Stellaris Interview
We sat down with Henrik Fahraeus, Game Director of Stellaris, to ask him about the game.
What is your favourite feature in Stellaris?
I am very pleased with the science ships and the role they fulfill in the game, going around exploring and surveying. With expansions, I think they're only going to get better and more central, as we keep adding more things for them to do, especially in the later stages of the game.
There are a lot of space games coming out at the moment. What do you think has made them so popular recently?
That's a really good question. In large part, we started making Stellaris because we perceived an opening in the market, but, it would appear, so did a whole slew of other developers. The genre is hot again. The key, though, is daring to try new things and leave the old formulas from the 90s behind. There is still a perception, I think, that Master of Orion 2 was a perfect game, so why can't we just copy it with updated graphics and a modern GUI? However, the golden shimmer of nostalgia is, unfortunately, a mirage. Times have moved on, much as I love reminiscing on the good old days.
And what do you feel makes Stellaris stand out from the crowd?
My goal with Stellaris was to take one third Star Control 2, one third Master of Orion 2 and one third Europa Universalis IV and create a strategy game with particular focus on exploration; the first of the four X’s. I think the formula worked out well, even if there is always room for improvement. The early game, in particular, is pretty unique.
Is there much of a storyline, or was it designed to be more of a sandbox?
Stellaris was always designed to be a sandbox. There is no set story, and we strove to de-emphasise even the pre-scripted empires that you can pick as a quick start option. Instead, every game should create a new story for you. Players can expect us to develop certain advanced back stories and "main quests" in expansions though, even if they are not apparent at game start and would vary between games.
You are putting a lot of focus on modding when the game comes out. How important are those community mods to you?
Mods are hugely important to us. It's impossible to make a game that is exactly right for everyone (even to our broad target demographic), but through mods people can tailor their experience to their own particular tastes. We also intentionally designed the game to support almost any kind of space game total conversion mod.
Along the same lines, what is your favourite mod so far?
One of my early favourites is ZBeautiful Battles, which makes space battle look better. In fact, we're probably adapting some of the changes for the base game. I also have high hopes for one of the total conversion mods, though I won't mention the name :)
How much are you relying on a player’s own experiences tailoring their experience in the game?
The player's experience is the only one that matters to me. My artistic ambition lies not in writing cool narratives, but in the simulation itself. That is, making a game that will allow players to experience any number of emergent stories themselves.
Stellaris is obviously different to Crusader Kings and Hearts of Iron. What made you want to start a space-based project?
It's been a dream of ours (the designers) since at least 2005, really. We love making historical games, but from a design standpoint it can also be frustratingly constraining to work within a strictly historical framework. So, when things really took off for us after Crusader Kings II, we decided to go for it. At the time, we also thought there was a lack of good games in the space 4X genre.
How has past work on games such as the Crusader Kings series affected how you approached Stellaris?
Personally, I prefer working with character and story based games like Crusader Kings to more mechanics centered games like Europa Universalis, so when I'm involved in a project it will tend to lean more towards experiencing stories. This resulted in a bit of a tug-of- war between me and the other designers on the project (who are more into balanced mechanics.) Granted, the 4X genre does require significantly tighter core mechanics than our grand strategy games... so it was a hard fight merging the genres.
Do you feel this is a love-letter to your existing fan community or are you hoping to capture new fans with this entry?
We were really trying to reach new fans with Stellaris. We wanted to make a truly accessible game that could hook 4X players and science fiction fans on our kind of games. At the same time, of course, we still didn't want to alienate our faithful fans, and I think they'll be particularly pleased with the upcoming expansions.
What science-fiction books, films or media helped inspire the design of Stellaris?
I'd say Star Trek, David Brin's Uplift novels and games like Star Control 2, FTL and Mass Effect are some of the main sources of inspiration, but the game is chock-full of little stories and events inspired by any number of science fiction books, movies and games.
Do you see Stellaris becoming a series?
Yes, why not? I love doing sequels more than new games, because you have a much clearer idea of what works and what doesn't.
Are there any DLC plans on the horizon?
We'll be using the same model with free updates, expansions and separate content DLC that we've done with Crusader Kings II and Europa Universalis IV. I can't talk about specific plans, unfortunately, but there is some information about the direction the next two free updates will take on our forum.
Would you rather fight one spaceship-sized duck or 100 duck-sized spaceships?
One spaceship-sized duck, definitely. I don't think it could do me much harm, whereas 100 duck-sized spaceships still have pew pew lasers. :)
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