kind of crazy, and we know based on our experience, you can put several hundred hours into these games. We wanted to verify that there are things within the game that allow players to keep experimenting for a really long time, whether that’s through the rival system or making an escape and having reasons to keep playing. We’re really hoping players get to experience those things and enjoy them as much as we enjoy developing them.
Q: By nature, roguelikes can get a little repetitive going through the same opening over and over. How do you try to spice up each run?
Walker:We roll out a lot of new enemies and variants over long playthroughs. So, suddenly, you’ll encounter a drone with a laser that wasn’t in the first area. Then, many hours in, there’s another version of it, but this one behaves differently—maybe it’s a frost variant. Little things like that keep players familiar, but also mix it up enough to make them react differently. At that point, players are focused on completing their run, so we don’t want to throw anything too disruptive at them, but we want to keep it fresh.
The rival system also adds variety since they play differently each run. You race against three at a time, and their behaviors change—one might attack you more, while another bolts ahead. So you have to react to each run in different ways, which helps keep things fresh.
Papoutsis:With the rival system, it starts with fighting one rival, then another is introduced, and eventually, you’re able to have up to three different rivals in a run. As the game progresses, that changes how it feels. We also have several other rivals that pop in, so the composition of who you’re racing against changes from run to run. You’ll hear different voices and dialogue, and we’re leaning into a fun, fast, irreverent tone. We want players to find them entertaining—it’s not about saving the planet or galaxy, but more about these characters just trying to survive.
The rivals help break upthe repetitive nature of roguelikesby having their own attacks. You’re attacking them remotely, but they’re also deploying hazards against you. For example, you might enter a combat space and find they’ve set a giant bomb that you have to deactivate while fighting enemies. Another time, it might be poison gas, forcing you to run around turning it off. These rival attacks create a different dynamic and make you think in multiple layers.
We also have hazards in the spaces you can use against enemies with the GRP ability, like railings you can knock enemies off. So, there are more tactical choices within combat spaces. If you stay ahead of your rivals in the race, they can’t use their attacks against you, but if they get ahead, you’ll start seeing more rival attacks or room modifiers. It’s to your advantage to slow them down, damage them, or stop them to avoid additional challenges in the rooms.
And since this is a roguelike, while there’s some repetition within the biomes, we’ve worked hard to ensure room compositions are different. You won’t see the same layouts every time—even if the style is familiar, the shapes of the rooms, whether they’re one or two stories, or the number of hazards, will vary. We want it to feel fresh but still part of the same game, so that each run feels unpredictable.
Walker:And like Steve was saying, any rival attack can happen in any room in the game. There aren’t specific rooms you’ll run into, and you’ll be able to predict the attack. It can be any room, any attack, all combinations. So you get a huge variety of these things coming at you.
Q: Does the rival system use a pool of some sort for these attacks that rivals all draw from? Or will I be able to predict I’ll be dealing with certain attacks because I’m up against a particular rival?
Walker:They each have their own unique attack, and then they have ones they prefer. They’ll also use a general pool because we go through many rooms in a run. But yes, you will see certain attacks that are tied directly to certain rivals.
How [REDACTED] Pulls Off the Roguelike Formula
Q: What’s your approach to[REDACTED]’s enemy design? How do you come up with individual enemies and their capabilities?
Walker:We started with the mechanics and behaviors, documenting everything for the gameplay style we wanted. We also considered how we wanted the enemies to interact with each other. Each biome has a set of enemies, so we made sure they worked well together and kept the player engaged. Once we had the mechanics written up, we collaborated closely with the character team, engineering, and concept artists to come up with cool looks and themes. There was some back and forth because they’d bring up great ideas, and we’d adjust things accordingly. It was a real team effort.
The whole process—from design to engineering, concept, and VFX—was a lot of fun, and I think our enemies are much better because of it. It all started with core mechanics, and then the team came together to really make it fun.
Papoutsis:I think that’s an interesting point because, with this game, we had more of a “fun first” mindset. It really encouraged what Ben was talking about, where the designers started by thinking, “What would be fun to play against?” without worrying about what the enemy should look like right away. They focused on what type of enemy would work in this style of game, and then collaborated with the character team and engineering and others to figure out what the best enemy would be.
We weren’t limited by, “Oh, it has to be this way,” or “It has to be that way.” That freedom made the development process really enjoyable this time around, as we weren’t tied to being overly serious. We just focused on what was fun. This approach allowed us to create some unique things that we hope players will enjoy when they experience them.
It was important to us that the game not only looks fun and feels fun, but is genuinely fun. That’s been the main message for the team: focus on the fun, and work from the controller outward.
Q: In roguelikes we’re balancing the chaos of things like random rooms and power ups, but players also enjoy having somewhat of a plan. How do you approach that line?
Walker:We give players suits, which tie into our experiments orour skill trees. These suits increase the drop chance for specific experiment types. So once you unlock a suit, you’ll start getting more of that particular type, allowing you to plan your build. you’re able to also switch suits between biomes since not everyone wants to follow the same skill tree throughout the game. This lets you pick and choose upgrades depending on the biome you’re in.
Of course, it’s still a roguelike, so there’s always some randomness—that’s part of the fun. But we try to give players a way to influence the system a bit.
Papoutsis:Another way to steer your build towards the power level you want, besides the suits Ben mentioned, is by equipping specific suits like the cryo suit, which increases cryo-style drops. In addition to that, at our permanent skill upgrade kiosks, you can purchase skills that improve the drop rate for rarer versions of those items. These upgrades are permanent across runs, so you can stack them to see more high-tier drops over time.
So, between the suits and these permanent skills, you can build off one another to try and create that ultimate “Uber build” you’re aiming for.
Q: Speaking of that, how did you approach the game’s build variety? How do you decide what sorts of elements or interactions you want to include or how they’ll function?
Walker:We came up with overall themes for the experiments based on what we wanted to achieve. Cryo, for example, deals slightly less or slightly more damage, but it slows enemies down, offering a balance. Combustion, on the other hand, focuses on damage over time with fire, which taps into traditional RPG elements. We picked these experiment types and started filling out what would be fun in each slot.
Then we moved to gravity, which is something kind of new in the science category. This gave us a chance to break away from the traditional elements and have more fun with chaotic mechanics. For example, our gravity experiments can pull enemies in as you dash away or push them away as you dash toward them. It’s a playful and unpredictable element that we introduced.
Finally, with science, we created a drone that follows you around; he’s actually the one that does a lot of the experiments. It’salmost like a little pet system, just something fun and different to mix up the abilities on top of everything else. So it started with solid mechanics we wanted to include, the expected standards, and then we added a few unique elements that are just ours.
Papoutsis:Another thing that was an influence on how we developed the experiments was our desire to do a lot of different things using the controller. For example, not only can you melee attack, but you can always shoot as well, so you can switch between shooting and melee seamlessly. We wanted to design experiments that could focus on melee or support ranged combat, and the same applied to other actions like dashing and attacking at the same time, or even kicking.
We also added the ability to dash, which is one of my favorites.Dashing around feels really cool, and we introduced the idea of a dash slide, where you can dash and kick at the same time, zipping across the room. Now, while you’re sliding, you can lay down puddles of flames, patches of ice, or shoot things out as you do it. We wanted to build off the controller’s mechanics—the kick, GRP, dash, dash slide, melee, and melee dash—allowing Ben and the designers to really get creative with the experiments tied to those actions.
Beyond these active abilities tied to the buttons, we also included some really cool passive experiments you can unlock. It’s quite an extensive list, and it’s been a lot of fun to see what the designers and the rest of the team came up with.
Q: Looking at the rest of the roguelike genre, were there things you see in other games that you maybe wanted to seer clear from?
Papoutsis:For us, as Ben has mentioned, our game is more about the characters and their experiences. I think I can speak for both of us when I saywe really loveHades—it’s just an awesome game. They did such an incredible job with their narrative, putting so much effort into that aspect. While we admire and respect whatHadeswas able to accomplish, that wasn’t our goal with[REDACTED].
We kind of went the other way with it. Instead of a deep narrative focus, we aimed for more punchy, back-and-forth interactions with the rivals, creating a different kind of engagement. So, while we love whatHadesachieved, we wanted to deliver a different experience in[REDACTED].
Q: Do you have any last thoughts to share?
Papoutsis:One of the things that was really awesome about this project was the opportunity to work with some incredible people, both inside and outside our team. We got to collaborate with Mutato Musica and Mark Mothersbaugh, from Devo, who was an amazing partner. Hecomposed the music for the game, and when we first talked to him about the project, he totally got it right away. I absolutely loved the work Mark and the musicians at Mutato Musica, along with Seth, provided.
We also had the chance to work with some great writers like Spike and Jeremy. They were fun to collaborate with, and it was a pleasure to see how they reacted to this weird concept—what happens in a space prison during a zombie outbreak with only one escape pod? Sharing that goofy premise and seeing how they contributed to the project was really exciting. And I absolutely love the music. It’s really one of the highlights for me.
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[REDACTED]
WHERE TO PLAY
Black Iron, a state-of-the-art penitentiary located on Jupiter’s icy moon Callisto, is overrun with hordes of infected inmates. As a modest prison guard your job is simple – get to the last escape pod and get out alive.But you aren’t the only survivor looking to escape. Your rivals – a deranged custodian, a violent gangster, a maniacal lunch lady, and more – can’t wait to step over your corpse and save themselves.Only one of you may make it off the moon – make sure it’s you!FIGHT/DIE/ADAPTEach death is a learning experience. Starting fresh each run, build up your loadout with powerful experiments, weapon schematics, and buffs to battle through Black Iron. When you die (and you will die), use your hard-earned loot to purchase new permanent weapons, suits, and skills. Get stronger, experiment with your strategy, and get out!ROUT YOUR RIVALSYou’re not the only person to survive the initial outbreak or willing to use a bit of violence to get to the last escape pod. Some prisoners and even your correctional services colleagues are just as eager to escape and will make escaping harder by attacking you remotely or challenging you to a one-on-one duel. Race them, attack them back remotely, and fight them to the death to make it out in one piece.FIGHT YOUR LAST CORPSEWhen you die, you leave more than a coverall-clad carcass. Defeat the reanimated corpse of the last guard to succumb to the prison’s dangers to earn a powerful experiment. But beware, it’s not going to be an easy fight. The semi-alive guard has the same loadout they had when they met an untimely end and a few extra tricks up its sleeve to keep things spicy.DO OR DIEYou’ve made the perfect build, battled through bosses, ran through rivals, killed your corpse, found all the files, and now you’re standing in front of that last escape pod. Sure, you could leave it all behind for the sweet taste of freedom… or risk it all in one last hardcore do-or-die run back through the prison. Fail and you lose all your purchased gear, skills, suits, and weapons. But IF you succeed, you’ll unlock new powerful permanent gear.FUTURE PUNKAn irreverent attitude, unique presentation, vivid graphic novel style, and a 180bpm original arcade-punk soundtrack by Mutato Muzika enhance [REDACTED]’s sci-fi setting and fast white-knuckle action.
