Once Human Q&A – Starry Studio Opens Up on the Sci-Fi Survival Game at GDC 2024

Not quite gone are the days of the zombie survival simulator. Although there are still titles coming out, the releases seem staggered more and more among the wider breadth of multiplayer titles. NetEase Games is looking to change that dynamic with Once Human, a free-to-play online multiplayer title in the same vein as titles such as Tom Clancy’s The Division. We recently went hands-on with the Unreal Engine 5 title on PC thanks to two NetEase reps (Derek Qiu, Head of Overseas Operation, and Peng Sun/Victoria, World and Content Designer) who sat down to talk with us for a brief interview at GDC 2024.

In the interest of time, we skipped over the character creation and introductory missions, instead letting me hit the open road on a motorcycle and explore throughout the early game segments. My first trek ended in disaster as I explored an abandoned farm teeming with antagonistic life in the hopes of securing my first loot cache. Instead, I quickly met a quick end at the hands of a fierce Deviant despite my best attempts to kite it around an abandoned truck to keep some distance between myself and its area of effect attacks. My second adventure let me chase down an oversized Deviant that took the form of a dilapidated bus walking around on grotesque limbs. Climbing aboard rewarded me with a small loot cache, but I didn’t come close to having the power to take it out. While some of the action and performance felt undercooked, the core concepts of Once Human are already fairly solid and I’m curious to see how Starry Studio and NetEase Games expand on the project ahead of its full launch in the (hopefully) near future.

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How long has Once Human been in development?

Derek Qiu: Over three years, with over 300 people.

You talked about using your own engine. Is that something you have developed specifically for this game, or have you worked on other projects with it before?

Derek Qiu: