Rafał Włosek Discusses The Alters, Strategy On A Smaller Scale, And His Favorite Alter

While in Poland last week playing upcoming 11Bit games The Alters and Frostpunk 2, I had the opportunity to chat in depth with Rafał Włosek, Lead Designer behind The Alters, about what led Jan Dolski to being part of Project Dolly, what it was like to design each of the Alters, and what players can expect as they dive further into the game.

How Did Jan Find Himself In Space

To learn more about Jan himself I asked what it was that led Jan to be on this voyage to a different planet in search of a material such as Rapidium. I was also interested in the inception of the idea of The Alters. Unfortunately for Jan, that's not a very happy story.

Włosek explained that "Jan is a person who's trying to figure out what to do next in his life. He's not happy about his decisions." Włosek referenced that Jan's life up until this point has been filled with hardship from birth, something you get to see represented on the Tree of Life.

It was also joked that while Jan had a lot of reasons to be there, 11Bit put him there because they "wanted someone to crash in space."

On the topic of the Alters themselves, it was explained that Włosek and the rest of the creative team were interested in the idea of what people we would be or "Who would we become if we were a bit different? Different choices in our life, what would become of us, and what people would end up around us?"

At Its Core, The Alters Is A Strategy Game

This was the basic idea that the development team started with. Being 11Bit though, they added what they're good at: strategy games.

"We started from this idea, but the more we focused on the topic, the more we understood that we need to have a clear narration and storyline," Włosek said.

"We built upon the storyline, adding more emerging stuff like the stories of each Alter. While you can have different Alters you cannot have all of them in one game. The difficulty of the emerging storylines is how they react to what you do."

Asking for an example of how the different Alters would lead to differences in gameplay, Włosek used the River of Lava that you encounter in Act 1 as an example.

"The way you overcome the problem is always the same, you build a bridge, but there is a lot that may happen on the level of the Alters," he said.

"What technology you will develop, how you will treat your Alters, if you want to push them or treat them well," Włosek continued, "it's a strategy game and the different talents of your Alters will be better in different situations."

Internal Conflict Between Me, Myself, And I

The Alters won't just be reacting to issues, but can also cause a variety of issues. The different Jans will all have different ways that they react to decisions, and depending on which Jans you've created, there won't always be a "correct" way out of a situation.

"Whatever version of Jan you create, they're not always entirely happy about your decisions, so they have different problems."

In your playthrough of The Alters, you'll always begin with the regular Jan you play as, the Technician, and the Scientist. These Alters are important to repair the ship and give you access to the research Tech Tree. From there all other Alters are decided by the player themselves. You could have a Miner or a Botanist, but they're all still built around the same foundation.

"The foundation is pretty solid, but then, every Alter has a different story," Włosek said. "You'll see them showing anxiety and other emotions, and interacting with them will change that. You can please them or piss them off."

Knowing you could piss them off I had to know just how far you could go.

"If they're not happy, they will probably work less and not support you," Włosek said. "They'll start as your friends and then they will not like you. Finally, they will stop talking with you and eventually will rebel against you and just decide that they are the guys who can do it better than you." Włosek described this as a game over state.

"On the other hand, if you're good at handling them and understanding them, they will help you, support you, and will want you to succeed."

How Were New Jans Created?

Knowing that each Jan spawned from a different change along the timeline and that those changes led them to different places in life, Włosek explained how they approached creating each new Alter.

I had originally wondered if there was a core element that made them all 'Jan' but Włosek corrected me. "We didn't look at it from that perspective. We liked to ask ourselves 'What decision?' What would be the decision made that the players could refer to and understand from their own life."

A Favorite Alter; Gameplay or Personality

If there were only a limited number of Alters that you could create in a single playthrough I did wonder what Włosek's favorite was. He explained that as a system designer, the answer was more complex than I was probably expecting.

"You can create a miner. You're mining things so if you create a miner, they will improve your abilities and it's easy to use for a beginner," Włosek said. "The more you play the game, the more interesting strategies you'll see with different Alters. Because of how I like to connect things, I don't have a single favorite Alter in terms of usefulness."

Włosek went on to explain that a character like the Doctor might be a smart choice to make sure all of your Alters are healthy, but you'll also learn that his life choices led him to be a good cook. "If you create a good meal, that will make everyone happy. This can allow you to create special outcomes."

Not taking gameplay into account though, Włosek admitted that he liked the Refiner "because he's a cool guy but he also has an interesting story." Włosek also spoke highly of the Worker for how well he was written but that he would probably hate him in real life.

How Long Is The Alters?

While a lot about The Alters, including its release date, is currently shrouded in mystery, I did want to see if I could understand how long the game is, especially with the idea of replayability in mind.

Włosek wasn't able to give me a concrete timeframe, but he did tease to me that from the original scope of the game from when they began development to now, "it's at least twice as long as [11Bit] was aiming, and I'm only talking about a single playthrough."