THE BIG INTERVIEW
Rare is tight-lipped on its next game, but we can confirm it won’t be about piratesis another group of players’, like that was
just the thing that we felt was very special
because the moment you see sails, and it
was another group of players, it was always
just this heart-stopping moment every
time we played it, every time we demoed
it. And then the feedback we got loud and
clear at launch was, ‘Hey the ship combat
is awesome but we’d love it to not always
be about shooting other players, wouldn’t it
be awesome if there were AI crews?’ So that
ended up turning into the skeleton ships that
spawn out in the world. That was something
that we’d never planned to do, that was
never even a thing, but came to be through
just that feedback and seeing what people
wanted. And it became a thing that actually
helped reinforce the core values of the game,
because the moment someone’s fighting
against a skeleton crew on a galleon, and
another ship that comes into the world, we
started seeing ships cooperate to take down
a common foe and then build camaraderie –
that’s something that was very much a part of
the game from the beginning.
Was there a moment of contemplation,
looking back on how far the team has come?
Yeah, I think it’s something we should do
more. I honestly think we’re sometimes too
preoccupied on what’s next and what the
next opportunity is. We probably don’t take
enough time to reflect on the journey. I think
the journey has been amazing and I think
the team now is capable of so much more
LEFT Rare didn’t
have plans to
add AI enemies
into Sea Of
Thieves until
players asked
for them.
RIGHT Rare won
itself a Best UK
Developer BAFTA
in 1999.
because of what we’ve learned. But equally I
don’t think Sea Of Thieves would be the game
it is now without us going on that journey
together without players. Like, we almost
needed to build the game live with our players
for Sea Of Thieves to become what it became.Do you have a favourite thing that you like to
do in Sea Of Thieves.
I do, but I’m always careful about saying it out
aloud because obviously people in the team
work on different things, so I wouldn’t dare
say I had a favourite [laughs]. I think the thing
for me that people don’t realise is that myself
and the team still play the game a lot. To see
a team build something, evolve it, and still
be playing it actively with our players shows
us that we have something very special.
And what I love about Sea Of Thieves is that,
unlike any game I’ve ever worked on, when
you play it, you never really know how it’s
going to play out. Q“The journey has
been amazing and
I think the team
now is capable of
so much more”
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