Emptyvessel reveals cyberpunk shooter Defect, its debut game

Indie studio Emptyvessel today announced its first game: Defect, a multiplayer cyberpunk shooter set in a city ruled by AI. The studio, which revealed itself earlier this year, said at the time that it was working on a new shooter title. According to the studio, Defect is a squad-based title is built with Unreal Engine 5, and is currently available to wishlist on Steam, though it doesn’t currently have a release date.

Defect is set in a futuristic city divided by its cruel technological overlord, the SYSTEM. Players choose between various factions, including the city’s police force, rogue officers and several gangs, as they jockey for power — though they are free to change faction at any time. Defect’s maps are destructible, and players can use their tools and the world around them to create combat advantages, while completing objectives such as assassination and smuggling.

GamesBeat spoke with Emptyvessel CEO Emanuel Palalic, who’s also the game’s director, about Defect’s gameplay and storytelling. He said, “Our approach is to create a new kind of genre in the immersive shooter category, and by this we are focusing on having players feel truly enveloped and immersed in our world through different ways, some subtle, others more obvious. We are aiming to communicate as much gameplay information through strong visuals and experiences — game art found in the world, diegetics, on your weapons/gadgets/characters, through dynamic animation states (are you injured, did you just get out of a tense battle etc.), and really focusing on removing as much of a traditional HUD as we can.”

Evolution in game development

As part of Defect’s announcement, Palalic also said that the title is meant to deliver a new approach not only to gamers but to their fellow developers. In a statement, he said, “For the industry, we want to inspire other game makers to work in smaller teams, as we are, to have the ability to take more creative risks and work more independently.”

Expanding on that point, he told us, “At Emptyvessel, we’re really focused on creating something that is consistent across the board. We are managing the scope to be something achievable and instead focusing on the depth and polish of the content we do introduce… A lot of it really boils down to being disciplined enough to build a strong foundation and series of pipelines that we’re able to work from. That’s not the sexy part of game making but it’s certainly a critical aspect which we know given our experience.”

Palalic told GamesBeat, “We founded Emptyvessel with the goal of making great games with smaller teams and gaining greater creative independence. I think the biggest benefit is that we are able to move fast, iterate fast and test our game more efficiently. It’s easier to take risks since our scope has to ultimately be limited and focused, meaning we can try new art styles, new gameplay mechanics etc. and really hone in on them. For us, we don’t have to jam a million gameplay mechanics into a game just because they are trending, and some generic spreadsheets tell you it will help sell X units of your game.”

Palalic added that Defect is currently in active development, and Emptyvessel will soon have more information to share with gamers.