Kakao Games takes shot at winning back gamers with new FPS survival game Dysterra

Kakao Games hopes to get back in the good graces of gamers with a new online first-person shooting (FPS) survival game Dysterra after a tumultuous year with Uma Musume. “We’ve held eight tests since March last year and gradually ...

Developers of Dysterra stand for photo after an interview with the local press on Friday as a part of the G-Star 2022 game festival at Bexco, Busan. From left are: Choi Hyun-dong, lead game designer at Reality MagiQ; Kim Sung-kyun, CEO of Reality MagiQ; Jang Hak-joon, vice president of Reality MagiQ; and Yi Chang-youl, Dysterra business team manager at Kakao Games. [KAKAO GAMES]

Kakao Games hopes to get back in the good graces of gamers with a new online first-person shooting (FPS) survival game Dysterra after a tumultuous year with Uma Musume.

“We’ve held eight tests since March last year and gradually gained fans in the process,” said Yi Chang-youl, Dysterra business team manager at Kakao Games, during an interview with local press on Friday at Bexco, Busan, as a part of the G-Star 2022 game festival.

“We are hoping that the game makes it to the top 10 list of all games on Steam.”

Developed by Reality MagiQ, Dysterra is a sci-fi survival game that takes place on a dystopic Earth where players must survive using their brains, reflexes and cooperate with other players. It is set for release through Steam on Nov. 24.

Contrary to FPS games where gameplay only involves shooting the opponent to win, survival games require users to engage in a variety of actions such as hunting, building houses and making their own weapons. The goal is not just to survive, but to thrive.

Games such as Rust and Ark are well-established names in the genre. To differentiate itself from these two giants, Reality MagiQ decided to bring down the difficulty level by eliminating the water and stamina features — meaning that the player does not need to be constantly hydrated by finding water or rest.

“We tried having those features at the early stage of testing, but players gave us positive feedback when we removed them,” said Kim Sung-kyun, CEO of Reality MagiQ. “Instead of those features, we implemented a ‘housing’ system to make players stay within the game longer.”

An image of Dysterra, a new first-person shooting (FPS) game set for release on Nov. 24 through Steam [KAKAO GAMES]

Using the tools and materials gathered from the environment, players must build their own houses for safety. You can bring down other people’s houses and steal their resources, but the catch is that other players can steal from you while you’re offline.

Players can form a community with others to fend off or attack other communities. Each community and player will be ranked based on their performances and rewarded accordingly.

“We know that there were concerns that the lowered difficulty level might not win over the more skilled players,” said Jang Hak-joon, vice president of Reality MagiQ. “But we think of it as having expanded the scope of play for various users, like those who want to fight aggressively or those who want to build their communities.”

Kakao Games took a huge blow last September when users of its mobile game Uma Musume Pretty Derby filed a lawsuit against the company for improperly managing the game.

A lesser-known survival genre may be a long shot, but Kakao Games hopes it will be the push it needs, like the Battlegrounds franchise was for Krafton. Domestic gamers were not used to the idea of a Battle Royale game before PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds (PUBG) franchise gained global traction, but the game made Krafton the No. 1 gaming company in Korea based on market cap.

“It will take time for people to get used to the genre, but we believe with time, it has the potential to become the next PUBG or Lost Ark,” said Yi.

BY YOON SO-YEON [yoon.soyeon@joongang.co.kr]