From a secret office in college to help from Square Enix, BetaDwarf takes a giant leap with new investments – Vaultbreakers

Yesterday we reported on how Denmark’s BetaDwarf has received a large investment from Square Enix. The investment will help promote and fund the release of the studio’s current project Vaultbreakers – a top-down action-RPG that can be played alone or with friends.

When the news broke, we had a conversation with BetaDwarf’s CEO Steffen Kabbelgaard, who was naturally pleased with the new partnership. Not only in terms of the increased financial clout, but also in terms of the knowledge Square Enix can contribute.

“It offers some opportunities in terms of having more money. But they also help with advice and ideas on how to work with console owners, break into the Japanese market and things like that, which they specialize in.” Kabbelgaard said.

Playing hide-and-seek in college

In many ways, Square Enix’s investment is the culmination of a journey that began quite modestly. There’s nothing abnormal about that, of course. Yes, it’s almost a cliché that IT companies and game developers start out in their parents’ basement or the neighborhood coffee shop. But BetaDwarf’s first “office” is a bit special.

When the studio was founded in 2010, the fledgling developers needed an office. When some of them had just finished their university education, the solution was obvious.

“We found a classroom that wasn’t really being used. We tried to move in there for a week to see if someone would throw us out. They didn’t. Then it happened a little quickly that someone lost their apartment and instead of finding a new one, they moved there. Then many of us did it to save on rent. We ended up living there for 9-10 months “, says Steffen Kabbelgaard, who co-founded the developer.

So their first phase of development was a kind of involuntary stealth game, which involved not standing out too much on the campus of Aalborg University in Ballerup. When a teacher finally realized that a room was full of furniture and computers, they had to move, but the idea of living in the workplace stuck. BetaDwarf moved to a shared house in Karlslunde before returning to Copenhagen. Now in a real office, they released their debut game Forced – a top-down action role-playing game that received many positive reviews and earned the studio an award.

The challenges of online gaming

The studio Vaultbreakers’ current project is in many ways a return to its roots, for after a detour into the more strategy-based Minion Masters (which combined tower defense and card games), it has once again taken on an action-RPG. This does not mean, however, that the game was easy to develop, explains Steffen Kabbelgaard.

“We’ve never made a competitive action game before, nor a big adventure game like this. There’s probably more than 50 hours of campaign, you can play co-op or solo – on competitive servers where you can meet other players or on servers where you can’t meet other players. The unique thing we want to bring is the feeling of playing on an intense WoW server where you can constantly meet other players who can help you or attack you.”

The more technical elements of an online game were particularly difficult to get right, says the studio’s founder.

“There’s a lot of online infrastructure when you make PvP games. It’s much harder than when you do multiplayer co-op. It has to be even more solid, so it took a lot of time. At the same time, you have to spend time making anticheat systems and we have to set up servers in many places around the world, because it has to be more responsive than Minion Masters.”

No Web3, but lots of feedback

With games like the successful MMORPG Final Fantasy XIV, Square Enix has shown it can make great online games, and if nothing else, failures like Babylon’s Fall have given them useful knowledge about what NOT to do. The Japanese gaming giant will therefore be able to share a lot of useful experience with BetaDwarf, and as part of the investment, Hide Uehara of Square Enix Holdings has joined the company’s board of directors.

Uehara is also a board member of the Blockchain Game Alliance, and as a former Director of Business Development at Square Enix, he has co-invested in Web3 companies using cryptocurrency and NFT. Steffen Kabbelgaard assures us, however, that this is not something we need to fear becoming a part of Vaultbreakers.

“No, it’s not something that’s coming to our games. It’s just been in Sqaure Enix’s interest to keep an eye on that as well. But it has nothing to do with us.”

Instead, Square Enix will contribute valuable knowledge, and according to Steffen Kabbelgaard, more than 20 people from their publishing team have already tried Vaultbreakers.

The most important feedback, however, comes from the players themselves. Last week, BetaDwarf hosted a large playtest, which provided important insights.

“We have already had over 30,000 players and they have given us a lot of useful feedback, especially regarding the difficulty. Many people think it’s a little too difficult to play solo. They’re missing a way to learn the game where you’re not playing competitively, which is actually quite appropriate, because that’s coming in our next update.”

aultbreakers doesn’t have a launch window yet, but you can follow the game’s development on its Steam page.