Summary

• Starship Troopers: Extermination is a co-op FPS with 16-player mode, base-building, and bug battles.
• Community shapes game development with a living roap adding regular updates and surprises like new bugs.
• The "Galactic War" feature adds unique campaigns with clans, a new character, and exclusive rewards.

Offworld's Starship Troopers: Extermination is a new co-op FPS based on the iconic sci-fi franchise that puts players in the boots of an elite Deep Space Vanguard Trooper during an all-out battle against the alien Arachnid threat. The title was first revealed in November 2022 and has been in Early Access since May 17, 2023, amassing a solid community of players since then who are keen to "do their part" for the United Citizen Federation.

Starship Troopers: Extermination features 16-player co-op where players can choose from three classes Hunter, Operator, and Bastion, to best their squad, fending off hordes of bugs while reclaiming or building bases on alien planets. Since its Early Access launch on Steam, Offworld has added new game modes and features and has plenty planned for the coming years.

Screen Rant sat down with Peter Maurice, the game lead on Starship Troopers: Extermination, and Gareth Woods, Senior Marketing Manager at Offworld to discuss the game's journey through Early Access, its "living roap" and some of the surprises in store for players.

Screen Rant: Offworld started in the indie space as a group of Battlefield 2 modders. How does it feel now to be handling such a loved IP as Starship Troopers?

Peter Maurice: I'll go first. For me, it's just a huge privilege for us to be working on such a cult classic film. When I was in university, I watched that movie and it really resonated with me as a movie that had this satirical bent to it and it was a movie that on its face value… You didn't take it on the space shuttle. You took it for more what Verhoeven was trying to say with the film. For me to partner with Sony Pictures has been a rewarding experience for our studio and I could not ask for a better partnership with Sony Pictures and the people that are behind the IP and for our dev team. Just the ion they feel towards the actual product and the IP from the beginning and from when I came into Offworld and started to captain the ship for Troopers. The ion’s there every day in everything they do, so for me, it's been an amazing experience.

Gareth Woods: Yeah, and I just echo what Pete said there as an “elder Millennial”. I've enjoyed just being able to recreate one of my favorite franchises and trying to bring that experience to folks through the lens of gaming. If I think back to 12-year-old or 14-year-old me when I watched that for the first time, he's living his best life vicariously through 40-year-old me, who gets to essentially recreate that experience. I've loved the fact that Starship Troopers has seen this resurgence so there are a ton of people experiencing it for the first time and it's great to be there and to offer them the game as another way to have that authentic Troopers experience.

Absolutely. I re-watched it again recently and it still holds up really well.

Starship Troopers: Extermination entered Early Access last May, and I know you have the 1.0 launch this year. During the Early Access, you have added several features like Relentless Horde and, most recently, announced the Reinforcements mechanic. What would you say are the biggest changes the title has faced in Early Access, and how much has community played a part in the development of the game going forward?

Peter Maurice: It's a great question. "Reinforcements" is coming out in our 0.7.00 update in about four to five weeks.

The road through Early Access has been one of learning and excitement because the goal of entering into Early Access is to continue to develop the game to finish the game with our community. We're “community first” at Offworld and we pride ourselves on our active communication and the discourse we have with our community on our official forums and Discord that we're in. We've been very active with the development team, the community team, and stuff like that.

From what we launched with in Early Access to where we're at today, we had four major updates, tons of new weapons, and bugs. We've added two new game modes and the community keeps giving us on every one of these updates and we alter course based on that . It's just been an amazing experience so far and we'll continue to do that with our 0.7 update that's coming out in about five weeks. That is really going to be the biggest update we ever do to the game in the Early Access period and we're super excited about the community as we've been doing dev design diaries every week now for the past five weeks, and we've got more to come.

So we're taking the community along on the journey every step of the way and we're respecting the fact that the community is with us, which is key for us because we want that communication not only during Early Access but to continue right through the entire life of this game. It's something that we're really embracing and enjoying at the studio.

Gareth Woods: Yeah, I think from my side leading the marketing, the challenge has been more from the messaging point of view. So it's the challenge of emulating the style and tone of a movie that has been famously interpreted multiple ways, misinterpreted, and reinterpreted now several decades later, and giving players that authentic Troopers experience. I'm going to sound like a stuck record with that term, but part of that is also how they consume the game outside of when they're playing the game.

So the way we message with them, the way we create content, and the types of memes we even share need to balance that line between it's an in-universe messaging where you are getting updates from FedNet, but at the same time also telling you about a video game that you play in your spare time. It's finding that balance between keeping people informed and keeping people entertained with the style and tone that they want to experience as a fellow Trooper being briefed by FedNet on their social media.

That takes me on to Starship Troopers: Extermination's roap, which you've called a “living roap”. As you said, you've added so many new features already, and the roap is now showing until "2025 and Beyond" with features coming up like Solo experiences, Clans, and Player hubs. The roap mentions new planets and weapons and a lot more. Is there anything perhaps you can tease about which new planets or missions you’re particularly excited about adding to the game and what players can look forward to in them?

Peter Maurice: Okay, so that's a great question. I tend to tease and… How far can I go without Gareth going “shh”?

Peter Maurice: We've already been teasing something for the past couple of months with the community. A new, unannounced bug that'll be coming to the game in five weeks that was not a part of the original roap. We want to have surprises for the community. I guess the biggest tease is that not everything’s on the roap. There are things that are not on the roap that are coming relatively shortly in the short term like that new bug.

There's a few other things that we've not mentioned. People who like to chase certain things in Steam might be getting a surprise. There's something that we've been going back and forth to the community with that is a system called “weak points” because that's a big part of the movie where Carl tells all the MI Troopers “How do you kill bugs? Shoot them in the stem.” So that's something the communities want and we will have something to share relatively soon around that system, so that's cool. Then in the later part of the year, we've got some really cool surprises and I guess probably, you know, not all battles have to take place on a planet. I'll leave it at that. Okay, let's leave it at that. Not all battles have to take place on a planet.

Gareth Woods: Yeah you’re flirting now.

Peter Maurice: Yeah, and that's about it.

Peter Maurice: But yeah, there are a lot of surprises that are not on that roap. I'm back to the living roap. It's important for us to update that roap. In January, we were working on that update for a few months because we really wanted a good handle on what we felt that we were comfortable delivering from our dev team. We’re a very small dev team and we wanted to make sure what we put on that roap we were going to deliver for the community, and it was important to the community, so that was key for us. We intentionally left a few things off because we want to surprise the community. We want to give them that moment. It's like, “My gosh, I can't believe they added this to the game.” So yeah… I've teased enough.

Gareth Woods: Yeah. 100%.

Peter Maurice: And if you want more teases, go in the Discord.

Gareth Woods: I think just to echo what Pete is saying, the one thing is obviously always balancing the ton of ambition that the team has to try and deliver as much cool stuff as possible. But at the same time, quality is still a high benchmark for us, and we want to make sure that the experience is an enjoyable one. So it’s always between “What if we did this and this amazing thing?” and “Okay, how can we deliver that at the quality that we want to deliver it at?” As Pete says, there’s tons of stuff promised and that will be delivered, but there's a lot of stuff that's also cooking and unannounced that we were very excited to show you guys.

Brilliant! I know we've seen lots of things from the movies in Starship Troopers: Extermination already. As fans, what's been your favorite location or element to adapt in the game?

Gareth Woods: Honestly, my favorite part of the game is the lucky accident: the other players. Every time I jump into a game, it doesn't matter what game mode we're playing or what role I'm playing, it's the other players I’m playing with. They really have taken on the role of LARPing Starship Troopers like you get in there and some dude is putting on the accent, they're dropping the lines. It really makes you feel like you’re live-action role-playing being a Starship Troopers Trooper, which is exactly what we're trying to build.

We’re trying to build you this little sandbox for you to recreate or, for the first time, be a Starship Trooper in that universe. And yeah, I've got to be thankful to the players that make it almost one of the features of our games. It's 16-player co-op. It's the base building. It's the incredible attention to detail on the bugs. It's the chaotic gameplay… and it's the players that you play with. It's a huge part of what makes this game special.

Peter Maurice: I would agree 100% with that and still even now, we're coming up to about 10 months after Early Access roughly and people are still quoting lines and it's funny because we have voice chat in our game and they're playing lines from the movies in the background through their voices and they're acting things out and over on Discord. There's a whole role-playing experience going on in certain channels. So it's been amazing.

I think for me, when I look back at the film, the moment I love is when they're defending the base on Planet P and they find out that the brain bug is sucking out the brains and gaining intelligence and they're defending their base, and I believe we've captured that better than any Starship Troopers game ever in my opinion. You’ve built your base, so that's a core component in our game, but you also defend it against relentless hordes of bugs coming at you, and then you have to extract. So you've had a successful mission and then get to your Dropship. I mean just that moment itself is something that we're reliving from the films and when you're up on that wall and you just see them coming at you.

Gareth Woods: Mmm, and that tense atmosphere when you can't respawn anymore and so it's almost like “playtime’s over” and now, you've got to look out for yourself and for your buddies. That really encapsulates exactly that scene that Pete's talking about.

Peter Maurice: Yeah. 100%.

Yeah, I love that scene from the film, just when that camera lifts up and you realize just how many of them are behind that outpost's wall, and the hordes in this are immense, so you’ve definitely captured that. Speaking of things that sound absolutely huge, Offworld’s teased the “Galactic War” feature with new timed high-stakes campaigns. What can players expect to look forward to when that launches?

Peter Maurice: Yeah, so for us the Galactic War transforms our missions into a series of unique time-limited campaigns across various planets. So in this campaign, players band together in clans. Clans is an integrated system into the Galactic War. You can be a part of a clan, but you can also be a lone wolf also, but it's always better to play with friends and play with clanmates. Your job as a clan is to collectively push back the bugs to strive for ultimate victory in the name of the Federation.

In this mode, the endeavor’s spearheaded by a new character. She's our first character we're actually creating for the game and officially it's Sky Marshall Catherine “Ramrod” Ramsey. We’ll let you know that right now. That's the character we've created and she guides the player through a dynamic narrative and successful completion of objective rewards for the player with exclusive customization options, but it adds a layer of personalization to the player and achievements to their experience.

Not all campaigns can be successful, and the community will dictate whether a campaign is successful. Their collaborative effort in each phase of the campaign drives the campaign through, but if the bugs win, the bugs win, and you might wait a while to go and do that campaign, because the Federation is not going to give you endless resources. Then there are tons of other campaigns that we have planned, but it’s really a system that's been in design and been in development since before Early Access.

Gareth Woods: Yeah, and back to my stuck record of the “authentic Troopers experience”, part of it is you're not only one player. You're part of your squad then part of the 16 players on your particular battle. As part of that, you want that feeling that you're part of the human race that's in a massive war against another species. So we wanted people to feel that they're contributing to something bigger than themselves.

This is not a game where you are Doom Guy or you are Master Chief and you can just come on the battlefield by yourself. You have to work together and you also have to work together with people you’re not even in the game with. You’re all working towards something bigger and that's a big part of the Troopers experience, and so, yeah, we really think this is well created in the Galactic War kind of campaign idea.

Peter Maurice: And we'll be sharing more through dev blogs and design diaries coming up to launch like we're doing so you'll start seeing some of the cool things we have planned for that moment.

I know you mentioned earlier that there's been a fair bit of a Starship Troopers resurgence recently in your game, but also the breakout success of Helldivers 2, which has got a lot of people to discover or revisit the original ‘97 movie. Obviously, your title is different in of gameplay, but Offworld seems to have such big aspirations for the game going forward. Have you seen anything in particular from Helldivers 2 where you've thought “I’d love to incorporate something like that into the game?”

Peter Maurice: First of all, very happy for their success. I mean, it's always great to see someone within our genre, albeit adjacent to our genre, and they're doing the four-player thing. We have our own roap, and our own game plan. We're 16-players. We have base-building in the core component. That's not in the market. We're the only ones in the market doing that. We're very, very excited about how we're doing things. I'm just happy for their success, because I just want to see fellow developers make good games, and it is a good game.

Gareth Woods: Yeah, I think if anything, it's shown that the market is hungry for sci-fi-based horde shooters, which means there's more space for us to plan as well. I think the Resurgence of love for Starship Troopers if anything shows how ahead of its time that movie was and the fact that as you said, it holds up into 2024.

I'm almost jealous that people are discovering it for the first time because I've probably watched it ten times before even took this job and probably another five times since, but to experience it for the first time… All the success to Helldivers 2, it's a great game. I've had a lot of fun playing it both for fun and for research purposes, but I think if anything, it's showing that the people are hungry for more of this universe and we're very happy to give them exactly that when we go to 1.0.

Peter Maurice: Absolutely.

Lastly, what helpful tips would you give to new players who are about to pick up your game for the first time and do their part for the United Citizen Federation?

Peter Maurice: Gareth's gonna say the same thing, but for me, it's “get in and give the game a try”. It's very accessible. It's a game in which you can jump in and feel like you're doing your part and you're killing bugs and it's less of a sweaty experience on the sticks. It's more of getting in and having fun. Hear the amazing community enjoying them talking about this franchise. Whether you're a fan of Starship Troopers or not, the game itself has got a very fun core game loop and you don't need to be a professional gamer to kill tons of bugs.

Gareth Woods: Yeah.

Peter Maurice: And that's what I love about it. Just get in and have some fun. And I know Gareth's got the best line for this…

Gareth Woods: I’m just gonna use the line which is “do your part”, but I'm gonna add “what would Rico do?” Just channel that energy, go in there. If it doesn't look human, shoot it. If it's human, yeah, help pick it up off the ground. Build your base. There's tons of stuff to do and as Pete says it's not a difficult game to get into but there's enough depth for you to then grow with it. So for example, if you don't know what's going on with base building, help out by repairing the buildings that everyone else is doing. If you are worried about what to do, like I said, shoot the things that look like bugs and heal the people that look like humans. Start from there and eventually get to all the depth of the different types of bugs, the different weapons, maybe your play style… Are you more defensively minded? Do you want to shoot things from afar? Do you like the explosions? There's lots of different ways to play the game and that comes with, getting your feet wet and doing your part.

Peter Maurice: And if you see a traitor on the battlefield kill him. Federation order.

Thank you both. I can't wait for some of the new updates we've discussed today.

Peter Maurice: Not too long. A little over a month about 0.7 is going to drop with so much content. There's so much new content coming so we're super excited about that.

Sources: Starship Troopers: Extermination, Starship Troopers: Extermination/YouTube, Steam

Starship Troopers: Extermination is currently available on Early Access on Steam.