Titanfall 3 is, sadly, not the likeliest thing to happen in the near future, but we know that Respawn is making something over at their LA studio. A job ad from last December revealed a “new team” had been formed to “develop a brand new IP,” while tweets from Respawn studio head Vince Zampella confirmed that a new project was in the works with a small team of about 6 people.
Now it looks like Respawn is expanding that small team with several new positions that just opened up on the developer’s official website. They’re mostly under the Game Design section, and judging by the job titles and descriptions, they’re still in the very early stages of development for this new IP. However, Respawn seems to have at least a rough idea of the game they’re trying to develop, judging by what each of these jobs is asking of applicants.
The ad for lead combat designer has a lot of info on what this new IP will need. Besides five or more years experience and knowledge of Unreal Engine 4, applicants will also need to know about “AI behaviors, combat/weapons, class design, skills/progression, story, and boss encounters.”
From this line alone we can confirm the new IP will have PvE and RPG elements, while “a passion for first-person shooter games” tells us that Respawn might very well be developing some sort of looter shooter.
That notion seems to be confirmed with the ad for senior systems designer, which will “work with creative direction and the game director to develop the vision of the game systems (economy, progression, etc.) from the early stages.”
On top of that, the senior systems designer will be asked to think of “longer-term loops and player motivation.” Most short, single-player RPGs don’t concern themselves with long-term loops, but games like Borderlands and Destiny 2 do.
The ad for technical systems game designer doesn’t tell us much about the game, but it does development will be made without “crunch or overtime. We don’t glorify this behavior.”
So, a long-term first-person shooter with PvE, skill progression, story, and an economy sounds like more than just a Titanfall 2 sequel. We might be looking at the first stages of a brand new looter shooter service game from Respawn. And with E3 just around the corner, we might find out for sure very soon.
