Mecha Break preview and interview – ‘giant robots bring the world together!’

Mecha Break – this image alone excites us so much (Amazing Seasun Games)

GameCentral talks to the producer of Mecha Break about the disappointingly short history of giant robot games and the future of the Chinese video games industry.

Cowboys, pirates, ninjas, and robots are the classic quartet of fantasy characters and yet video games have always been peculiarly bad at portraying them. Things have got a little better in recent years though, with Rockstar’s Red Dead games, Sea Of Thieves, and (Western-made) titles such as Ghost Of Tsushima and Assassin’s Creed Shadows finally starting to put them each in some decent games.

For robots though the pickings are still slim. Despite not really being an anime fan, I’ve always loved giant robots, inspired originally by Star Wars and, more obviously, Transformers. I’m convinced that transforming has the potential to be a classic gameplay mechanic – since it boils down to a tactical decision between speed and firepower – but even Activision’s surprisingly good Transformers tie-ins, from the early 2010s, don’t really make much use of the concept.

Giant robots, or mecha if you prefer, make the occasional cameo in video games but they’re almost never the focus. So you can imagine the excitement when Mecha Break debuted at The Game Awards last December. Here was a game about nothing but robots and filled with homages to classic designs and franchises from throughout the decades.

Mecha Break is a multiplayer-only game, which is admittedly a shame, but beggars can’t be choosers when you’re a giant robot fan. In my lengthy discussion with executive producer Kris Kwok, who’s also CEO of developer Amazing Seasun Games, he revealed that he does have plans for a single-player campaign if things go well and thankfully they do seem to be doing exactly that.

The game proved hugely successful during its beta in August, where it recorded 51,000 peak concurrent players – which would make it roughly the 15th most popular game on Steam at the moment, above the likes of Helldivers 2 and Dead By Daylight. It also peaked as the 18th most wishlisted game on Steam, making it onto more than a million lists prior to Gamescom last month – which is when I got to play the game and talk to Kwok.

I didn’t get long to play the game, but it comes across as a mix between Overwatch and Sega’s classic Virtual-On. There’s a lot of other mech-related influences there too, including Armored Core 6, with each of the different robots representing different styles of mech or homages to specific series, with some being able to transform, some able to fly, and all packing a wonderfully over-the-top array of endearingly impractical weapons.

There’s a long learning curve to Mecha Break, which should be taken as a positive – since it means It’s not just a lazy clone, akin to something like Marvel Rivals. Not only do all the robots have very different weapons, from cluster rockets to giant lasers, but some of their unique abilities almost seem worthy of a separate game in themselves.

Rather than the ability to fly being reduced to just hovering for a few seconds, like other online shooters, here you fly by turning into a jet and going wherever you want. One mech can transform into a static cannon, while others have complex shield options or are only effective at short range.

There was no time to get into all the nuances, but they are clearly there and that’s exciting. It means the mecha theme isn’t just a visual gimmick, but that it has a major influence on the gameplay itself – which is exactly how it should be.

Naturally, customisation is extremely important and another area where there’s been a clear influence from Armored Core, in terms of how much control you have over changing robot parts and weapon systems. This seems to allow you to mix and match to a surprising degree, which means it’s not technically a hero shooter, as you give tanks long-range weapons or healers more explosive firepower.

Mecha Break – hopefully it’ll be out next year (Amazing Seasun Games)

A lot more playtime will be needed to understand Mecha Break properly, but I wanted to use the time to talk to Kwok about not just the game itself (and giant robots in general) but also the Chinese games industry, which is going through something of a renaissance at the moment – especially in terms of its support for consoles and its courting of Western gamers.

Kwok was able to offer far more insight into the current situation then any Western commentator could, painting an often surprising picture of the current state of the Chinese video games market and the ways in which it differs from the West… and risks making many of the same mistakes.

Mecha Break doesn’t currently have a release date, or even a confirmed release year, but we’ll be keeping a close eye on it in the future. And not just because it’s got giant robots in it.

Formats: Xbox Series X/S, PlayStation 5, and PC
Publisher: Amazing Seasun Games
Developer: Amazing Seasun Games
Release Date: TBA

GC: So, I’m a giant robot fan, and I’m assuming you are too, but on a global scale there’s not many of us. What made you think you could make a success of this game, given the dominance of fantasy settings and more traditional sci-fi?

KK: The mech genre has a very profound culture all around the globe and within China and I, being part of that culture, am very passionate about it. That includes our whole team, we are all diehard mecha fans. The passion speaks for itself, so this was the first reason we believed that we would be successful: love and passion.

The second reason we believed it would succeed is that while there’s a whole lot of mech titles coming out there wasn’t any one game that became particularly big. From my perspective, we needed to take on the appeal of our childhood dream, of a high quality mech game, and develop the game from there.

We want to recreate something, a dream, that never existed in reality and deliver that to our audience.

GC: As a Transformers fan it has always seemed to me as if giant robots have a clear potential for unique gameplay mechanics, so it’s extra frustrating that that’s utilised so rarely.

KK: At the initial stage the last thing we wanted to do was just put out something that played like a human-based shooter game, that made no sense whatsoever. We want to provide three elements that are critical to our audience: a sense of speed, a sense of power, and a sense of firepower. This provides the core experience to our players.

GC: A sense of scale is often something that mech games fail at, even the recent Armored Core 6, but I can see, in your game, that’s something you’re trying to get right.

KK: In Armored Core, the story happened in outer space and that’s why you find some mecha structures in the background and environment. From my perspective, Mecha Break provides a sense of the story happening on Earth, so by comparison the environment is very familiar and so you can see the mecha in Mecha Break compared with normal Earth objects and scenes.

The setting and the concepts behind the world of Mecha Break are how we project the near future in 50 to 100 years and so it’s a near-future based narrative and that’s why you’ll see many familiar elements.

GC: I’m interested in how this whole project came to be. Given the somewhat niche subject matter, was this always designed with an eye on Western audiences – and not just China?

KK: We took the initiative from a global angle, so it wasn’t designed specifically for a mainland China audience or an overseas audience. Although mainland China is a big market in terms of gaming, and we examined it a lot on a statistical level, we tried to keep the game accessible for a global audience, especially when we were designing characters and pilots, we provided very diversified cultural backgrounds and elements.

GC: The line-up of robots is diverse too, you can see one is more Gundam influenced, one looks like it’s from Macross, another is a more Transformers style design. You used two Japanese design artists, is that right?

KK: Actually, we have three designers who did one-third of the prototype design for our mecha, one of which has not been announced yet. But you might know two of them. [We do, Takayuki Yanase of Metal Gear, Armored Core, and Gundam fame and Junya Ishigaki, who has worked on Xenogears, Gundam, and Macross – GC]

GC: In terms of appealing to a global audience, was there any thought to having a story campaign that might make it more approachable for a Western audience? Not that multiplayer-only games are unknown but even Overwatch was criticised for not having a campaign mode.

KK: We don’t have a single-player campaign yet. We look forward to that, at a more developed stage. But we do have narratives in-game and out of the game. Basically, the majority of our narratives, through our pilots and mecha, are through either manga, short films, trailers – so a lot like Overwatch.

GC: Okay, that makes sense. I’m not sure what other games you’ve worked on but what differences are there when you’re developing something you know is aimed purely at a Chinese or Asian audience, versus one that is intended to have global appeal?

KK: Good question! If I’m designing a game specifically for China I wouldn’t choose this genre. [laughs] It’s the biggest difference! In general, as you mentioned, the mecha genre is considered not big, even across the world and not mentioning China. It would be very risky and challenging to pick this genre for a game only in China, this is one of the biggest differences.

If you produce a game for China you’d pick something popular like the Monkey King. Although I wouldn’t pick that, I’d pick Three Kingdoms as a familiar setting in China. [laughs]

GC: [laughs] It’s nice to know that by going global you’re able to expand the scope and nature of what you’re able to produce.

KK: Starting from global is really challenging in terms of preparing the story elements and because, as you see, the development of the mecha is very different and very original. Also, to put together a team of talented people is also very challenging, it takes a long time.

Mecha Break – unlike Armored Core this is set on Earth (Amazing Seasun Games)

GC: But my understanding is Mecha Break has been very successful? Do you feel you’re tapping into some unsuspected seam of worldwide mecha enthusiasm?

KK: [laughs] In general, we are exceeding our expectations with the reception. But before the open beta it was so anxious, all through the team. [laughs] We were worrying about whether there will be a big enough audience. How will they receive the game?

But after the test we saw that it was warmly welcomed by players all around the world. We read every comment of the players and all the content created by them. We find it very gratifying at how they recognise the game as a mecha title that they look forward to.

GC: In a way, I’m surprised at the success because not only is it quite a complex game but it’s dealing with mechanics that are not common nowadays, like 3D movement and flight, that require a lot of skill. How did you ensure the game remained accessible, from a gameplay perspective?

KK: To be frank, this is a very difficult question to answer. [laughs] Mostly, the mechanics of the mecha are all designed by me. When the first ideas about the mecha came to my mind it was all about the mech genre, the titles that I’ve watched as animation.

Every time I think of how I’d design a mecha it’s thinking back to my childhood and all the iconic moments that are presented by the mecha animation back then. This initiative, in combination with my 20 years of video game design experience, have come together to deliver this moment to the players.

Take Falcon as an example, one of the in-game mechs. It’s high speed, has aerial combat… it took Macross as its inspiration, I think in the West you call it Robot War or something?

GC: Robotech. Although we never got that in the UK. I know the mecha better as Jetfire from Transformers. I think the Valkyrie is probably my favourite robot design ever.

KK: Yeah, yeah! [laughs] So based on that, the key elements are it should be transformable and it should have an impressive missile trajectory when it launches. We started with the prototype and framework of the design ideology, and we tested it a lot in terms of its balance and performance.

GC: That is always the major problem with a multiplayer game featuring characters with widely differing abilities. Is that something the community is concerned about, what sort of things are they saying?

KK: They ask us to launch the game tomorrow.

All: [laughs]

KK: They don’t actually ask for specific things, but they love to comment on the existing mech that are there already.

GC: I didn’t get to play the main tutorial yesterday, but so many multiplayer games, even very successful ones, are terrible at not only not teaching you the basic controls but the tactics as well – how you can actually do well at the game.

KK: So, basically, there are two tutorial parts we need to deliver to our players. One is the compulsory 20 minutes, mainly teaching players about how to move their mecha, how to dash around, how to launch their weapons, how to engage with the enemy…

Other than that, we have 10 sets of optional tutorial that will be more advanced. These are more technical tutorials on how they can handle the battlefield engagement, with every detail of control of the mechs.

GC: OK, that sounds good. But do you mind talking more generally about the Chinese industry? You seem to be part of a new wave of, non-Japanese, Asian games aimed at a global audience. Just in the last few months we’ve seen Stellar Blade from South Korea and Black Myth: Wukong enjoy great success. But I find it very surprising that markets that were previously dominated by PC and mobile would suddenly switch to making console games just as the PC becomes ever more popular in the West.

KK: So, basically, the main reason is that a few years ago the mobile market, especially the mobile game market in China, reached a bottleneck.

GC: Oh.

KK: So, although the mobile game market is still the majority companies are no longer as optimistic about it as they were. In China we have three kinds of studio: big, medium, and small. And the mobile game market is kind of stuck right now, so the small ones can only rely on the mobile game market because it’s a fast product; the cycle to make it is relatively fast.

In terms of the big studios, there is a heavy burden when trying new things. So, to find a new way out for a big studio they have to spend enough budget to make a high-quality game, but you can’t spend billions of dollar making a mobile game – that makes no sense! And that’s why they need to spend time…. three years ago, we shifted direction to PC and console, to deliver real high quality games that reach out to triple-A level.

GC: That’s fascinating. So it’s the old problem of not enough growth and a very similar situation to the West, just with the details reversed. But if rising development costs are already an issue for Chinese studios aren’t you worried you’ll be in the same position as Western developers are now, in a few years’ time?

KK: China is a big market, especially for Steam. It’s skyrocketed recently. So, take Black Myth: Wukong as an example. From my perspective, they are investing in the Chinese player-base, in terms of those players asking for high quality PC and console games and that turns out to have been a very outstanding outcome for them.

In the future, from my perspective, the Chinese market, especially the Chinese PC and games market, will keep going in the long term. And it provides a great opportunity for developers to penetrate into this market.

Mecha Break – a game for everyone (Amazing Seasun Games)

GC: Very interesting. So, given the traditions of the market in China, do Chinese gamers see the idea of a single-player story driven as something new and novel?

KK: Single-player games and GAAS [games as a service, aka live service titles – GC] are two different genres and Mecha Break is definitely a GAAS title. The overall operation strategy will be totally different to a single-player game.

With Wukong, [developer] Game Science made a successful case for creating triple-A games, especially single-player games, that are unusual for China. From my perspective, GAAS is definitely more common and at the moment Wukong on console is an outlier for the industry.

GC: Despite all the bad news at the moment in the West, with the huge number of job layoffs, I do find this news encouraging. In general, there seems to be a lot of non-American and non-Japanese games coming into prominence at the moment. I’ve seen more games that are based in the UK, rather than just being made there, in the last two months than in the last two decades put together.

KK: [laughs] In general, I think the video game industry is very much like the stock market. Sometimes it goes sky high and everybody overspends and then periodically it slows down and then people become more rational and if it spikes again then people get crazy again.

GC: I see you understand the business well.

KK: [laughs] In terms of the diversity, from my angle, I’ve witnessed that there’s a lot of Chinese developers who have made very profitable titles in China, over the course of the last 20 years. That’s exactly how long the Chinese video game industry has been going.

They are trying their best to go globally, but going global is not something that happens overnight. It takes a long time to accumulate enough technology, talent, and human resources before we can move the staff to global.

GC: It’s encouraging to me that the secret of success is just to make a good game. As long as that’s the case I think things are going to be okay.

KK: I agree on your opinion so much! Just make a good game! There’s always a risk, and luck is a factor, but at the end of the day it’s love and passion that makes a game good.

GC: I think some Western publishers have lost sight of that.

KK: [laughs] Luckily, we are our own publisher!

This is Kris Kwok’s office… we’d like to burgle it (Amazing Seasun Games)

GC: [laughs] We’ll just end with a few nerdy robot questions, if you don’t mind. What is your favourite mecha, from across all pop culture?

KK: No question, Gundam. I love them all too much, I couldn’t pick a specific one. [laughs] After the interview I’ll show you the wall of Gundam in my office. [laughs]

GC: Transformers has always been my favourite, and latterly the Diaclone reboot line. I think the Michael Bay Transformers films are popular in China but what, if anything, did you see of the franchise in the 80s?

KK: We watched the Transformers cartoon, because me [publishing director Julius Li, who is translating – GC] and Kris lived in southern China, in Guangzhou, which is very close to Hong Kong and we could pick up their TV broadcasts. We didn’t have the comics and manga imported into China. Even in Hong Kong there’s a lot of Japanese comics imported but not that much Western comics.

GC: No, I wouldn’t imagine there was. Although, I always remember a lovely moment at E3 once… PlatinumGames was one of my favourite developers and it was announced they were making a Transformers game. And when I spoke to the producer it turned out the whole studio was obsessed with them and often brought their collections into the office. That was a wonderful hands across the ocean type moment, where you realised that people on the other side of the world are enjoying and thinking about things in a very similar way to yourself.

KK: This is the kind of cross-cultural enthusiasm across different countries that we love, with Gundam and Transformers.

GC: Giant robots bring the world together!

All: [laughs]

GC: Well, thank you very much for your time, that was all fascinating.

KK: Thank you, I enjoyed it.

PF: Thank you, thank you.

If only more developers were mecha fans (Amazing Seasun Games)

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