Inflexion CEO Aaryn Flynn on "Nightingale", Tencent and the German market

The release of "Nightingale" is just around the corner. In an interview, Aaryn Flynn, CEO of Inflexion Games, talks about the numerous delays, the switch to Unreal Engine 5, the partnership with Tencent and how they are approaching the German market.

After a long development period and numerous postponements, Inflexion Games from Canada will launch its first game "Nightingale" for PC via Steam and the Epic Games Store on 20 February 2024. It was originally slated to be released on 22 February, but the launch has been brought forward so that the team can resolve any launch issues before "what is sure to be a busy weekend", says Aaryn Flynn, CEO of Inflexion Games. The earlier release is a result of the open stress test in which 48,000 players took part on 2 February 2024.

Ahead of the Early Access release of the open-world survival-crafting adventure, which boasts a Victorian art style, modifiable fantasy realms and co-op PvE multiplayer, GamesMarkt spoke to Aaryn Flynn, CEO of the studio founded in 2018 and formerly known as Improbable Edmonton. Flynn previously spent over 17 years at BioWare, from tools programming on "Baldur's Gate II" to Director of Programming on "Mass Effect 2 and 3" and project lead on "Mass Effect Andromeda". Since 2011 and "Dragon Age II", he has also been Studio General Manager. He left BioWare one year before the release of "Anthem" (2019). Flynn is also a board chair member of The A100, an association of Canadian technology and innovation leaders, founders and investors.

GamesMarkt: The last time we talked about Inflexion Games and the development of "Nightingale" was in May 2022. What has changed at Inflexion Games since then?

Aaryn Flynn: "The studio hasn't changed too much in that time. We've added some new people, but the structure and how we run our business remain the same. The big development during that period was that we began running closed tests with the community - which has been an insightful and fulfilling experience for the team. We said from the start of Nightingale's development that we wanted to take a community-first approach, and the testing process has allowed us to connect with our players and use their feedback to help shape and evolve the game. It's been very gratifying."

GamesMarkt: In August 2022, "Nightingale" was postponed to the first half of 2023, before the launch was pushed back further and further. Mainly due to the switch to Unreal Engine 5. What challenges does this engine upgrade entail? Coffee Stain with "Satisfactory" and Rockfish Games with "Everspace 2" also show that the changeover takes a lot of time.

Aaryn Flynn: "It was never a question of ‘if’ we should move to Unreal Engine 5 but rather a question of ‘when’. As Nightingale will be a live service game when it releases into Early Access, we made the tough decision to delay the game to make the transition before our launch, as it would be more practical than trying to do it once the game is live and has an active community. Ultimately, we benefited from the early shift, as we were able to take advantage of some great features, particularly the visual enhancements made possible with the combination of Lumen and Nanite. That way the game has a next-generation look straight out of the gate, and our developers are focused on improving the gameplay and experience when it's live."

GamesMarkt: Talking about the new engine: In addition to the graphics possibilities, what do you expect from the upgrade to Unreal Engine 5?

Aaryn Flynn: "The visual enhancements are a big part of it, and being an early adopter of Unreal Engine 5 I hope will allow us to stand out when we launch into Early Access. The other major benefit is a lot of improvements we have been seeing to workflows when it comes to open-world systems, asset management, and in general developer productivity. "

GamesMarkt: Apart from the engine upgrade, what has been the most challenging part of the game development process so far?

Aaryn Flynn: "I think all game development is challenging. With Nightingale, we’ve had to pay a lot of attention to the details of survival crafting. The genre has a very specific economy and so we’ve been spending a lot of time focusing on the right balance between our survival systems, gathering, recipe unlocks and understanding what’s the right amount of friction; a lot of refinement to land on a satisfying rhythm for progression, and ensuring all of the various systems harmonize. That’s where community testing has been invaluable, as we’ve been able to validate these decisions and make precise iterations based on how we see players behave when exploring the mechanics. "

GamesMarkt: Was it difficult to convince Tencent, as a major shareholder, of the postponements?

Aaryn Flynn: "Tencent is a major investor in Inflexion Games, but does not own/did not acquire Inflexion Games. That’s how we have retained operational and creative independence. But they have been absolutely supportive of our decision to move the game and can see how the extra time has benefitted the overall game experience for our players. In my almost 25 years of building games, they have been the most supportive, generous, and considerate partner I’ve ever worked with."

Background Inflexion Games: What once began at Improbable Edmonton as a gaming presentation project for SpatialOS became an independent endeavour, without the less successful cloud technology. Inflexion Games was therefore no longer a good fit for the British tech start-up Improbable. Tencent did not miss the opportunity and invested in the studio of ex-BioWare manager Aaron Flynn. Inflexion Games employs around 100 people. CEO Flynn praises the location and the many talented people in the Canadian region. They would not benefit from government funding programmes, yet he would actively campaign for support for the studio and the local community.

GamesMarkt: How important was the gamescom appearance for Inflexion Games? And why did you choose this event to announce the new release date?

Aaryn Flynn: "Gamescom was a hugely important event for us. It was the first time we had a public presence at any physical event, and so we wanted to take the opportunity to do something fun that would stand out to all the hundreds of thousands of gamers who visit the show. We had this idea of building a portal on the showfloor as a photo opportunity, and the end result was way beyond what we could have imagined. The combination of the incredible design by the events team, plus our fantastic Puck and Lady in Red cosplayers, made it a truly unique spectacle amongst all the other booths at the show."

"In terms of the release date reveal, it was the best time to do it. After a couple of previous date shifts, we wanted to reassure the community and thank them for their patience. Gamescom was allowing us to have all these touchpoints - the portal photo opportunity and behind-closed-doors demo for media - so we wanted to tie all that activity together with the release date announcement so that everything we were doing at the show was driving towards that endpoint. "

GamesMarkt: How important is the German market for a game like "Nightingale"?

Aaryn Flynn: "Germany is very important to us. Even though we’re releasing in Early Access, we wanted to ensure that Nightingale was localized for a German audience. We also expanded our playtesting early on to include European territories, including Germany, as we know we have a lot of interest in the region. That was another reason why Gamescom was such an important show for us, as it put us right in the heart of the local gaming community."

GamesMarkt: A lot of strong releases are coming out in February 2024. How confident are you about the early access release of "Nightingale" this time?

Aaryn Flynn: "We just hope that what we’ve made resonates with gamers. When we release into Early Access it won’t be the end of development - experiences on this scale thrive from feedback and  Early Access gives us the ability to work directly with players as we continue to improve, evolve and expand Nightingale. But we’re also treating Early Access like the launch of any game we’ve worked on - ensuring that it’s fulfilling, robust, and hits a high-quality bar that delivers on player expectations."

GamesMarkt: How important is the co-op aspect of "Nightingale"? Is it a strong USP, apart from the creative fantasy world?

Aaryn Flynn: "My personal view is that games are almost always better when played together. From the beginning, we've described Nightingale as a ‘shared-world’ survival crafting game, which means that players can choose to inhabit the universe of Nightingale together. We support up to six players in a single Realm, and, through testing, we’ve seen players working together to build vast estates, take down apex creatures, and explore the limits of the Realms together. While you can absolutely play the game start-to-finish solo, we know that co-op is important to get right, and we’re excited to see more of what players can do when they work together (and we’ll also find new ways to facilitate that in the game)."

GamesMarkt: Is Inflexion currently only concentrating on "Nightingale" or are concepts for new games already being developed?

Aaryn Flynn: ""Nightingale" is our focus for the foreseeable future. As I said above, Early Access is just the beginning of our journey, so we’ve still got plenty of work to do for a long time as we want to make Nightingale the vibrant, exciting virtual world we know it can be."