Russell Kirsch, the inventor of the pixel, has died. Kirsch died Aug. 11 at his home in Portland, Oregon, at the age of 91. Best known as the inventor of the digital pixel, Kirsch was a computer scientist also credited with scanning one of the first digital photographs into a computer, per Oregon Live. He was born in Manhattan, New York, in 1929, and completed his primary education at the Bronx High School of Science. He then went on to study at New York University, Harvard, and then the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. [caption id="attachment_2392492" align="aligncenter" width="720"] Image courtesy of National Institute of Standards and Technology[/caption] Kirsch created a small digital image of his son, Walden, as a baby in 1957 and scanned it into a computer using a machine he and his team of researchers created. This digital image would make history as it is one of the first images scanned into a computer. Life magazine called it one of 100 photographs that changed the world. The original image is on display in the Portland Art Museum digital collection. It was he and his team's belief that computers would one day come to mirror that of the human mind, and although the world isn't quite there yet, it grows closer to Kirsch's vision every day. Kirsch worked for over 50 years as a scientist for what is now known as the National Institute of Science and Technology in Maryland. It was known as the U.S. National Bureau of Standards when he worked there. Kirsch left Maryland in 2001 and moved to Portland. He had dementia in his later years. [caption id="attachment_2392496" align="aligncenter" width="720"] Russell Kirsch's son Walden as one of the first scanned images in to a computer. Image courtesy of National Institute of Standards and Technology[/caption] Kirsch is survived by his wife Joan Kirsch, whom he had been with for 65 years, and his sons Walden and Peter and his daughters Lindsey and Kara. [poilib element="accentDivider"] Wesley LeBlanc is a freelance news writer and guide maker for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter @LeBlancWes.

Russell Kirsch, the inventor of the pixel, has died. Kirsch died Aug. 11 at his home in Portland, Oregon, at the age of 91. Best known as the inventor of the digital pixel, Kirsch was a computer scientist also credited with scanning one of the first digital photographs into a computer, per Oregon Live. He was born in Manhattan, New York, in 1929, and completed his primary education at the Bronx High School of Science. He then went on to study at New York University, Harvard, and then the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. [caption id="attachment_2392492" align="aligncenter" width="720"] Image courtesy of National Institute of Standards and Technology[/caption] Kirsch created a small digital image of his son, Walden, as a baby in 1957 and scanned it into a computer using a machine he and his team of researchers created. This digital image would make history as it is one of the first images scanned into a computer. Life magazine called it one of 100 photographs that changed the world. The original image is on display in the Portland Art Museum digital collection. It was he and his team's belief that computers would one day come to mirror that of the human mind, and although the world isn't quite there yet, it grows closer to Kirsch's vision every day. Kirsch worked for over 50 years as a scientist for what is now known as the National Institute of Science and Technology in Maryland. It was known as the U.S. National Bureau of Standards when he worked there. Kirsch left Maryland in 2001 and moved to Portland. He had dementia in his later years. [caption id="attachment_2392496" align="aligncenter" width="720"] Russell Kirsch's son Walden as one of the first scanned images in to a computer. Image courtesy of National Institute of Standards and Technology[/caption] Kirsch is survived by his wife Joan Kirsch, whom he had been with for 65 years, and his sons Walden and Peter and his daughters Lindsey and Kara. [poilib element="accentDivider"] Wesley LeBlanc is a freelance news writer and guide maker for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter @LeBlancWes.

With the announcement of Halo Infinite's delay to 2021 earlier this week came reassurance that the Xbox Series X console is still set for a holiday, specifically November, global launch. And Xbox head Phil Spencer has elaborated on the tough call to delay the flagship Xbox game, and why the company didn't consider a staggered release for it. Speaking on Gary Whitta's Animal Crossing talk show Animal Talking, Spencer explained that while he and his team had some potential options on the table when it came to the delay, he wanted to make the decision that would have "the best intent, in the long-run, for our fans and our platform." [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/halo-infinite-is-delayed-now-what-unlocked-456"] “We made the decision late last week. And I say ‘we’ — Bonnie Ross, who runs 343, Matt Booty, who runs our first-party studios organization, and myself. And they came with some options, things that we could do, maybe parts of the game that we could ship on given dates. It just didn’t feel, to all of us, like the Halo release that we would want. So in the end, I make the call based on the information that they present. I make a call, like I said, with hopefully the best intent, in the long-run, for our fans and our platform." And so while Halo Infinite's multiplayer is still set to be free-to-play, Spencer and his team rejected the idea of releasing it and the other portions of Infinite at separate points, but Spencer believed this was the right call for fans, Xbox, the developers, and the Halo franchise. [widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="legacyId=20098018&captions=true"] "So when looking at where we were, and the trajectory the team was on and frankly just the amount of effort and emotion that 343 [Industries] is putting into the game, and making sure that we want to be able to get the game out and delivered and have a healthy team after that, this was the decision that we made. And I’ll apologize to the fans, because I never like to set up expectations and not hit them, but I also believe that we’re making the right decision in the long run for both Xbox, and Halo, and our customers," he said. Spencer elaborated that the final decision to the posting of the news was about a 24-hour turnaround, noting that in part the urgency comes from how many factors go into the launch of such a major franchise's new entry — not just for Xbox, but for its many partners, as well. [widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=confirmed-xbox-series-x-games&captions=true"] “One of the things that pushed us is, when you’re shipping a game like Halo, it’s not just a solo release - we have a lot of marketing partners and promotions that are out there, and you want to be respectful of your partners in giving them a heads-up so that they can plan their timelines for things that they’re doing in conjunction with the launch of the game, which is part of the input as well," he said. "But in reality, when we know we know - let’s make the decision, let’s put it out so we’re talking to our fans, and be as transparent as we can be.” As for how this impacts the wider Xbox Series X launch, Spencer noted that the company is really investing in the value that Xbox Game Pass and Xbox Series X offer together for players. [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/halo-infinites-delay-is-the-right-movebut-a-painful-one"] "Our investment in Game Pass and that portfolio continues to be strong. We’ve got some more good announcements, really great, strong announcements to come about things that will be coming to Game Pass," he said. "I think what you’ll see from us around the launch of the console, frankly, isn’t going to change too much because you were going to hear a lot about the console and a lot about Game Pass and how we think those two things together are a real great value proposition for gamers going into the next generation." You can check out the full interview with Spencer on the latest episode of Animal Talking, which also features Lisa Loeb and Dylan Sprouse. For more on IGN's coverage of the Halo delay, be sure to read the op-ed by IGN's Ryan McCaffrey about why Halo Infinite's delay was the tough but right call, and check out the latest from our weekly Xbox show, Podcast Unlocked. [poilib element="accentDivider"] Jonathon Dornbush is IGN's Senior News Editor, host of Podcast Beyond!, and is continually impressed by the guest lineup for every episode of Animal Talking. Talk to him on Twitter @jmdornbush.

With the announcement of Halo Infinite's delay to 2021 earlier this week came reassurance that the Xbox Series X console is still set for a holiday, specifically November, global launch. And Xbox head Phil Spencer has elaborated on the tough call to delay the flagship Xbox game, and why the company didn't consider a staggered release for it. Speaking on Gary Whitta's Animal Crossing talk show Animal Talking, Spencer explained that while he and his team had some potential options on the table when it came to the delay, he wanted to make the decision that would have "the best intent, in the long-run, for our fans and our platform." [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/halo-infinite-is-delayed-now-what-unlocked-456"] “We made the decision late last week. And I say ‘we’ — Bonnie Ross, who runs 343, Matt Booty, who runs our first-party studios organization, and myself. And they came with some options, things that we could do, maybe parts of the game that we could ship on given dates. It just didn’t feel, to all of us, like the Halo release that we would want. So in the end, I make the call based on the information that they present. I make a call, like I said, with hopefully the best intent, in the long-run, for our fans and our platform." And so while Halo Infinite's multiplayer is still set to be free-to-play, Spencer and his team rejected the idea of releasing it and the other portions of Infinite at separate points, but Spencer believed this was the right call for fans, Xbox, the developers, and the Halo franchise. [widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="legacyId=20098018&captions=true"] "So when looking at where we were, and the trajectory the team was on and frankly just the amount of effort and emotion that 343 [Industries] is putting into the game, and making sure that we want to be able to get the game out and delivered and have a healthy team after that, this was the decision that we made. And I’ll apologize to the fans, because I never like to set up expectations and not hit them, but I also believe that we’re making the right decision in the long run for both Xbox, and Halo, and our customers," he said. Spencer elaborated that the final decision to the posting of the news was about a 24-hour turnaround, noting that in part the urgency comes from how many factors go into the launch of such a major franchise's new entry — not just for Xbox, but for its many partners, as well. [widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=confirmed-xbox-series-x-games&captions=true"] “One of the things that pushed us is, when you’re shipping a game like Halo, it’s not just a solo release - we have a lot of marketing partners and promotions that are out there, and you want to be respectful of your partners in giving them a heads-up so that they can plan their timelines for things that they’re doing in conjunction with the launch of the game, which is part of the input as well," he said. "But in reality, when we know we know - let’s make the decision, let’s put it out so we’re talking to our fans, and be as transparent as we can be.” As for how this impacts the wider Xbox Series X launch, Spencer noted that the company is really investing in the value that Xbox Game Pass and Xbox Series X offer together for players. [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/halo-infinites-delay-is-the-right-movebut-a-painful-one"] "Our investment in Game Pass and that portfolio continues to be strong. We’ve got some more good announcements, really great, strong announcements to come about things that will be coming to Game Pass," he said. "I think what you’ll see from us around the launch of the console, frankly, isn’t going to change too much because you were going to hear a lot about the console and a lot about Game Pass and how we think those two things together are a real great value proposition for gamers going into the next generation." You can check out the full interview with Spencer on the latest episode of Animal Talking, which also features Lisa Loeb and Dylan Sprouse. For more on IGN's coverage of the Halo delay, be sure to read the op-ed by IGN's Ryan McCaffrey about why Halo Infinite's delay was the tough but right call, and check out the latest from our weekly Xbox show, Podcast Unlocked. [poilib element="accentDivider"] Jonathon Dornbush is IGN's Senior News Editor, host of Podcast Beyond!, and is continually impressed by the guest lineup for every episode of Animal Talking. Talk to him on Twitter @jmdornbush.

Lucasfilm has announced that a LEGO Star Wars holiday special is set to make its way to Disney+ later this year. The official Disney+ Twitter account shared the news on Thursday alongside two first-look photos and a festive-sweater emblazoned logo for the 45-minute feature, which will premiere exclusively on the service on November 17, the same day that the original Star Wars holiday special aired on CBS in 1978.

Celebrate the most wonderful time of year in a galaxy far, far away. The LEGO @StarWars Holiday Special, a #DisneyPlus Original, premieres Nov. 17. pic.twitter.com/VakZuaFF1O

— Disney+ (@disneyplus) August 13, 2020

The all-new animated special will follow the events of The Rise of Skywalker, with Rey setting off on a quest with BB-8 to gain a deeper knowledge of the Force ahead of Life Day. While visiting a mysterious Jedi Temple, she is hurled into a cross-timeline adventure through beloved moments from the saga, coming into contact with Luke Skywalker, Darth Vader, Yoda, Obi-Wan and other iconic characters. Meanwhile, back on Chewbacca's homeworld of Kashyyyk, Finn, Poe, Chewie, Rose and the droids will be busy preparing for the galaxy's most cheerful and magical holiday, which will play host to "LEGO versions of some of the Wookiee characters from the '70s special", according to executive producer Josh Rimes, per USA Today, though Rimes failed to confirm whether a LEGO Lumpy would be in attendance. "It's a celebration of the saga. A lot of characters will be interacting with different characters and perhaps even different versions of themselves at different ages," Rimes told the outlet, suggesting that the "heart and soul of the special is Rey's relationship with Luke," as he teased a "different take on a teacher and apprentice with the more seasoned Rey and a younger Luke." [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2020/08/12/the-history-of-star-wars-on-tv-from-the-holiday-special-to-disney-plus"] The LEGO Star Wars Holiday Special is a production of Atomic Cartoons, the LEGO Group, and Lucasfilm. It is directed by Ken Cunningham and written by David Shayne, who is also co-executive producer. James Waugh, Josh Rimes, Jason Cosler, Jacqui Lopez, Jill Wilfert, and Keith Malone are also attached as executive producers on the project. The 1978 Star Wars holiday special was broadcast a single time before disappearing from the public eye altogether. It was never made available on home video either, meaning that fans had to scour the Internet for the cult-favourite feature or consider purchasing a bootleg recording if they wanted to see what passed for a Star Wars Expanded Universe back in the seventies. [widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=every-upcoming-star-wars-movie&captions=true"] Earlier this year, Jon Favreau expressed interest in creating a new Star Wars holiday special after making a brief reference to the Wookiee holiday, Life Day, in the pilot episode of The Mandalorian. He even revealed that he had a story outline and casting ideas for the potential seasonal spinoff, but it appears that the newly-announced LEGO special will be spreading the holiday cheer this season. [poilib element="accentDivider"] Adele Ankers is a Freelance Entertainment Journalist. You can reach her on Twitter.

Lucasfilm has announced that a LEGO Star Wars holiday special is set to make its way to Disney+ later this year. The official Disney+ Twitter account shared the news on Thursday alongside two first-look photos and a festive-sweater emblazoned logo for the 45-minute feature, which will premiere exclusively on the service on November 17, the same day that the original Star Wars holiday special aired on CBS in 1978.

Celebrate the most wonderful time of year in a galaxy far, far away. The LEGO @StarWars Holiday Special, a #DisneyPlus Original, premieres Nov. 17. pic.twitter.com/VakZuaFF1O

— Disney+ (@disneyplus) August 13, 2020

The all-new animated special will follow the events of The Rise of Skywalker, with Rey setting off on a quest with BB-8 to gain a deeper knowledge of the Force ahead of Life Day. While visiting a mysterious Jedi Temple, she is hurled into a cross-timeline adventure through beloved moments from the saga, coming into contact with Luke Skywalker, Darth Vader, Yoda, Obi-Wan and other iconic characters. Meanwhile, back on Chewbacca's homeworld of Kashyyyk, Finn, Poe, Chewie, Rose and the droids will be busy preparing for the galaxy's most cheerful and magical holiday, which will play host to "LEGO versions of some of the Wookiee characters from the '70s special", according to executive producer Josh Rimes, per USA Today, though Rimes failed to confirm whether a LEGO Lumpy would be in attendance. "It's a celebration of the saga. A lot of characters will be interacting with different characters and perhaps even different versions of themselves at different ages," Rimes told the outlet, suggesting that the "heart and soul of the special is Rey's relationship with Luke," as he teased a "different take on a teacher and apprentice with the more seasoned Rey and a younger Luke." [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2020/08/12/the-history-of-star-wars-on-tv-from-the-holiday-special-to-disney-plus"] The LEGO Star Wars Holiday Special is a production of Atomic Cartoons, the LEGO Group, and Lucasfilm. It is directed by Ken Cunningham and written by David Shayne, who is also co-executive producer. James Waugh, Josh Rimes, Jason Cosler, Jacqui Lopez, Jill Wilfert, and Keith Malone are also attached as executive producers on the project. The 1978 Star Wars holiday special was broadcast a single time before disappearing from the public eye altogether. It was never made available on home video either, meaning that fans had to scour the Internet for the cult-favourite feature or consider purchasing a bootleg recording if they wanted to see what passed for a Star Wars Expanded Universe back in the seventies. [widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=every-upcoming-star-wars-movie&captions=true"] Earlier this year, Jon Favreau expressed interest in creating a new Star Wars holiday special after making a brief reference to the Wookiee holiday, Life Day, in the pilot episode of The Mandalorian. He even revealed that he had a story outline and casting ideas for the potential seasonal spinoff, but it appears that the newly-announced LEGO special will be spreading the holiday cheer this season. [poilib element="accentDivider"] Adele Ankers is a Freelance Entertainment Journalist. You can reach her on Twitter.

Dark Horse is expanding on the world of Cyberpunk 2077 through the upcoming Trauma Team comic book series, and IGN can exclusively debut a limited edition bundle of the first issue. This bundle includes a copy of Cyberpunk 2077: Trauma Team #1 with an exclusive variant cover drawn by artist Robert Sammelin, as well as an 11x14 lithograph print of that cover art. You can get a closer look at both pieces in the slideshow gallery below: [widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=cyberpunk-2077-trauma-team-gets-an-exclusive-art-bundle&captions=true"] First announced in June 2020, Trauma Team is a tie-in to the game that focuses on a Night City resident named Nadia, the lone survivor of a botched rescue mission. Here's Dark Horse's official description for the series:

Cyberpunk 2077: Trauma Team spins the story of Nadia, a citizen of Night City and the sole survivor of a gone-wrong Trauma Team International rescue mission. When she agrees to continue working for the corporation and takes on an upcoming extraction mission, Nadia and her new team soon find themselves in an even more dangerous and life-threatening situation and discover Trauma Team is not what it seems.

Trauma Team is written by Cullen Bunn (X-Men Blue) and drawn by Miguel Valderrama (Giants). Both the standard version of issue #1 and the limited edition bundle will be released on September 9. The bundle is limited to 300 copies and will be sold exclusively through Dark Horse Direct.

Trauma Team was originally intended to launch a week ahead of the game, but unfortunately, Cyberpunk 2077 has now been delayed until November 19. In a letter from CD Projekt Red co-founder Marcin Iwiński and head of studio Adam Badowski, they explained "ready when it's done" is "not just a phrase we say because it sounds right, it's something we live by even when we know we'll take the heat for it."

[ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2020/07/24/the-world-of-cyberpunk-2077-artbook-is-packed-with-lore"]

This delay will most likely put Cyberpunk 2077 near the launch of both Xbox Series X and PlayStation 5 (the former of which may be launching on November 6). Even though CD Projekt Red has confirmed Cyberpunk 2077 will be coming to next-gen consoles and owners of the Xbox One version will be upgraded to Xbox Series X for free, it has not committed to when these new versions will be available.

For more on Cyberpunk 2077, be sure to check out the Easter Egg that appears on the Cyberpunk 2077 Xbox One controller and 40 awesome details from the deep dive of the 15-minute edited gameplay demo from last year.

[poilib element="accentDivider"]

Jesse is a mild-mannered staff writer for IGN. Allow him to lend a machete to your intellectual thicket by following @jschedeen on Twitter.

Dark Horse is expanding on the world of Cyberpunk 2077 through the upcoming Trauma Team comic book series, and IGN can exclusively debut a limited edition bundle of the first issue. This bundle includes a copy of Cyberpunk 2077: Trauma Team #1 with an exclusive variant cover drawn by artist Robert Sammelin, as well as an 11x14 lithograph print of that cover art. You can get a closer look at both pieces in the slideshow gallery below: [widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=cyberpunk-2077-trauma-team-gets-an-exclusive-art-bundle&captions=true"] First announced in June 2020, Trauma Team is a tie-in to the game that focuses on a Night City resident named Nadia, the lone survivor of a botched rescue mission. Here's Dark Horse's official description for the series:

Cyberpunk 2077: Trauma Team spins the story of Nadia, a citizen of Night City and the sole survivor of a gone-wrong Trauma Team International rescue mission. When she agrees to continue working for the corporation and takes on an upcoming extraction mission, Nadia and her new team soon find themselves in an even more dangerous and life-threatening situation and discover Trauma Team is not what it seems.

Trauma Team is written by Cullen Bunn (X-Men Blue) and drawn by Miguel Valderrama (Giants). Both the standard version of issue #1 and the limited edition bundle will be released on September 9. The bundle is limited to 300 copies and will be sold exclusively through Dark Horse Direct.

Trauma Team was originally intended to launch a week ahead of the game, but unfortunately, Cyberpunk 2077 has now been delayed until November 19. In a letter from CD Projekt Red co-founder Marcin Iwiński and head of studio Adam Badowski, they explained "ready when it's done" is "not just a phrase we say because it sounds right, it's something we live by even when we know we'll take the heat for it."

[ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2020/07/24/the-world-of-cyberpunk-2077-artbook-is-packed-with-lore"]

This delay will most likely put Cyberpunk 2077 near the launch of both Xbox Series X and PlayStation 5 (the former of which may be launching on November 6). Even though CD Projekt Red has confirmed Cyberpunk 2077 will be coming to next-gen consoles and owners of the Xbox One version will be upgraded to Xbox Series X for free, it has not committed to when these new versions will be available.

For more on Cyberpunk 2077, be sure to check out the Easter Egg that appears on the Cyberpunk 2077 Xbox One controller and 40 awesome details from the deep dive of the 15-minute edited gameplay demo from last year.

[poilib element="accentDivider"]

Jesse is a mild-mannered staff writer for IGN. Allow him to lend a machete to your intellectual thicket by following @jschedeen on Twitter.

For four years, Polish developer People Can Fly has been putting together its first new IP since Bulletstorm, released almost a decade ago. Outriders is a huge new venture for the company; a new world, a new genre, and a new publisher. But it also builds on the strengths the studio established in its very first game, Painkiller, back in 2004: it’s a fast, bloody shooter that’s as gleefully entertaining as it is gory. More than anything, though, the story of Outriders is powered by one thing: freedom. The freedom to choose your weapons, your abilities, and armour. The freedom to fine-tune a character at the most granular level. And, for the developers, the freedom to go their own way after years of working on another company’s projects. [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2020/08/13/outriders-four-years-in-the-making-ign-first"] For almost a decade, People Can Fly worked with Epic Games. Their partnership was so close that Epic even acquired the studio in 2012, rebranding it Epic Games Poland. Together, the teams worked on the Gears of War series during Epic’s tenure, as well as Bulletstorm and Fortnite. But after operating for three years under the Epic banner, the Polish team began to feel the need to forge their own path again. “We wanted to do our game, not work on others’ IP, no matter how good those IPs are,” explains Bartosz Kmita, game director on Outriders. And so, in 2015, the team bought themselves out from Epic and rebranded back to People Can Fly. Newly independent, the idea for Outriders began to form in the team’s minds. From the start, one thing was clear: they were going to stick to their (digital) guns. “There were some pillars that we knew that we didn't want to change,” says Kmita. “One of them was, of course, that we would make a shooter. As we often say, that's our DNA.” But their new freedom meant there was also opportunity for change. They decided to depart from the more comedic, tongue-in-cheek tone of games like Bulletstorm and Fortnite. “We decided to make a game for ourselves that we would want to play,” Kmita notes. “So we wanted to go a little bit more grim and gritty.” [poilib element="quoteBox" parameters="excerpt=%E2%80%9CWe%20wanted%20to%20do%20our%20game%2C%20not%20work%20on%20others%E2%80%99%20IP%2C%20no%20matter%20how%20good%20those%20IPs%20are.%E2%80%9D"]The tone and design of Outriders’ world and story was quickly forged thanks to the team all having similar ambitions. “All of us were reading similar books,” says Kzrysztof Dolas, Outriders’ technical director. “A sci-fi world was something that came to all of us.” “I remember how Heart of Darkness [influenced] one of our ideas about how we’d progress through the world,” he adds. “In this book, the character was going deeper and deeper into Africa, and here we go deeper and deeper into our world.” Going deeper eventually became something that characterised the whole project, not just its story. Kmita says that the team wanted to make something that was more than “a game about killing and shooting”, which resulted in a change in genre. Instead of a straight shooter like the team’s previous games, Outriders expanded into an RPG exploring the human colonization of an alien world. As the idea for Outriders grew in scope, it became clear that the studio was not yet large enough to achieve those ambitions. “When we split from Epic we were a group of 30 or 40 people,” says Kmita. “We lacked a lot of people needed to deliver this kind of game. So we started to build the world and the game, but in the same moment we were building the team and the company. From 30 people, in four years, we grew to almost 200.” [widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=outriders-ign-first&captions=true"] Spread across offices in Poland, the US, and the UK, those 200 staff worked towards creating a game that was all about freedom and options. “We absolutely know that there will be some players who will basically want to just shoot, fight, get loot, and that's it,” Kmita says. “We don't have a problem with that. But for all the people who would like to know this world better, know the characters better, who would like to do some side quests for them, then there is some additional conversation to dig more into the history of this world.” For those players who wish to be focused on shooting over conversation, Outriders does have a solution: “We added some sophisticated systems, like ‘skip cutscene’,” laughs Kmita. When designing the way players interact with the story, People Can Fly discovered that the co-operative nature of Outriders meant they had to re-think one traditional RPG element. There are no narrative choices akin to those seen in games like Mass Effect and The Witcher, because each person in the party may want to choose a different path. “When we tried [branching narrative] in the multiplayer, it basically was not working because the voting system stuff was not pleasant for us,” Kmita explains. It didn’t feel right to make a big story beat a democratic vote. As well as a change in story presentation, Outriders presented People Can Fly with the chance to change the way it approached shooting. To ensure player freedom, the team looked to an interesting new touchstone. “We were more inspired by Diablo than other looter shooters,” Kmita says. That inspiration can clearly be seen in the way characters are built, with experimental skill trees, incredibly powerful and adaptable active abilities, and a plethora of modifications. [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2020/08/04/outriders-11-minutes-of-monster-hunt-co-op-gameplay-ign-first"] “We wanted to have this feeling that you can build your character,” Dolas says. “You can adjust them to the playstyle you want to have. If you want to be this guy that goes into the battle and fights close quarters, you can, but if you want to be a sniper and also use some skills to stay behind and help others from your team, you can do it.” The first choice a player makes when building an Outriders character is their class. But earlier in development, you didn’t even have to choose that. “We started designing this game without classes at all,” Kmita recalls. “We wanted to give the freedom for all the choices we have, but we realised that people are too lost if there's too many options from the beginning.” To further help early-game decision making, each class has a skill tree split into three branches. “This helps channel [players] into one direction, but that doesn't mean it’s the best, most optimal way,“ says Kmita. “When you’re experienced, I think you will not be looking at the three divisions in the skill tree, but rather finding your own way for how to build your best character.” [poilib element="quoteBox" parameters="excerpt=%22People%20maybe%20don't%20have%20any%20more%20time%20to%20spend%20300%20hours%20to%20grind%20one%20item.%E2%80%9D"]While many of these design decisions are hallmarks of the action-RPG genre, the looter-shooter elements may give the false impression that Outriders is actually a service game, akin to Destiny or The Division. But Kmita is clear that this is not the case. “When we started our game and realised that the story is so important, we realised if we did a game-as-a-service, we would probably start chopping everything into sub-content,” he says. “We didn't want to do this because the story was so important for us.” “We think that there are a lot of cool games on the market, and people maybe don't have any more time to spend 300 hours to basically grind one item,” he adds. While the story of Outriders still has many more chapters to go - it won’t release until later this year, there’s a next-gen version to come, and work is still to be done - the parts that have already been written have been evolutionary for People Can Fly. The company’s ambition has taken them from a small Polish studio to an international developer, all in less than half a decade. Regardless of if Outriders is a cult favourite or global phenomenon, it’s a game that’s facilitated change and freedom, both for its eventual players, and the people that made it. [poilib element="accentDivider"] Matt Purslow is IGN's UK News and Entertainment Writer. 

For four years, Polish developer People Can Fly has been putting together its first new IP since Bulletstorm, released almost a decade ago. Outriders is a huge new venture for the company; a new world, a new genre, and a new publisher. But it also builds on the strengths the studio established in its very first game, Painkiller, back in 2004: it’s a fast, bloody shooter that’s as gleefully entertaining as it is gory. More than anything, though, the story of Outriders is powered by one thing: freedom. The freedom to choose your weapons, your abilities, and armour. The freedom to fine-tune a character at the most granular level. And, for the developers, the freedom to go their own way after years of working on another company’s projects. [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2020/08/13/outriders-four-years-in-the-making-ign-first"] For almost a decade, People Can Fly worked with Epic Games. Their partnership was so close that Epic even acquired the studio in 2012, rebranding it Epic Games Poland. Together, the teams worked on the Gears of War series during Epic’s tenure, as well as Bulletstorm and Fortnite. But after operating for three years under the Epic banner, the Polish team began to feel the need to forge their own path again. “We wanted to do our game, not work on others’ IP, no matter how good those IPs are,” explains Bartosz Kmita, game director on Outriders. And so, in 2015, the team bought themselves out from Epic and rebranded back to People Can Fly. Newly independent, the idea for Outriders began to form in the team’s minds. From the start, one thing was clear: they were going to stick to their (digital) guns. “There were some pillars that we knew that we didn't want to change,” says Kmita. “One of them was, of course, that we would make a shooter. As we often say, that's our DNA.” But their new freedom meant there was also opportunity for change. They decided to depart from the more comedic, tongue-in-cheek tone of games like Bulletstorm and Fortnite. “We decided to make a game for ourselves that we would want to play,” Kmita notes. “So we wanted to go a little bit more grim and gritty.” [poilib element="quoteBox" parameters="excerpt=%E2%80%9CWe%20wanted%20to%20do%20our%20game%2C%20not%20work%20on%20others%E2%80%99%20IP%2C%20no%20matter%20how%20good%20those%20IPs%20are.%E2%80%9D"]The tone and design of Outriders’ world and story was quickly forged thanks to the team all having similar ambitions. “All of us were reading similar books,” says Kzrysztof Dolas, Outriders’ technical director. “A sci-fi world was something that came to all of us.” “I remember how Heart of Darkness [influenced] one of our ideas about how we’d progress through the world,” he adds. “In this book, the character was going deeper and deeper into Africa, and here we go deeper and deeper into our world.” Going deeper eventually became something that characterised the whole project, not just its story. Kmita says that the team wanted to make something that was more than “a game about killing and shooting”, which resulted in a change in genre. Instead of a straight shooter like the team’s previous games, Outriders expanded into an RPG exploring the human colonization of an alien world. As the idea for Outriders grew in scope, it became clear that the studio was not yet large enough to achieve those ambitions. “When we split from Epic we were a group of 30 or 40 people,” says Kmita. “We lacked a lot of people needed to deliver this kind of game. So we started to build the world and the game, but in the same moment we were building the team and the company. From 30 people, in four years, we grew to almost 200.” [widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=outriders-ign-first&captions=true"] Spread across offices in Poland, the US, and the UK, those 200 staff worked towards creating a game that was all about freedom and options. “We absolutely know that there will be some players who will basically want to just shoot, fight, get loot, and that's it,” Kmita says. “We don't have a problem with that. But for all the people who would like to know this world better, know the characters better, who would like to do some side quests for them, then there is some additional conversation to dig more into the history of this world.” For those players who wish to be focused on shooting over conversation, Outriders does have a solution: “We added some sophisticated systems, like ‘skip cutscene’,” laughs Kmita. When designing the way players interact with the story, People Can Fly discovered that the co-operative nature of Outriders meant they had to re-think one traditional RPG element. There are no narrative choices akin to those seen in games like Mass Effect and The Witcher, because each person in the party may want to choose a different path. “When we tried [branching narrative] in the multiplayer, it basically was not working because the voting system stuff was not pleasant for us,” Kmita explains. It didn’t feel right to make a big story beat a democratic vote. As well as a change in story presentation, Outriders presented People Can Fly with the chance to change the way it approached shooting. To ensure player freedom, the team looked to an interesting new touchstone. “We were more inspired by Diablo than other looter shooters,” Kmita says. That inspiration can clearly be seen in the way characters are built, with experimental skill trees, incredibly powerful and adaptable active abilities, and a plethora of modifications. [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2020/08/04/outriders-11-minutes-of-monster-hunt-co-op-gameplay-ign-first"] “We wanted to have this feeling that you can build your character,” Dolas says. “You can adjust them to the playstyle you want to have. If you want to be this guy that goes into the battle and fights close quarters, you can, but if you want to be a sniper and also use some skills to stay behind and help others from your team, you can do it.” The first choice a player makes when building an Outriders character is their class. But earlier in development, you didn’t even have to choose that. “We started designing this game without classes at all,” Kmita recalls. “We wanted to give the freedom for all the choices we have, but we realised that people are too lost if there's too many options from the beginning.” To further help early-game decision making, each class has a skill tree split into three branches. “This helps channel [players] into one direction, but that doesn't mean it’s the best, most optimal way,“ says Kmita. “When you’re experienced, I think you will not be looking at the three divisions in the skill tree, but rather finding your own way for how to build your best character.” [poilib element="quoteBox" parameters="excerpt=%22People%20maybe%20don't%20have%20any%20more%20time%20to%20spend%20300%20hours%20to%20grind%20one%20item.%E2%80%9D"]While many of these design decisions are hallmarks of the action-RPG genre, the looter-shooter elements may give the false impression that Outriders is actually a service game, akin to Destiny or The Division. But Kmita is clear that this is not the case. “When we started our game and realised that the story is so important, we realised if we did a game-as-a-service, we would probably start chopping everything into sub-content,” he says. “We didn't want to do this because the story was so important for us.” “We think that there are a lot of cool games on the market, and people maybe don't have any more time to spend 300 hours to basically grind one item,” he adds. While the story of Outriders still has many more chapters to go - it won’t release until later this year, there’s a next-gen version to come, and work is still to be done - the parts that have already been written have been evolutionary for People Can Fly. The company’s ambition has taken them from a small Polish studio to an international developer, all in less than half a decade. Regardless of if Outriders is a cult favourite or global phenomenon, it’s a game that’s facilitated change and freedom, both for its eventual players, and the people that made it. [poilib element="accentDivider"] Matt Purslow is IGN's UK News and Entertainment Writer.