Jonric: How did you decide on the selection of weapons to include in Shadowgrounds? And what leads you to describe the upgrade system as RPG-like, and how does it work?

Lauri Hyvarinen: Because Shadowgrounds is an action game, we knew that gamers would have some expectations regarding the weapons, so naturally, we chose a couple of fan favorites - like the awesome flamethrower. There will be exactly 10 in all, but because each of them can be upgraded three times, the weaponry has a lot of variety.


Joel Kinnunen: Our weapon upgrade system was designed in the beginning, so we knew that we didn't need hundreds of types with almost meaningless differences. The weapon upgrade system works like this. The player occasionally finds an upgrade part, and after he has enough of them, he can choose to improve one of his current weapons. Each has three upgrades available, and the order is completely non-linear - the player can choose whichever one sounds coolest.

Most of the upgrades change the way the weapon works or add a new functionality - for example, the Grenade Launcher can be upgraded to fire cluster bombs (primary fire) and Poison Grenades (secondary fire). I think the weapon upgrade system is much more fun than a typical character experience system. It adds a bit of strategy and RPG elements to the game.