Alex Thomas

Designer and Developer

Given how obsessed I became with the intricate inner workings of this game, as well as the fact that I’m contributing music (and occasional other things) to a stealth game myself, I decided I needed to ask designer, Alex Thomas, some further questions, on his development process, and heisting strategies.

How did the idea for this complicated game initially form and then grow?

This game went through more iterations than I expected. I looked at it from the perspective of running a thieves’ guild, what that would involve and building the systems around that. It made sense that everything would be a balancing act for the player. The risk is in making something too unfamiliar and confusing, instead of safe and predictable.

What aspects of the game/economy were hardest to balance?

Stats, economy and difficulty aren’t hard to adjust, since these are all data values we can easily manipulate and test. The trick is in accommodating a lot of different players. At one point we had classic easy, normal and hard difficulty options, but players would refuse to deviate from normal, even if they really should. Instead, we exposed the three most important factors that influence the difficulty and let the player choose their preference without any implied judgment.

Were there any abilities/or concepts left on the cutting room floor?

The idea of running a thieves’ guild was ripe for cool ideas. At one point there was a boardgame aspect to taking over territory, like Risk, against rival thieves. We had other abilities in mind, including subtle magic use, ranged combat options, guard dogs and other mission types like breaking thieves out of jail. Something that’s rarely talked about is that production isn’t a linear curve. The larger and more complex a game, the harder it becomes to add new content without unintended side effects.

What range of emotions did you want players to feel during heists?

The basic idea is that the player starts simple and unsure of themselves, but gains the skill to become an expert. By the end of the game, it should feel like you’re running circles around the guards and literally getting away with murder. It was meant to give the player a sense of satisfaction from improvement, not just via stats but their own ability.

What was most challenging about developing the UI and control scheme?

By far the biggest problem was explaining everything to the player. In terms of party-stealth, I can’t think of many games that even attempt it, because it’s difficult to micromanage more than one character at a time. The way Killers works is that everything is designed to buy the player time; hiding, fighting, slow escort of prisoners out of the scene. You can strategically position your thieves and get good at using them as a cohesive unit, but it takes practice.

Is there anything to be learned about releasing a game without a preview/early access period?

I’d say it was a mistake, if I’m being honest. Players expect a final release to be flawless, and that level of polish is almost impossible without tons of players finding bugs and giving feedback. We had professional playtesters and quality assurance companies work on the game and still didn’t get the kind of full coverage that we needed.

Who is your favourite character and how do you build them?

For a long time, Botch was named “Potato” because his stats were locked as a “worst-case thief”, so he lived an existence of constant failure. In the final game he has the chance to reach his full potential; he literally has the highest “potential”, a hidden stat that affects random stat gains from training. Free tip! ( Oh great, another stat I haven’t been optimising for - Meghann.)

What is your favourite heist strategy?

I like to take four thieves, bring out a combination of three to cover visibility, mobility and lockpicking, and keep one knife fighter in reserve in case things go wrong. Once you get to the upper levels and train multiple abilities on your thieves, things really open up.