‘A Venn Diagram Between Shadow of the Colossus, Left 4 Dead, and PUBG’ ARC Raiders Devs Reveal Original Game Concept

The original pitch for ARC Raiders showcases a game that would have looked quite different from the final product, a new interview with developer Embark reveals. While ARC Raiders has made a splash in the PvPvE extraction shooter community, the game almost had an entirely different gameplay loop.

Extraction shooters have been a relatively niche genre, making the fact that ARC Raiders has surpassed the concurrent player counts of massive games like Battlefield 6 all the more impressive. Currently, ARC Raiders is sitting at over 400,000 concurrent players on Steam alone. Drawing in that many players may come as a surprise to players once they learn where development on ARC Raiders started.

ARC Raiders Was Originally Pitched as an Open-World Co-Op PvE Game

A new ARC Raiders video series posted to the game’s official YouTube channel is shedding some light on its development process, including how gameplay and design concepts have changed since work on it began. Part of this series highlights the differences between the game that was originally pitched to the final product players can access today. According to ARC Raiders Creative Director Stefan Strandberg, the development team “talked about some sort of Venn Diagram between Shadow of the Colossus, Left 4 Dead, and PUBG” when nailing down what kind of game they wanted ARC Raiders to be.

This inspiration formed the basis of the team’s search for a game with a core mechanic of “session-based raids” that fits in the middle of the hypothetical Venn Diagram that these games would create. Strandberg goes on to note that the game that could come out of the overlap of these titles would be a “super compelling concept” to the team.

Despite its Gameplay Shift, ARC Raiders Wears Its Inspirations on Its Sleeve

Shadow of the Colossus (2005)
Left 4 Dead (2008)
PUBG (2017)

For players who have experienced ARC Raiders‘ PvPvE extraction gameplay, it might sound odd hearing these titles listed as inspirations. Shadow of the Colossus is Sony Japan’s 2005 single-player title that sees players taking on massive bosses by scaling these Colossi to find their weak spots. Left 4 Dead is Valve’s iconic 2008 co-op zombie survival title that allows up to four players team up against hordes of the undead as they travel across unique maps. PUBG was a trailblazer for the battle royale genre when it released in 2017, featuring both solo and squad-based gameplay.

Although this initial pitch for ARC Raiders lacked the PvP component that is a central mechanic of the final game, it’s clear that the remnants of its inspiration are included in the version of the game that can be played today. Players can likely trace a through line between Shadow of the Colossus‘ boss fight mechanics and ARC Raiders‘ raids against massive machines like Queens and Matriarchs. Similarly, the squad-based gameplay of ARC Raiders echoes that of Left 4 Dead‘s popular co-op loop.

ARC Raiders Beginner Guides and General Tips

Initially, it seems like PUBG served as inspiration for a title where players would be dropped into a session and be allowed to explore and scavenge from procedurally generated loot placement. With ARC Raiders undergoing a shift during development that added a PvP component, the parallels to PUBG‘s battle royale gameplay become a lot clearer in ARC Raiders‘ final product. Strandberg makes it clear that even before a solid vision for ARC Raiders‘ gameplay loop was established, the developers knew that the game would draw individual mechanics from these sources of inspiration. Even if the released version of ARC Raiders places less emphasis on session-based PvE gameplay, what remains of that original pitch still seems to have come together to create the final version.