Crytek learned its past mistakes, and instead of shoveling another game “beautiful, but without character” they try to build up the ambiance and the world of Hunt: Showdown. You can read this introduction to their dev diary on their main page.

“While the main protagonists of Hunt: Showdown would have understand little about the technology of moving pictures, since motion picture cameras were first invented in 1890, if the historians can be believed—let us stay, for a time, in the year 2017, where we can watch Hunt: Showdown developers deliberate on the past, the present, and the future of the upcoming PvPvE monster hunter on which they currently work.

Indeed, it’s on the very first page of that history that our dev diary begins, at a time when Hunt: Showdown was called Hunt: Horrors of the Gilded Age and was being developed in Austin, Texas. Level Design Director Chris Auty, Creative Director Magnus Larbrant, Producer Fatih Özbayram, Junior Producer Richard Miller, Audio Director Florian Füsslin, Lead Artist Marcel Schaika, and Lead Designer Dennis Schwarz study the game’s development history, the decision-making process that led to its change of direction, and the kind of strategies that will let a player alive, once they are face-to-face with the monsters of the swamps.

“What we wanted to achieve with Hunt in the long term was sustained tension for players so they were never quite sure what was going to happen.” –Chris Auty, Level Design Director

“It is not a linear horror experience. You have to think about it more as a game where you and your friends rely on your senses. Did I hear something? Did I see something move?” – Marcel Schaika, Lead Artist

“Reckless players are dead players.” – Magnus Larbrant, Creative Director

You can watch the dev diary itself here: