[EXCLUSIVE] Interview with the Minds Behind of Den of Wolves – 10 Chambers’ New Sci-Fi Heist FPS

We recently had the chance to sit down with the creative minds behind Den of Wolves, the upcoming sci-fi cooperative heist FPS from 10 Chambers. In our exclusive interview with Ulf Andersson (Game Director), Simon Viklund (Audio Director and Composer), and Robin Björkell (Communications Director & Partnerships), we explored the development process of Den of Wolves, gameplay mechanics, and vision behind this ambitious project. Coming from the team that brought us the notoriously challenging GTFO, Den of Wolves promises to deliver a unique cooperative experience set in a dystopian future where AI has reshaped society and data-driven crime flourishes.

Release Strategy: A Measured Approach

When asked about release dates and platforms, Andersson explained their intentionally cautious approach to announcing specifics.

“In general, we don’t promise anything because we’re always, I mean, we play games ourselves and watch, you know, just like follow games that are about to be released and everybody’s like, oh, it’s going to be on this date and it’s going to be great and it’s going to be on these platforms and then they fuck it up and then you’re like, then you’re pissed off instead,” Andersson said.

Instead, 10 Chambers focuses on internal deadlines without external commitments until they’re confident.

“We try to instead cautiously approach, you know, our deadlines… we have internal deadlines, but we don’t want to communicate them, you know, until we’re sure. And even if we’re sure about release date, we’re going to release early access,” Andersson continued, explaining their preference for an early access model.

“We’re more into that sort of soft release and see if we can, I wouldn’t say work together with our community, but like watch them play it and see if they’re experiencing the game we want them to experience and then modify and modify until we hit the right spot.”

Viklund added, “It’s what we did for GTFO and it worked out really well. We had a good early access experience as a developer.”

Björkell confirmed they plan to apply the same model to Den of Wolves, with Andersson admitting, “I think we have PTSD from doing like Gold Master,” to which Viklund agreed: “When it’s like, it has to be done by this date. Otherwise… such a stress.”

Monetization Model: Balancing Value and Development

Unlike GTFO, which followed a pay-once model that Viklund jokingly called “stupid” from a financial perspective, Den of Wolves will implement a different approach due to their growing team size.

“For this game, it’s a bit different. We’re a bigger team now. We’re 10 times as big. We went from below 10 to a hundred and something now. I think we’re 120 probably,” Andersson explained. “Den of Wolves is more selling along the classical model of selling DLC. There’s going to be some micro transactions, but we’re not doing the, you know, it’s not a free to play. It’s not micro transactions to be able to play the game or anything like this. There’ll be some cosmetics to pay the bills, basically. Pay for the backend.”

When discussing pricing sensitivity among consumers, Andersson emphasized their commitment to fairness:

“I think in general, try to make things that you would buy, or like you feel like the price is a good price for the content. And we play ourselves. So we know like, yeah, this feels like a good price. And then you take that good price and just lower it a bit.”

He stressed the importance of providing valuable content: “A good DLC, it has to be like a good chunky thing that you feel is a valuable thing to buy. I mean, otherwise you’re just going to be disappointed.”

Andersson cited their straightforward approach with GTFO: “We always try to be very honest with the contents… GTFO was basically saying like all the time, ‘don’t buy the game, It’s too hard for you.’ And that means like, you know, if you come into that space, you’re not going to complain about it being too hard, at least.”

Development Timeline: A Long-Brewing Vision

The game has been in development for approximately three years, including pre-production, with the concept existing in Andersson’s mind for much longer.

Robin explained, “I’d say three plus years, if you count in like, pre-production and production time. We started talking about it the first time in like 2021. So for a long time, conceptually it’s been like, yeah, but it’s been in Ulf’s brain for over 10 years.”

Andersson added, “When it starts to cost money… it’s probably like three years.”

The team noted that they were simultaneously working on GTFO for an extended period. As Viklund mentioned, “We were still working on GTFO for a long time.”

Robin elaborated: “We couldn’t have everyone, all the developers working only Den of Wolves. But only working Den of Wolves maybe two years.”

“We also working on GTFO for too long,” Andersson admitted. “Because like internally, nobody wanted to stop working on GTFO… Sort of your baby, you know, you don’t want to stop.”

World-Building: Form Follows Function

The game’s distinct setting—an AI-driven corporate dystopia with data-driven crime—emerged organically from gameplay requirements. When asked about the story’s origins, Andersson provided insight into their creative process:

“So a lot of that kind of stuff comes out of like necessity… you think about like how the game should be played and how, like what kind of problems will you run into when making the game and what kind of scenarios do you want to make? And then you sort of work your way back from that to see what kind of world you need to be able to do that.”

He explained how the world develops over time: “And then after a while you start to, I guess, like believe in that world. And then you start to add more details from a storytelling, from a narrative standpoint. But like, it’s a lot of like production and gameplay things first.”

Andersson emphasized that game design must align with the team’s capabilities while still presenting a challenge: “Your team is shaped in a certain way that can only make a certain type of game. So as a game designer or a director, you can’t really set out to make anything that the team couldn’t make. But then it has to also be a bit of a challenge… Because otherwise everybody’s like sleeping at work, you know.”

He concluded with an insight into creative work: “If you’re not uncomfortable, you know, you’re not doing the right thing, I think. I think that goes for all the creative, every creative job.”

Loot System and Replayability: Adaptive Rewards

Den of Wolves features a flexible loot system designed to accommodate missions of varying lengths and difficulties. Andersson explained:

“Some missions are really short. Some are like the extraction thing is quite long. So you have to have a loot system that sort of adapts to the length of the mission. And we also want to be able to play with length a lot.”

Rather than finding weapons directly during missions, players accumulate resources: “Our loot systems are basically, you steal things, you sell that. To somebody else, another criminal in that criminal world. And after a while, they will give you something back for the trade.”

“So it’s not like you play a map and you find two new guns. You’re going to accumulate like a certain kinds of resources. And once they reach a certain level, they will give you something back.”

This system allows the team to balance rewards across different mission types: “You can play any length mission. It also means you can adapt to like difficulty curves. So if you play a very difficult mission, it will give you more resources. So it will increase your chance of getting a drop.”

Andersson noted that some aspects of this system are still being developed: “We’re not talking too much about those specific yet, because we don’t know ourselves really. Like we have a bunch of design for it, but we need to figure out exactly how it’s going to work. So we’re still in the sort of prototyping phases.”

Class System and Difficulty: Player Freedom with a Challenge

Like GTFO, Den of Wolves avoids rigid class restrictions. When asked about the class system, Viklund explained: “That’s how I would like to make it. We did that for GTFO as well. Like you create your own class, essentially, by choosing the tools and the weapons that cater to your play style.”

Andersson added, “Or to the mission you’re trying to solve. Because it’s a cooperative sort of heist thing, and because we’re also running on our difficulty curve, it’s quite high for 10 Chambers games.”

While Den of Wolves will be more accessible than GTFO, the team still aims to include challenging elements. “This game is definitely easier to play than GTFO, but there will be elements of that sort of difficulty, because that’s where we think the most fun is had in cooperative,” Andersson said, drawing a comparison to popular challenging games: “We’re also able to do it because of games like the Souls games, like Elden Ring. Because then you can point towards that and say, ‘that’s hard.'”

Andersson used Left 4 Dead as an example of how difficulty enhances cooperative gameplay: “If you play Left 4 Dead, as an example, the absolute most fun is when you crank up that difficulty. But you need to play it normal and then harder and harder and harder. GTFO is more like a nightmare, always. So then there’s a bit more ramps, but we intend to go really deep on the difficulty.”

Future Setting and Technology: Selective Sci-Fi

Despite being set in 2097, the game maintains a careful balance between familiar elements and futuristic technology. When asked about the futuristic setting, Robin clarified: “Actually the game, like there you could say that the lore starts 2030. That’s when the AI pushes the world towards war. But the game takes place in 2097.”

Andersson explained their design philosophy: “The date is quite nice actually to be able to say, we want to make things that are relatable and relatable enough. So you can say like, oh, I’m in a building, that’s a coffee mug. That’s, I can understand, like a door. It’s not a sci-fi particle door. It’s like a door door.”

At the same time, they selectively implement sci-fi elements: “But at the same time, we can say, you know what would play nice? This thing. And then we’ll just do that and say that’s sci-fi, like that future shit. So a good example would be the shield thing… Very sci-fi. But so we try to pick our fights a bit and say, you know, some things are more sci-fi than others.”

Viklund emphasized the purpose behind their sci-fi elements: “It’s never sci-fi for the sake of being sci-fi. Let’s just make a sci-fi game for whatever reason. It’s always, it has a purpose to allow us to make interesting scenarios, interesting weapons, interesting gadgets, you know, or just fucking cool architecture for the backdrop or whatever.”

The Dive Mechanic: Creative Possibilities

One of the game’s most distinctive features is the “dive” mechanic, which allows players to enter someone else’s mind. When asked about creative ideas for this feature, Andersson hinted at the possibilities:

“I mean, it’s of course one of the things that people will be interested in. But imagine, you know, everything from that kind of thing, where it’s like a sort of a running around, trying to understand where you are type puzzling type thing. But they’re also doing like combat and completely, not necessarily completely different, but maybe like leaning into a genre of a game that we’ve done before. So it’s a bit more like maybe more horror elements of this kind of thing.”

He explained how dives create contrast in gameplay: “The trick is always with Den of Wolves is to say, okay, I’m in a combat scenario, and then I do a dive. I can’t just move to the same. I can’t move to another combat scenario. It has to be something else. So if I’m in a stealth scenario, I can move, I can dive into a combat scenario… because it needs to be like a drama curve wise, a different thing.”

Andersson also revealed that players can perform “dives within dives,” requiring them to navigate back through multiple layers: “You have to move back through multiple dives. And we pause the world. So if, let’s say you throw a grenade, and it’s made of an explosion, and you have people like flying and you dive, and then you play and come back, people are flying. So you do multiple layers of that.”

Viklund added that the dive mechanic gives the team creative freedom: “The dive is a perfect example of sci-fi for the purpose of just accessing creativity or allowing us to be creative. Because we can come up with any location really that isn’t the city where the game takes place. We can send the player into a nightmare scenario or whatever.”

Closing Thoughts: A Labor of Love

When asked what gamers should know about Den of Wolves, the team offered their final thoughts.

Viklund encouraged first-person shooter fans to follow the game: “I would just say, if you’re into first-person shooters in general and co-op first-person shooters, you know, in particular, then you need to keep your eye on Den of Wolves because it is a really, really cool project.”

Andersson summed up their philosophy simply: “It’s made by people who love FPS, cooperative shit. We’re making the thing that we want to play, so… Hopefully, somebody else will want to play it.”

For those interested in following the game’s development, Björkell recommended: “There’s so many games out there, so go and wishlist it so you can keep track.”

Andersson added that fans of ’90s sci-fi thrillers would particularly appreciate the game’s aesthetic: “If you’re into, like, 90s sci-fi thrillers.. Then that’s the game for you, too.” Simon and Robin specifically mentioned influences like Ghost in the Shell, The Matrix, and Blade Runner.

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