Outriders Co-development with People Can Fly

People Can Fly released Outriders, an online-only, cooperative shooter, in 2021. We co-developed the game, helping our partner release the game on PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X.  

The challenge 

Taking on the creation of more ambitious and technically advanced games, People Can Fly needed a trusted co-development and technology partner to enhance their team.  

What we did 

Being home to exceptional engineers and designers, Room 8 Group ensured a smooth integration into the partner’s team in a managerial, creative, and engineering capacity. Working as a natural part of their team, we helped the partner solve a range of challenges, adding value to every aspect of the game we were responsible for and helping bring this title to most major platforms.  

For gameplay, we: 

• improved the cover system, decreasing level loading time; 
• improved the player movement system; 
• implemented gamepad support and vendor-specific features for Sony, Xbox, Steam, and Nintendo controllers. 

For rendering and UI, we:  

• provided full support on migrating existing UI to Coherent GT, along with fixing most related issues and helping with optimization; 
• integrated Nvidia’s DLSS support into the engine and made necessary adjustments to the rendering pipeline to get the best performance and visual quality possible. 

For the game’s network, we: 

• optimized Unreal Engine network-related code by moving it to a separate thread; 
• optimized network traffic; 
• fixed reliable buffer overflows. 

With the game’s engine, we: 

• selected the output of audio devices in the game settings menu and at the engine level; 
• provided support for different keyboard layouts. 

To meet different platform requirements, we: 

• provided support for EOS from scratch; 
• provided support for WinGDK (Microsoft Store); 
• replaced MPSD (Multiplayer Session Directory) sessions by MPA (Multiplayer Activity) features for Xbox Live services due to cross-platform play capability; 
• supported Stadia (TRC checks, performance optimization). 

Regarding third-party features, we:  

• integrated Easy Anti Cheat; 
• integrated Oodle Network Compression; 
• integrated PlayFab. 

The outcome 

The team over at People Can Fly are recognized for their innovative and technologically sophisticated products, so performance standards are very high. We are proud that we were able to meet their expectations through creating and adjusting gameplay features, fixing bugs, completing key optimization tasks, and making crucial adjustments in all areas of the game. 

We’re grateful for our partner deciding expand our relationship, and for the opportunity to co-develop such a stunning title in Outriders.  

What the partner said 

We have been working with Room 8 Group for three years, starting from the Bulletstorm Switch port. The team did well on the project, but Outriders was much more complex and demanding in terms of technology and team integration. Room 8 Group dispelled all our doubts and far exceeded our expectations, showing deep expertise and timely adaptation to changing project needs

– Jarek Surowiec, Technical Director, People Can Fly