Upon the merciless red sands of Mars, a terrifying evil has been unleashed. A tentacled, mind-controlling monstrosity that, if unstopped, could eventually destroy all life on Earth… The Sequids are here! First introduced to fans of Prime Video’s Invincible in the show’s fourth episode (“Neil Armstrong, Eat Your Heart Out”), these alien invaders are the stars of Skybound’s third UEFN gaming experience: Invincible Universe: Rise of the Sequids. To get the lowdown on how the game was created, we sat down with Skybound Senior Creative Director Michael C. Rogers. Here’s what he had to tell us…
How did the Invincible UEFN project begin?
We started the project last year and knew we want to do something that was Invincible. We launched Doc Seismic Attacks, which was our first our first splash onto the UEFN scene, with the Invincible Universe. We’d had a pitch – initially it was a horde mode thing with Flaxans. As we started learning more about UEFN and what it was good at doing and what it was not good at doing, we realized the best enemy that we could use was an existing sort of Fortnite AI. And the Fortnite themes just happened to match stylistically a lot closer to Magmanites and Doc Seismic. So we ended up building the Doc Seismic Attacks experience, which is a custom raid. You can play with up to six players. We built this custom raid, and had tons of Invincible fans pop in. The idea was that it would work really well if you’re a fan of Invincible, if you’re a fan of Fortnite, if you’re a fan of both, or if you’re kind of new to both or either. With Doc Seismic, we were lucky enough to have an amazing cast, including Gavin Hammon, who did double duty as Cecil and as Doc Seismic. He of course was featured in Telltale’s Walking Dead as Kenny.
Then the conversation grew while we were making Doc Seismic – “We should be making more of these. We should be focusing on what the platform does best…” We looked at it as a lighthouse approach, that would bring people into UEFN, especially Invincible fans, and might bring Fortnite players back into Fortnite. We wanted to have reasons for them to anchor into the platform as well. So we looked at some popular different genres on Fortnite, and we came up with a pair of pitches, the first of which released alongside Doc Seismic Attacks. Which was GDA Combat Training – a free-for-all match that allows for building and is set in the GDA Combat Room; where the Guardians of the Globe tryouts happened in the show. All of this, by the way has been built with developer House of How. We were lucky enough to work alongside them to get that combat room looking exactly like the show. We placed Robot in it.
We wanted a certain experience that was like nothing that ever had been in Fortnite before. There had been a couple of narrative walking simulator-focused [things], but nothing that really combined narrative flow with traditional Fortnite gameplay. That was Doc Seismic. We had one that really mimicked what the top maps were doing at the time – that was GDA Combat Training. Then we wanted to put out one that put a twist on what was popular in the genre.
Obviously, Team Deathmatch is red versus blue; those sorts of things are very popular in Fortnite UEFN. We were thinking about what Invincible elements and enemies and places in the universe would work best for something like that. If I remember correctly, [Skybound Games’] Patrick Gilmore floated the idea of doing something with Sequids, and I said, “Oh, I got it – it’s Team Deathmatch but whenever you are eliminated, instead of just being out of the match, or respawning on your own team, you respawn on the opposite team.” That was the genesis. It was just a blue-sky brainstorm of what could we do here, what would be popular here, and what would work well with the Invincible Universe. Sequids really checks all those boxes.
How would you describe Invincible Universe: Rise of the Sequids for newcomers?
Invincible Universe: Rise of the Sequids is a Team Deathmatch game, which pits Team Human against Team Sequid. I think it’s up to 20 players that can play at the same time. Every time you’re eliminated – if someone guns you down – you [appear] on the opposite team. The game does not actually end until everyone’s been assimilated: either to the Sequid hive mind, or everyone’s been freed from the hive mind and become a human. That was the starting point. We knew that to be most true to the Invincible Universe place to set this on Mars. So it’s a crashed Mars mission. The shuttle that you see in the in the Amazon Prime series crash landed there with its wide-open space to allow for building. We just sort of beefed up the elements from there.
The coolest thing to me is that we figured out how to get a Sequid attached to a player’s head and body. That was really a triumph for me, because you can theme it as much as you want using the HUD and all that, but without seeing the Sequid on there, it just didn’t feel quite right. Kudos to House of How because they figured out a way to do that. Which is challenging, especially in a game where players can pick whatever skin they want to use. We don’t really have any control in Fortnite over what the player character will look like. And everyone will look different. So the fact that we were able to figure out a way to not just have something float above you – sort of how the Victory Crown works – but were able to look at that tech and figure out, “Okay, what’s an adaptation of that tech that works for the Sequids…” that that was always really exciting to me.
Of course, we did do stuff with the HUD as well. If you’re infected by a Sequid, if you’re on Team Sequid, you’ll see little tentacles coming onto your screen. Not obscuring your view but coming in on the sides. Then there’s differences between Sequids and humans too. Humans have more health and more shield, and Sequids get a mini map. And when a human is close enough to them, they actually appear on a blip on the mini map. So there are advantages to both sides. It really creates a fun environment that feels halfway between a Team Deathmatch and Free for All, just because so much chaos is happening back and forth. It’s a lot like Infection Mode in Halo from way back when, except in this version you can go back and forth. Allowing the game to go on as long as people are killing each, other back and forth. [Laughs.]
I should also mention that the way you win this game is based on your personal kill count. We wanted to figure out a reason that people playing this Team Deathmatch wouldn’t be like, “Well, the Sequids are about to win, so I’ll just run into the swarm and eliminate myself and jump on Team Sequid so I get the win.” So the way you actually win this is by your own personal kill count, but also by how long you’ve spent on one team. That gives you extra bonus points, so that there’s an incentive to not get eliminated and to not switch teams. You’re still in control of whatever you want to do. But you’ll earn more and get higher in the rankings if you try to survive as long as you can.
What do you think fans will enjoy most about Rise of the Sequids?
I like the idea that players are able to sort of craft their own story on this game. In Doc Seismic, we’ve hand crafted that story for you. In GDA Combat Training, the story is that you’re training under the tutelage of Robot. In Sequids, we’ve left that more open ended with this traditional multiplayer angle. I love the idea that a group of friends could pop in and be working together at first and then suddenly working against each other. The opportunity for those players’ stories to be told is really exciting and kind of special.
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