The developer of the blockbuster Elite: Dangerous spoke in a recent interview about the future of the series, and his next unannounced project based on a well-known movie franchise.
David Braben, to some gaming enthusiasts, is like the Steve Jobs of space simulation games. The developer started making a name for himself in 1984 when his studio, Frontier, released the original Elite, one of the most advanced and fully-developed space exploration games the hardware at the time could manage. During a recent interview with Glixel, he gave us a glimpse of what makes him tick, but most importantly, what the future holds for Frontier and Elite as a whole.
When asked about the genre-pioneering game Elite: Dangerous, and what the developer’s plans were for the series in the future, Braben quickly pointed to ‘settlers’ as the logical next step:
If you’ve played the Elite series, you’ll notice that the ability to land on planets with an atmosphere has been missing, although players can land on rocky planets that do not have it. Games like Star Citizen have shown gameplay footage recently where players could walk around on worlds, and explore. However, during an interview at gamescom 2016, Braben noted that he wanted to ‘get it right’ because the developer owed it to the fans. Not to mention that Elite players are arguably very nitpicky. An example of this is when Frontier updated the game so you could transfer your ships from one system to the next; a fierce debate subsequently erupted online about how long it should realistically take for this transfer, because at that time it was instant.
Although the team over at Frontier is ankle-deep in perpetual development for Elite: Dangerous, the studio does have some unannounced projects in the works. Although Braben didn’t go into detail, he did drop some hints:
Although it still remains to be seen what this project will be, it’s good to see that it’s just around the corner.
Elite: Dangerous launched on PC in 2014, and then on the Xbox One the following year. Gamers on PlayStation have joined in on the fun recently as well. The developer also just released its latest patch for the game, which added the dreaded ‘Thargoid’ civilization – after having teased it for months – and gamers have so far been busy uncovering the secrets of this elusive species that lay scattered around the galaxy.
Source: Rolling Stone | Image via Frontier
