This November, Chinese developer Hypergryph held a media conference about their upcoming 3D real-time strategy RPG Arknights: Endfield. Making a huge departure from the original tower-defense mobile game, Endfield offers a more action-driven experience, but also automation and factory management – another key element of the upcoming title. Players will be able to build factories to generate or synthesize items, and those factories can be automated into production lines.
Recently, I had the opportunity to chat with RUA, Endfield’s level designer, who told me about their passion for automation games and shared some of their favorite titles that influenced the upcoming Arknights installment.
—When talking about automation games, we have to mention the great classics like Factorio and Satisfactory. Have you ever played these games?
RUA: I absolutely love those kinds of automation games (laughs). I’d say, playing the masterpieces is what made me want to start creating Endfield in the first place. Specifically, I was influenced by Factorio, Satisfactory, Dyson Sphere Program and the Death Stranding series as well. Other than that, V Rising, which blends exploration and building elements, was also a big inspiration.
—So, you’ve been studying not just automation games, but other genres as well for Endfield’s development?
RUA: When new games in specific genres release on Steam, we all jump to play them. We want to research and pick out the best parts of a variety of games. By the way, I learned the basics of automation games through Minecraft factory mods and Factorio’s conveyor belt management.
—Same here – it was Factorio and Minecraft factory mods that taught me about automation games. It’s really interesting how games know no national borders.
RUA: (Laughs) On the other hand, playing Satisfactory, I learned how to construct conveyor belts and how to handle structures when adapting automation game elements for a 3D environment.
—Now that I think about it, factories in Endfield have a lot of visual interest.
RUA: Yeah. I learned about those aspects from Satisfactory. Furthermore, V Rising showed me that equipment can be crafted using factory elements. In that sense, I spent a lot of time researching all the different ways of how items produced at the factory could be used.
—Compared to other automation games, Endfield is quite heavy on exploration. The RPG elements are strong, and it also feels like a management game. Until now there haven’t been many automation games that embrace all of these different elements, so I imagine you had to pave your own way developing it.
RUA: Creativity is our number one priority, and we feel like pursuing that challenge will be a rewarding task. Endfield’s development started in 2022, and open-world RPGs were quite popular at the time. But we didn’t want to simply ride the trend. We thought it would be wrong to just make an open-world RPG with good graphics.
That’s why we researched a lot of different kinds of games. We dug around for niche, undiscovered game elements, studied them through and then tried making a game that incorporated all of those elements. I believe this challenge-seeking attitude is the core value of Hypergryph.
Arknights: Endfield is in development for PC, PS5, iOS and Android. The second closed beta is scheduled to begin on November 28.
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