After building the co-op horror game GTFO, the ex-Payday devs who helped co-found developer 10 Chambers are getting "back on that heist shit" for their next project, and they're ready to share a precious few more details about what they're working on.
"Three of the founding members [of 10 Chambers] were key players in the development of the first two Payday games, which is why we're 'back on that heist shit,'" co-founder Simon Viklund tells 12DOVE, indicating his 'back on that heist shit' T-shirt during an interview at Gamescom 2023. "The next game is a heist game."
10 Chambers has not formally announced this new game just yet, though the studio has been teasing it in interviews since Gamescom last year. The company's not even ready to announce a title just yet: "I can tell you that there is a name, but I can't tell you the name," Viklund jokes. But there are a few details the studio is ready to share.
"It has a futuristic setting. It's not sci-fi in the sense that it's out in space, or everyone has Star Trek suits and is flying around the jetpacks or anything like that. But we're taking it far enough into the future so that we can have gadgets and mechanics that aren't just game mechanics for you as a player, but they're in the world. It works like that in the world where the game takes place. Everything makes sense to a greater extent that allows us to play around with 'What is a heist? What are you stealing in a heist? What is a criminal and a criminal career?'"
Viklund also says there's a "high-concept idea" - once again, he's vague on specifics - that "allows us to switch on a dime between stealth and full on action." That's been a long-running problem with games like Payday, Viklund says, in that once the cops find out what you're up to in a heist, stealth is over and it's all action from there. 10 Chambers tried to build a more varied approach to pacing in GTFO, and the devs are doing the same with this new game even as they return to heists.
While the new game is going sci-fi, expect it to remain somewhat grounded in terms of tone and setting. "We use the term techno thriller, which we think captures the tone we want to achieve pretty well. So it's grounded and serious, despite the sci-fi elements. It's supposed to be very believable, with a serious tone. Serious like GTFO, but maybe not as dark as GTFO. The darkness comes from the late-stage capitalism themes, maybe."
Payday 3 is finally out this year and aims to offer more nuanced heists in its own way, too.
