Satisfactory interview: console launch, performance, bugs that become features, and the community

Satisfactory is coming to current and last-gen consoles on November 4, bringing the automation survival builder to a whole new audience who don’t yet know the pain and beauty of production chain maths. 

Ahead of that, I chatted to the developers at Coffee Stain during Gamescom, where we talked about everything from console performance to Satisfactory’s satisfying movement tech and community builds. 

DBLTAP: The next big thing is the console launch, right? So what were the main challenges bringing Satisfactory to console?

Margit Meesters, lead producer: The big thing is all the different consoles we have, the different quality settings. Like the average would be like 30 frames per second, but we support most of the console specific features as well. I think what also helped out a lot for us is bringing controller support to PC, and we were able to really test and verify how the game feels on controller. 

Emmet Burke, game director: I’d say controller support was most difficult. 

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DBLTAP:  It's quite a complicated game, right? Even on a keyboard you’re holding this, pressing this…

Conrad Stroebel, game designer: There are more controls than we can physically fit on the controller. So, yeah, it's a lot of rethinking of what are the core controls that absolutely have to be available right away. And how do we then nestle in the rest in layers? That's been quite a job, but I do think we've got a nice preset.

Emmet Burke: We have people internally who just like playing on controller now more than mouse and keyboard, which is kind of cool.

DBLTAP: It's quite a relaxing game anyway. So, you know, sitting back with a controller in your hand is always nice. 

Emmet Burke: We were actually saying this on the way here, because it is relaxing — it's a game you play at your own pace.

DBLTAP: Until you start doing the math…

Tobias Carlsson, programmer: There are people to find out, relaxing too…

DBLTAP: I get to Phase 4 and I’m like aaaah. Could the game come to Steam Deck now that there’s controller support? 

Margit Meesters: It technically already plays on Steam Deck. 

DBLTAP: With community controls? 

Margit Meesters: Exactly. But we now have been making more steps in making a more appropriate Steam Deck version, so we are internally working on that.

DBLTAP: I'll just never stop playing it, though. That's the problem. How's your performance on each console? You say it's been 30fps. Is there a performance mode that does 60?

Margit Meesters: There is a performance mode. 

DBLTAP: Is that 60fps locked? 

Margit Meesters: It is, but I think it matters how crazy you are, what kind of crazy factory you're going to build? Even most hardcore PCs end up struggling.

DBLTAP: I was wondering about, actually, because you can build a planet-spanning factory, right? There's nothing stopping you from doing that. I can't imagine the consoles handling that.

Margit Meesters: We’re doing quite a lot of intensive testing. And so far, things have been running really great. But again, it's hard to know how it will run depending on what our players do. 

Tobias Carlsson: We have run some really heavy saves on console just to test it out. And as long as you don't go for these extreme mega builds that you see on YouTube, maybe that’s a stretch, but it should still be possible to build large factories and still have a playable world. 

DBLTAP: Would it make a difference if players spread out their builds versus keeping it all in one place?  

Tobias Carlsson: It would help certain amounts. 

DBLTAP: Which is better?

Tobias Carlsson: Spread out. 

DBLTAP: So you can cull stuff that’s further away? 

Tobias Carlsson: Exactly. 

DBLTAP: Are there any concessions you had to make on console? Anything you couldn’t get to work? 

Margit Meesters: The biggest struggle was getting the PC controls on controller, and then of course, the overall performance of the different consoles. A lot of optimization effort went into it. 

Conrad Stroebel: I don't think we had to do many concessions on what we wanted to deliver. I think the biggest concession might be some of the immediacy and speed; if you're used to playing on mouse and keyboard, it's a little slower on controller. So I think maybe if you were expecting to play as quick as you were if you played before on PC, maybe you might have to slow down a little. 

DBLTAP: I wanted to ask about that actually, because one of the things that I always appreciated about Satisfactory is how you've got all this mad movement tech in there, right? Like you can slide, jump, and then you've got all the gadgets as well. You can jet pack around and grapple up and go across things. And you didn't need to do that, you know? It's a building game. But I'm glad you did. I'm just wondering, what led you there?

Tobias Carlsson: Getting bored in the afternoon, I guess. A producer back in the day came in and said I play a lot of this game, Apex Legends. 

DBLTAP: That’s the one time a producer said “I’ve been playing this game” in a meeting and it worked out. 

Emmet Burke: From a design perspective, we have an enormous map and you want to find ways to optimize the player’s journey through it. The optimal way to travel is still a hypertube cannon.

DBLTAP: I love that with the hypertube, you had a bug that turned into a feature, where players would stack them in such a way to build up momentum and shoot out the other end. 

Emmet Burke: At this point, it's almost an encouraged bug/feature, because we added in the hyper tube junctions recently, and we have one that's specific branch so you can loop, loop, loop, and then you can swap to the other one and they'll easily fire you miles. 

DBLTAP: Is that your approach to bugs that are fun, then –  just try and find a way to support them in the game? 

Conrad Stroebel: Usually. If they're not easy to accidentally create, and then become a detriment to gameplay. Yeah, then we consider keeping them. 

DBLTAP: So after the console update, you've got more launch plans to keep updating the game. Is there anything you can tell me about that stuff?

Margit Meesters: I think it's fair to say we'll just keep providing the free updates. It's going to be a mixture of content, quality of life, maybe some legacy bug fixing that we're trying to put in there as well. So we're definitely just keep on providing for the game longterm.

DBLTAP: Console and PC, will they be updated with the same versions?

Emmet Burke: We’re trying to keep parity as much as possible. We just have to see what the process is like. It's much easier to update something for PC. Obviously you have the certification to go through for PlayStation and Xbox, but our intention is to try and maintain parity as much as possible.

DBLTAP: Was there any specific challenge with making the port for Xbox series S? Because obviously it's a lower power machine.

Margit Meesters: Like you said, it's the performance that is the real struggle. With Unreal, they've done some amazing engine upgrades which are beneficial for the S, which is something that we'll see in the future. 

DBLTAP: What's the wildest thing you've seen someone do in the game?

Conrad Stroebel: Create spheres. That shouldn't be possible, but they managed. I've seen someone recreate a star destroyer that spanned the entire diagonal of the map. Someone made the crooked tower from Clair Obscur. 

Emmet Burke: There's a Sydney Opera House that has a bowl. It has a full interior, completely decorated. It's got the theater. It's got the food stalls. It has an underground and a metro with an actual train.

DBLTAP: The building tools are quite versatile anyway, right? But then the communities twisted them, and they use beams for weird angles for a lot of things, and place signs under things to achieve weird effects. Like, when you see stuff like that, do you think we should officially support that, or do you just leave them to it?

Emmet Burke: I think it's pretty much leave them to it. We would always be open to giving them more building pieces at some points, if we find the right ones, but yeah, it's pretty unbelievable. The same artist who did a Studio Ghibli build also did Godzilla. I have that save. It's all in one save. That's where I do all my testing. So that's now every time we do a new feature, I take a corner, I look over and I see Godzilla. Whenever we need a large save to test, we just ask the community if anyone has a gigantic save that we can test.