In the increasingly competitive game industry nowadays, innovation has become the goal pursued by many developers, but the costs and risks behind innovation are seldom discussed in depth. Recently, Anders Leicht Rohde, the Chief Business Officer of Funday Games, shared his unique insights on game innovation in an interview regarding the Roguelike spin - off game Deep Rock Galactic: Survivors jointly launched with Ghost Ship Games.

Anders Leicht Rohde pointed out that Deep Rock Galactic: Survivors, as a new game planned by the company for a long time, adopted a relatively cautious innovation strategy during development, that is, trying to keep innovation at a relatively low level. He vividly described it as "This is the game, but with that added". This means that the team did not carry out comprehensive innovation in a bold and drastic way. Instead, on the basis of Deep Rock Galactic, new elements were added in a targeted manner to reduce the costs and risks brought by innovation.

Innovation usually requires a large amount of time and resources. For independent developers, they may be willing to spend several years exploring new game design concepts and looking for the so - called "Holy Grail" hidden in game design. However, as a studio with 50 employees, Funday Games is facing real - world operational pressures, such as paying employees' salaries, rent for the venue, and other expenses. In this case, it is not realistic to focus on high - cost innovation for a long time. If there is excessive investment in innovation, it may lead to the prolongation of the project cycle, difficulties in capital turnover, and even affect the survival of the studio.

Rohde also talked about his view on the relationship between innovation and reference. He believes that creative work does not exist in isolation. It is very difficult for people to avoid being influenced by the outside world. Even if they deliberately do not play other games, it is difficult to completely get rid of the suspicion of "plagiarism" to some extent. This does not mean encouraging plagiarism. Instead, it emphasizes that in the process of innovation, developers will inevitably be inspired by the experiences and concepts of existing games. The key lies in how to carry out reasonable innovation on the basis of reference to transform it into content with unique value.

Deep Rock Galactic: Survivors inherits the core gameplay of Deep Rock Galactic and incorporates Roguelike elements, bringing a brand - new experience to players. This way of moderate innovation on the basis of the existing successful framework can not only meet players' expectations for new content but also effectively control development costs and risks. For other game developers, this provides a development idea worthy of consideration: on the road to pursue innovation, it is necessary to fully consider one's own resources and capabilities, balance the cost of innovation with market demand, and find one's own innovation rhythm to survive and develop in the highly competitive game market.