Indie studio Emptyvessel today announced its first game: Defect, a multiplayer cyberpunk shooter set in an AI-ruled city. The studio, which revealed itself earlier this year, said at the time that it was working on a new shooter title. According to the studio, Defect is a squad-based title built using Unreal Engine 5 and is currently wishlisted on Steam, though there is currently no release date.

Defect is set in a futuristic city divided by its cruel technological overlord, the SYSTEM. Players choose between several factions, including the city’s police force, renegade cops, and several gangs vying for power – but they can switch factions at any time. Defect’s maps are destructible, and players can use their tools and the world around them to gain advantages in combat while completing objectives such as assassinations and smuggling.

GamesBeat spoke to Emptyvessel CEO Emanuel Palalic, who is also the game’s director, about Defect’s gameplay and narrative. He said: “Our approach is to create a new kind of genre in the immersive shooter category, and in doing so we’re focused on making players feel truly immersed and immersed in our world in a variety of ways, some subtle, some more obvious. We want to convey as much gameplay information as possible through strong visuals and experiences – game art in the world, diegetics, on your weapons/devices/characters, through dynamic animation states (are you injured, have you just come out of a tense fight, etc.) and really focus on removing as much of a traditional HUD as possible.”

Evolution in game development

As part of the Defect announcement, Palalic also said that the title aims to offer a new approach not only to players but also to their fellow developers. In a statement, he said: “We want to inspire the industry to work in smaller teams, like we do, to be able to take more creative risks and work more independently.”

He elaborated on this point, telling us, “At Emptyvessel, we really focus on creating something that is consistent across the board. We keep the scope to where it’s achievable, and instead focus on the depth and maturity of the content we’re introducing… A lot of it comes down to being disciplined enough to build a solid foundation and a set of pipelines to work with. That’s not the exciting part of game development, but it’s certainly a critical aspect that we know from our experience.”

Palalic told GamesBeat, “We founded Emptyvessel with the goal of making great games with smaller teams and gaining more creative independence. I think the biggest benefit is that we can move quickly, iterate quickly, and test our game more efficiently. It’s easier to take risks because ultimately our scope needs to be limited and focused, which means we can try out new art styles, new game mechanics, etc. and really focus on that. We don’t need to cram a million game mechanics into a game just because they’re trending and some generic spreadsheets tell you it’ll help you sell X units of your game.”

Palalic added that Defect is currently in active development and Emptyvessel will be able to provide more information to players soon.