Genesis: Alpha One is certainly an interesting and distinctive game that is being developed by Radiation Blue. The game mixes a number of genres together such as Roguelike, First-Person Shooter, Survival, and more. Now, a new trailer has been released for the game which showcases the planetary landing system.

In the game, players are in charge of a crew of clones and these also count as the player’s lives. We can see this aspect of the game at work when one player character dies and another clone is promoted to be captain. When players land on a new planet, they  can mine the planet for valuable resources but they will also have to be wary of hostile extraterrestrial life forms. The game certainly looks very interesting and it seems very ambitious in its scope.

You can check out the newly released trailer below. Genesis: Alpha One is set to release for the PS4, Xbox  One, and PC in 2018.

GamingBolt spoke to creative director Sascha Jungnickel about Genesis Alpha One, what to expect and the challenges faced.

"The core activity though is building the spaceship and balancing it between personality, security and efficiency."

Genesis Alpha One is a survival game set in space that combines first person shooting and rogue-like mechanics. How did the idea first come about?

We wanted to merge our favorite topics into one game. We love exploring, sci-fi, FPS, base building and also felt a strong lure towards rogue like / survival gameplay. We made a small prototype to prove the ambitious real-time ship building feature was technically possible. Then we created the universe and Genesis lore around this feature.

What was the biggest challenge in making the game a reality? How did the design change throughout the years of development?

The biggest challenge is not having many formulas to follow. Genesis is a unique game and we can’t look much at other games to get inspired, at least not on a higher level. This fact makes balancing and feature interconnection very challenging. Otherwise, this is very rewarding from a design perspective; Genesis isn’t like any other game.

Players can choose many different directions for their vessel from farming to repelling enemies and cloning creatures. What are some of the other activities that are possible?

Aside from what you mentioned, players can research and construct weapons, follow transmission storylines or complete their artefact collections. The core activity though is building the spaceship and balancing it between personality, security and efficiency.

How does the human cloning aspect play into the gameplay?

Cloning is very central to Genesis gameplay. Clones are needed to initiate a Genesis on habitable planets and they operate various ship systems during the voyage. Alien DNA can improve stats, resistances and abilities of humanoid clones. Clones also serve as ‘lives’ if players get killed – their best clone can be selected as their successor. As long as there are clones on board, the game is not lost.

"The are many nonlinear narrative elements to discover in the randomized universe. These stories are interconnected and follow the fortunes of characters in Quadrant Alpha One."

What kinds of upgrades can players unlock as they diversify their base? Will there be research and skill trees, perks, etc. to choose from?

As players progress, they get access to new ship building modules. These modules provide improved functions for space travel, weapon construction and cloning. Players can also upgrade their character with artefacts (suit-upgrades, legendary items, weapons).

With a randomly generated world, how do you balance between interesting events occurring while keeping things unique and fresh on each playthrough?

The Genesis game world consists of many elements. The randomized procedural universe makes sure players won’t encounter the same, or the same combination of events. Also, the Metagame progress enables players to explore parts of the universe they can’t access in the beginning of the game. This will mean that later playthroughs feature different content.

Is there a story or lore throughout the experience or are players tasked with endless survival? How much does exploration play a role in the experience?

The are many nonlinear narrative elements to discover in the randomized universe. These stories are interconnected and follow the fortunes of characters in Quadrant Alpha One.

How responsive is the shooting in the game? What about the FPS action do you believe will appeal most to fans of the genre?

Shooting is a central element of Genesis and will be fast paced and responsive. We also implemented monster gibbing and physics effects to intensify action / weapon feedback.

What is the current status of development and when can we expect the game to release?

Genesis is currently in Alpha status and we aim for a release in 2018.

"Fidelity in visuals is already on a very high level. In general, we think that players will enjoy games for their play mechanics and art design and (technically) for their framerate."

With a game of this magnitude, have you considered going into Early Access beforehand like some other survival games?

The game will be a full release, no early access.

What resolution and frame rate will the base PS4 and Xbox One versions run at?

We can’t confirm yet, but we will aim for a very smooth experience and we will favor framerate over resolution to grant a fast paced, fluid experience.

Can you tell us what frame rate and resolution will the PS4 Pro version run on? What kind of enhancements will it include?

We aim for 60fps on PS4 pro, if possible in 4k.

I am sure you must have heard about the Xbox One X’s announcement and how powerful it’s. It has a powerful GPU and a ton of memory, I am sure Genesis Alpha One will run at native 4K/60fps on this machine, right?

We haven’t gotten our hands on that system yet, but we will aim for 60fps on the new Xbox.

In terms of pure hardware perspective, the picture is clear. The Xbox One X is far ahead of PS4 Pro in terms of GPU and memory bandwidth. The differences in ROP counts and bandwidth are public knowledge. As a developer, who is the face of pushing visual boundaries, what is your take on the differences between the two and do you think this difference will be visible to the general audience?

Fidelity in visuals is already on a very high level. In general, we think that players will enjoy games for their play mechanics and art design and (technically) for their framerate.

"We aim to create a very unique experience with Genesis. We combine established mechanics and new gameplay into something we always wanted to play ourselves."

Despite being powerful in the memory and GPU departments, the CPU is a tad disappointment and is slightly better than the Xbox One. Do you think that could stop developers from realizing its full potential?

No, GPUs are strong enough to provide amazing interactive experiences.

The PS4 Pro despite being a powerful system is actually weaker than the Xbox One X. As a developer, will you aim for parity between the two or will you push the Xbox One X to its strengths?

We will aim to equalize the performance in general but given the memory advantage.

The Xbox One X features 12GB of GDDR5 memory. Now that is a ton of memory…how do you think this will be beneficial for the developers?

The greatest benefit will be the possible usage of higher resolution and variety of textures.

Is there anything else you want to tell our readers before we let you go?

We aim to create a very unique experience with Genesis. We combine established mechanics and new gameplay into something we always wanted to play ourselves. We hope players will enjoy this voyage into space as much as we do.

The Xbox One X is an amazingly made bit of hardware, one that has been beefed up in just about all regards to be a conclusive step up over the existing Xbox One… except for the CPU, which remains a bit disappointing in terms of how little attention it got relative to the memory and GPU.

There has been a lot of speculation on what the weaker CPU for the Xbox One X might mean- might it act as a bottleneck for the system? When we rasied this question to Sascha Jungnickel, Creative Director on Genesis Alpha One, he stated that the system is powerful enough due to its GPU and the CPU shouldn’t be an issue at all. “No, GPUs are strong enough to provide amazing interactive experiences,” he said. He went on to add that graphics are now good enough that they will no longer be differentiators. “Fidelity in visuals is already on a very high level. In general, we think that players will enjoy games for their play mechanics and art design and (technically) for their framerate,” he said.

Jungnickel admitted that while his team hasn’t gotten to go hands on with the Xbox One X yet, they will be targeting for 60fps in 4K for the system with their game. He also confirmed that while they will try to deliver an equal experience across PS4 Pro and Xbox One X, the enhanced memory on the One X may come into play. “We will aim to equalize the performance in general, but given the memory advantage,” he said, before explaining what that memory could be used for. “The greatest benefit will be the possible usage of higher resolution and variety of textures.”

Stay tuned to GamingBolt for our full interview with Sascha Jungnickel.