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We loved Ghostrunner 2. Its bag of tricks demands split-second reflexes but rewards you with some incredible cyberpunk combat. After Tom’s conclusive Ghostrunner 2 review, we just had to take a peek under its neon hood. We got to speak with Tadeusz Zuber, a producer at One More Level, the developer behind the game. This Ghostrunner 2 interview touches on launching in a hotly contested year for video games, the challenges the developers faced, and what features didn’t make the final cut.
VG: How hard was it to launch a game around the same time as the Cyberpunk 2077 update? And from a marketing perspective, how did you help Ghostrunner stand out?
Tadeusz Zuber, Producer: We think that with both Ghostrunners, we perfectly fitted into the trends – the cyberpunk setting was peaking in popularity, when we released the first Ghostrunner, and was still really popular when the sequel was launched. Marketing was mostly held by our publisher – 505 Games.
VG: What was the hardest thing about making the game?
Tadeusz Zuber, Producer: With the first Ghostrunner we have created a very good product with almost perfect pacing and exciting gameplay. From our perspective, we were aiming to develop a game that keeps the best elements of the predecessor but adds new elements to make the game even more interesting. The most challenging thing was constantly comparing and rechecking the new game with the first part – to find out how every feature works and how it changes the gameplay. The comparison was made on each game element graphic, sound, features, story, etc. As we often say, the Ghostrunner 2 was designed as an evolution, not a revolution, so we focused on keeping the game similar to the first one, but at the same time adding new elements to make it fresh.
VG: How do you find the balance (and you do it so well!) from being addictive rather than frustrating?
Tadeusz Zuber, Producer: We are not the first title where dying is part of the game experience.
In our case, we managed to find a perfectly suitable balance for our game, between time lost due to the dying with time required to come back to the action. We wanted to keep this kind of balance to be rather challenging than annoying. To create this feeling of “one more try”. Now, with all the players’ comments, we believe that we have done it right.
VG: What elements didn’t make the cut in Ghostrunner 2? What would you have liked to do more of?
Tadeusz Zuber, Producer: We had plenty of ideas on what we would like to add to the Ghostrunner 2, but it is always a struggle to find balance – every new feature needs more production time, resources required for implementing it, and the budget calculated for the production. I’m sure we have created the best possible game in the time and budget we have planned for it. We are also proud that we have done it almost without major shifts in the production timeline and almost without over hours – we are organically allergic to crunch. Of course, we would like to have more motorcycle rides, but the Ghostrunner 2 is also a story and the motorcycle is not always the best way to move forward with the plot.
VG: How have you managed to keep the console and PC on par visually? The original was known for stunning visuals – but this is largely due to ray tracing. Did the consoles contain all of the visual elements you wanted in the game?
Tadeusz Zuber, Producer: It is always a fight between performance and visual quality. We had some serious problems with performance at the end of the production, but we have found a good solution. After the optimization process, the game is running more smoothly now with the preservation of the overall quality. We have tried to preserve the visuals on all platforms in the same highest possible quality, so the players have the same experience regardless of the platform used for playing Ghostrunner 2.
VG: Are there limitations to enemy design with a game like this? Or the opposite?
Tadeusz Zuber, Producer: Unless someone makes a historically accurate game, there are no limits in enemy design. The main factor is believability and consistency with genre, time, and the story of the game. Of course, playability is also important. If you keep this in mind then there are no limits and we used that to create a diversified range of enemy designs.
Ghostrunner 2 was released this year on PC, Xbox Series X|S, and PlayStation 5. The Ice Pack DLC just dropped so step into the cyber ninja protagonist’s shoes and blaze through levels on foot or on a motorcycle.
