FragPunk—FPS with Attitude

They say old punks never die, but they’re at least going to have to get out of the way… there’s a new punk in town. Free-to-play 5v5 hero shooter FragPunk is setting its sights on reinvigorating the FPS genre with a brash dose of much-needed fun underpinned with a surprising amount of depth. The game is the first offering from China-based Bad Guitar Studio, and a labor of FPS love for the young team, who admit to a surplus of energy, and clearly put the punk-rock spirit into FragPunk. Intel Gaming Access practiced its best sneer and hit the mosh pit with Lanruo from the marketing team at Bad Guitar to find out more, as the game braces for beta on October 10th.

FragPunk is a self-declared “punk” FPS with a card system at its core that changes the rules of engagement each round. It’s a super-stylish, lightning-fast blast of a shooter, with more than its fair share of silly but still effective gameplay chaos to keep its players entertained. Prior to each round, teams draw three cards which throw a variety of curveballs at the ensuing combat, ranging from super healing and wild weaponry, to more outlandish fun such as over-inflated enemy heads and your own piggy-backing turtle to protect from rear fire. Naturally, balance is key, and if you hit a round with something overpowered under your belt, it’s likely your opponents have something equally tasty in store. Cue carnage.

“Because we’re young, we have a lot of cool and punk ideas, and we have incorporated these ideas into our game,” says Xin, by way of explanation for their approach. “Of course, the Bad Guitar Studio team is still young, so we need a lot of suggestions and ideas to constantly adjust the experience. Our goal is not to create an industry-leading masterpiece, but to create an FPS that players love.”

Fueling FPS Innovation

According to Xin, the goal of Bad Guitar Studio’s FPS enthusiasts is “to leverage our understanding of FPS gameplay to design innovative game mechanics that address player pain points and deliver a more free and punk-inspired FPS experience to a wider audience.” They’re very aware that such noble aims exist in a context of many strong and successful competitors. “FPS is the game genre with the largest global audience, and has a rich history and a steady stream of blockbuster titles,” he continues. “However, it’s also a highly competitive market, which in recent years has seen a diversification of gameplay and niche development. The once-dominant formula of big studio IP is being challenged by innovative gameplay-focused products.” Of which they hope FragPunk to be one of the foremost proponents, presumably.

“The addition of card elements brings strategic and random changes to traditional FPS gameplay,” says Xin. “However, the team had concerns that the design of a certain card would destroy the balance of the game, and it was really hard for our team to create other cards after designing the ones related to the basic game rules.”But like any successful innovators, they refused to be beaten. “Later we thought this through, and realized that since the purpose of cards is to break the game rules, they cannot be bound by the rules, so we began to open our minds to designing various interesting cards!”

The card system isn’t the only valuable innovation in FragPunk, however. “For instance, we have a mode called Duel. When Duel starts, players fight in order, until the last player of one side is eliminated,” explains Xin. “It’s pretty cool, like cowboy shootouts.” Another neat idea is the interactive slot machine players can find on the maps. “It might drop weapons or gold coins, depending on your luck, of course. We believe these various innovative ideas are the reason why FragPunk is full of fun to play.”

Swelling with Joy

As with any new team, Bad Guitar Studio has been on a rollercoaster with the development of FragPunk, but there are few signs of the usual growing pains. “The biggest challenge was building the team,” says Xin. “Can you believe we were just a group of only four at the very beginning?

“When our game started, there were not many developers engaged in Unreal Engine development in China, so it was difficult to recruit developers with the right experience,” continues Xin. “Since we couldn’t hire the talent we wanted, we decided to find a group of hardcore players who love FPS to learn and develop games together.”

It was a bold approach to recruitment, but, so far, it appears to be paying off. “In our team, we have a game designer who was a professional Rainbow Six esports player in the US,” recounts Xin. “We have a team member who is 6’5″ tall, and was a former Chinese men’s volleyball player! But no matter their background, the most important thing is that every developer in our team loves FPS games.” Sounds like a pretty cool place to work.

Maxing PC Performance

PC players curious about what’s been done to ensure their FragPunk experience is second to none can rest assured. “PC players are an important part of our player base,” confirms Xin. “To enhance the game’s graphics and player experience, we’ve integrated Intel^Ⓡ X^e Super-Sampling (X^eSS), DLSS and FSR into our game. After several iterative upgrades, Intel X^eSS has greatly improved its performance and graphics quality, and to a certain extent, it has surpassed FSR and DLSS. After integrating X^eSS into our game, the quality and frame-rate have been significantly improved.” Good news, FPS fans.

As the FragPunk beta hoves into view, Xin assures us that Bad Guitar Studio will stay focused on “developing high-quality games and content for the die-hard global FPS fandom on different platforms, and we promise to deliver attractive and immersive game experiences.” With FragPunk,and hopefully far beyond.

“Our goal is to create a product that is both punk and cool, and to invite as many players as possible to experience it. We’re not arrogant developers who believe we’re always right, we’re just a group of people who deeply love FPS games,” Xin concludes. “For FragPunk, as a live-service game, we will continually provide new maps, new characters, new gameplay and other new in-game content to our players. Let’s bend the rules together!”

Request FragPunk beta access on Steam