Survios Chief Product Officer TQ Jefferson revealed new details aboutAlien: Rogue Incursionin an exclusive interview with Game Rant. Among other things, Jefferson discussed the game’s protagonist and setting, in addition to explaining howRogue Incursionintends to appeal to long-timeAlienfans and newcomers to the franchise alike.
Alien: Rogue Incursionis a VR-only action horror game that was officially announcedin April 2024. It promises to combine tense gameplay with an original narrative starring Zula M. Hendricks, a former U.S. Colonial Marine who was previously featured in over half a dozenAliencomic books and novels. Though no longer part of the military by the events ofRogue Incursion, she remains determined to fight the Xenomorph threat wherever she goes.
Ahead of the game’s release, Game Rant sat down with Survios CPO TQ Jefferson to discuss howRogue Incursioncame to be, how it fits into theAlienfranchise, and more.
Survios CPO TQ Jefferson Talks Alien: Rogue Incursion and More
Q: It looks like you have been working in the video game industry for a long time. Can you tell us about your experiences and any highlights you want to share?
A: I started working in games in 1997 at Activision as a Quality Assurance Tester, so it’s been nearly thirty years since I got my start in the game industry. In that time, I’ve been fortunate enough to move up through the ranks and work at some amazing companies with great people on a slew of games, platforms, and intellectual properties. During my time at 20th Century Games, there wasAlien: BlackoutandPredator: Hunting Grounds. So many great games, and I’m confident thatAlien: Rogue Incursionwill find a place among my favorite works (because it already has).
Q: You’ve mentioned that you are a longtimeAlienfan. How did this come about?
A: I’m unsure if “fan” entirely captures my complicated relationship with theAlienfranchise. I love the franchise, not just the films but the novels, the comics, the collectibles, and all of it. Ask me about my Xenomorph tattoo! But I watched the firstAlienat a very young age, and it frightened me deeply. Then, I got a bit older and became a sci-fi and horror fan just in time for James Cameron’sAliens. Since then, I’ve gone from being a casual fan of the film franchise to being part of the development team that made the firstAlienvideo game purpose-built for VR.
Q: You mention purpose-built for VR? What does that mean and how is VR different from PC games?
A: There are several challenges that we contend with when developing for VR first versus PC/Console, but I’ll outline three major ones. One of the most obvious is in Narrative. In VR, you’re the camera, which means we can’t do dramatic cutaways to show you what’s happening elsewhere in the world. Storytelling must be primarily first-person and in real-time. With theAlienfranchise, the story is critical, so we needed to find creative ways to present the story to the player with this unique set of considerations in mind.
Another is performance, running at a smooth and comfortable frame rate and visual fidelity. We decided early on to go with a more realistic art style to show off the Xenomorphs to the best effect and create the deepest sense of immersion possible. Folks may not realize this, but for VR to function, you have to render everything twice, once for each eye. The level of detail, number of physicalized objects, number of Xenomorphs, number of visual effects, lighting, and more all impact performance. Everything in the game must be designed and then tuned with performance in mind.
Finally, a major difference that stands out to me is how you physically use your equipment in VR, the way you reload the Pulse Rifle, inject yourself with health, or cut open a door with your plasma torch. In VR, the player actually performs those motions; in PC/Console, those are done with button presses that trigger an animation to play. It’s a markedly different experience.
All these and more contribute to creating presence, or the sensation of literally being in the world ofAlien.
Folks may not realize this, but for VR to function, you have to render everything twice, once for each eye.
Q: How did theAlien: Rogue Incursionproject come to be?
A: Survios wanted to develop VR games for larger Licensed Properties, especially ones with global appeal and reach. By doing this, it would push the level of development past anything they have ever done before. At 20th Century Games, where I worked right before I came to Survios, I was the VP of Games Production for Licensed Properties. I worked alongside developers on games likeAlien: Blackout,Aliens: Fireteam Elite, andAliens: Dark Descent. While I did, I dreamt about the kind ofAliengame I would make if I could. As a fan, it had to be authentic to the film franchise, and I wanted people to feel immersed in theAlienworld. Fast-forward, I’m at Survios and tasked with finding our next big project. I knew this franchise was perfect for this opportunity.
Q: You’ve mentioned that Survios has been working on this project for a few years. How has the development been? How did Survios decide what to base the game on? What content should be included?
A:Alien: Rogue Incursionis our most ambitious game to date. It culminates 11 years of innovative VR development, complex storytelling, and a world-class franchise and story. As I said previously, I had a lot of knowledge about theAlienfilm franchise coming into Survios. Still, we did some independent research to better understandAlienfans, who they were, where they came from, and what they like to play. Research doesn’t tell you what to make; it does tell you how strongly your idea resonates with your intended audience. We were encouraged to discover that many of our assumptions were true.
The path to developingAlien: Rogue Incursionwas challenging, with some starts and stops and one outright reboot of the game’s development. Early on, we made it to what we called a First Playable - a slice of the game that is developed to a high level of completion that serves as an example of what the final product could be. The game looked likeAlienbut didn’t play or feel likeAlien.
We realized we weren’t making what we had envisioned. We were trying to do too much, which distracted us from creating a great core gameplay loop. We decided to lean hard into our strengths and build a bespoke experience for VR first and adapt that for PC/Console second.
We realigned and gave ourselves a few months to deliver something compelling. The pressure was undeniable, but the focus was there, and by the end of that window, the studio had developed what we called our Partner Playable demo. We then showed it to Disney, Sony, and Meta, and each time, we got an amazing reaction, validation that we had delivered on the promise of our vision.
This demo proved out the vision. In it, you were moving through a facility, steam blasting and lights flickering, armed with just your Pulse Rifle and Motion Tracker, trying to get to the Med Bay and fighting Xenomorphs along the way. They emerged from the ceiling, crawled across walls, shrieked and leaped, and tried like hell to kill you. It looked likeAlien, sounded likeAlien, and played how we originally envisioned the game: intense, frightening, and fun. This demo transported you directly into the world ofAlien. We had found our core gameplay loop, and we never looked back.
The path to developing Alien: Rogue Incursion was challenging, with some starts and stops and one outright reboot of the game’s development.
Q: Can you tell us a little more about Zula Hendricks? For people not familiar with her character, who is she, and where does she fit in theAlienuniverse?
A: As soon as we decided what type of game we wanted to make, a first-person story-rich action-horror game where you fight Xenomorphs head-on, the choice for the player character was easy. Zula Hendricks is a former Colonial Marine who was injured in her first deployment and cast out of the corps. As a result, she’s left to find her way in a world suddenly bereft of structure and purpose. In her travels, she meets Davis 01, a Combat Synthetic who has transcended his programming and makes his own choices. The two grow strong bonds through their adversity and battles against the Xenomorph threat, vowing to wipe them out wherever they find them. So they embark on this campaign, often just with the clothes on their backs, the weapons they carry, and each other to rely on.
Zula embodies everything we want the player to do and experience in the game: a trained and capable fighter who knows what she’s getting into and is willing to jump in any way – which is precisely what the player is doing when they chooseAlien: Rogue Incursion. That sort of synchronicity between player and character is rare, and here she was, already established in theAlienfranchise. That gave us a lot of gameplay and story options.
Zula embodies everything we want the player to do and experience in the game.
Q: We see that she is headed to the planet of Purdan. What can you tell us about this planet and its significance?
A: Purdan is a wholly original creation of Survios, a major part of the original story we’ve crafted for the game. It is known as LV-354 and is almost covered entirely by silicate salt, giving it an interesting look and texture. It’s considered a “dead rock” where terraforming didn’t completely take hold. You can even see the iconic Weyland-Yutani Atmospheric Processor looming in the background. Zula journeys there when Benjamin Carver - a former squad mate who once saved Zula’s life back in her former Colonial Marine days – goes missing. Zula heads to Purdan to find out what’s happened to her friend. On Purdan, she and Davis 01 discover that Gemini Exoplanet Solutions, a corporate competitor to Weyland-Yutani, has expanded from mineral extraction into more sinister R&D involving Xenomorphs.
Q: WillAlien: Rogue Incursionbe a good fit for players who may not be familiar with theAlienfranchise?
A: It’s vital that the story be self-contained and approachable. That means you don’t need to know anything about theAlienfranchise to follow the story in our game. Of course, there will be tons of content to surprise and delight fans, like the iconic Motion Tracker and the Pulse Rifle, but there will also be nods to all of the films in the franchise. We never want the player to feel lost, like they’re out of the loop or need to do anything other than play the game to understand the story.
Q: What are you hoping fans will think after playing this game?
A: That they’ve just played a great VR game. Survios nailed it: the feel of the world, the atmosphere, and Xenomorph combat all came together to make something special. Finally, we want fans to want more, that this is a game, a world, and a story they want to see more of.
Alien: Rogue Incursionis scheduled for release on December 19. The action horror game will be available on the Meta Quest 3, PlayStation VR2, and Steam VR. Its Standard Edition is priced at $39.99, whereas its Deluxe Edition containing some extra cosmetics retails for $49.99. Bothcan already be pre-ordered.
