Thunder Tier One started as a personal project of mine when I was at Bohemia Interactive, at the time I was working as a Senior Character Animator on ARMA 3. I had been working with Unreal Engine and experimenting with different game mechanics when I arrived at the concept of a top-down game. I found that the mechanics were both challenging and fun at the same time.
I pitched the idea of a top-down shooter to my friends and colleagues Nelson Duarte and Arseniy Smirnov. They were keen to get involved, so we set up a small working group in our free time to bounce ideas off one another. In the early stages, our aim was to develop a prototype of a game that would be a base for future campaigns. We also wanted it to have the potential to be modded by other users. After all, we had come from a modding background and we all worked on a highly moddable game.
Working on a top-down game became a form of challenge. As a team we were experienced in FPP and TPP, this new perspective was fresh and unexplored. It was really interesting to dive into, discovering what works and what doesn’t.
We worked on it for around a year, after work and late into the night, but towards the end of 2016 production slowed down until we eventually stopped. It wasn’t that we didn’t want to continue with the project, far from it, we were working well together and things were really starting to take shape. However, as is often the case in life, we had other matters that required our time. I had accepted a role at PUBG, as Head of Action and Gunplay Unit, and Nelson had to focus his attention on a game he was working on. Between us all, we’d been spinning many plates and we weren’t in a position to give Thunder Tier One the time and energy that we knew it deserved.
So for three years there was nothing, no updates, no work, no new levels… until late 2019. Nelson had finished working on a large project, and suggested picking up where we left off. Of course I wanted to get involved, it didn’t seem right to leave the game unfinished, so I took the decision to pitch Thunder Tier One to Krafton.
The pitch went really well, Krafton said they were impressed by our vision, dedication and passion, and they wanted to help us introduce the game to a wider audience. We were delighted, the team was back together and we now had the support to put all of our energy into Thunder Tier One.
The last year has been very fast-paced, we have grown the team even further and now have a small, full time studio in Portugal - recruiting people that we know we click with both professionally and personally. We’ve brought in Pedro Pinho, who is responsible for in-game and out-game systems, our lead technical and environmental artist Jorge Aguiar, sound designer Lorenzo Salvadori, Ricardo Mota who handles community messaging and supports with testing features, and level designers Ricardo Sousa and Joao Rebelo. We also hooked back up with our lead content artist Michał Flodrowski who had worked on the project with us at the beginning.
Staying true to our indie roots, we still have the founding Thunder Tier One developers involved and wish to keep the team to a small size. We want to make something that resonates well with all of us, to me this is a tribute to the games I used to play 20 years ago.
It seems like a world ago that I first started working on Thunder Tier One, we’ve certainly come a long way, and cannot wait to share the game with all of you.
So watch this space!
Pawel Smolewski
Creative Director and Executive Producer of Thunder Tier One