Interview: Fate Trigger Lead Planner Terry Liao

Could you please introduce yourself and tell us about your background for our readers?

Hi, I’m Terry Liao, the lead planner of Fate Trigger. I’ve been a shooter gamer since I was a child, with my journey starting with Counter Strike, but later enjoyed titles like COD, Overwatch, PUBG, and Valorant. As a longtime ACG enthusiast, I’ve always dreamed of creating an anime-style shooter. I’m thrilled to realize this vision at Saroasis Studios.

What inspired the creation of Fate Trigger? Are there any works or games that the team drew inspiration from during Fate Trigger’s development?

Like me, many team members are hardcore shooter and anime fans, so our work naturally reflects these passions. With so many excellent shooter games and a wide variety of manga, anime, and film and television works to draw from, our sources of inspiration are incredibly rich. We don’t limit ourselves to any single work.

Fate Trigger is designed to be approachable to players of all skill levels. How does the team determine the right balance between making the game accessible to a broad audience and worthwhile for skilled battle royale players?

This is an excellent question. Achieving both low entry barriers and hardcore competitive depth is a goal all competitive games strive for, and Fate Trigger is no exception.

First, in terms of gameplay design:

Fate Trigger is designed around a core combat framework where strategy is more important than mechanical skill. To achieve this, we chose a short TTK (Time-to-Kill) framework as our combat foundation and built a variety of character abilities on top of it.

With strategy as our priority, the barrier to entry is intentionally lower compared to current mainstream battle royale games. Furthermore, we’ve simplified elements outside of the core combat experience, such as item pickups and the backpack system.

However, the core combat experience, gunplay, abilities, and team synergy, is still designed and crafted to meet hardcore shooter standards.  We refuse to sacrifice core combat fun and depth for accessibility. Additionally, strategic depth is equally vital. Players must gather intel, track zone movements and enemy positions, and make rapid decisions, a process amplified by our short TTK. During the CBT, we’ve been running esports trials and pro player consultations to ensure Fate Trigger has sufficient competitive depth.

Second, on gameplay and the matchmaking environment:

Our MMR (Match Making Rating) system ensures players face opponents of similar skill. For the battle royale mode, we also offer two options: a matchmaking mode and a ranked mode. Newcomers or relaxed players can choose the matchmaking mode, while competitive players can fully compete in ranked mode to prove their skill.

Balancing the experience for players of different skill levels was one of our key focuses during this CBT. While we’re still in the validation process (perfection is elusive),  we’re committed to refining the game through player feedback and data analysis in future updates.

The Fate Trigger Closed Alpha and Beta tests drew in thousands of players from around the world, giving them an early preview of what’s to come. What were some key points of feedback that you received from players so far?

Actually, we’ve far exceeded just “thousands” of testers, the number of participants has greatly surpassed our initial expectations with testers now numbering in the hundreds of thousands, which has been incredibly encouraging for our team.

Players have provided extensive feedback through our community channels. Many have expressed their love for Fate Trigger, and we’re deeply grateful for their support. At the same time, we’ve also received some bug reports and constructive criticisms.

Regarding bugs: we are continuously working to resolve and fix them. Our live version is updated more than once a week to address bugs and make balance adjustments.

As for criticisms and suggestions, the most common complaints from players that we’ve seen in the past is about performance – specifically, gameplay fluidity issues like stuttering and frame rate drops, however that’s the beauty of the Alpha and Closed Beta. We’re able to listen to and learn from our users, and with the updates we’ve made between the Alpha and Closed Beta should be evidence of our commitment to our players and offering them the best experience once the game is officially launched. In the meantime, our development team has made fixing these issues our top priority and should result in significant performance improvements in the upcoming versions. 

There’s a variety of game modes available in the closed beta, including Ranked Matches, Quick Trials and 8v8 Team Deathmatch. Are there any other modes that the team is considering for launch or post-launch updates?

Absolutely. Fate Trigger’s long-term vision is to become a multi-mode shooting platform. As you’ve seen for the Closed Beta’s roll out of Ranked Matches, Rapid Trials and 8v8 Team Deathmatch modes, our users can expect to be introduced to new gameplay experiences as the Fate Trigger universe expands. 

The closed beta features a total of ten playable characters. Can you discuss the creative process behind Fate Trigger’s heroes?

Certainly. We consider characters to be perhaps the most crucial component of Fate Trigger.

We don’t follow rigid standards in character design, focusing instead on creating compelling, well-rounded heroes. Each character is designed to feel alive with their own stories, backgrounds, and motivations for becoming Awakeners and joining the battle.

Our design process is flexible: some characters begin with skill and ability concepts before developing their narrative and visuals, while others originate from narrative or visuals before receiving gameplay mechanics. We don’t stick to a rigid, fixed process; we encourage the team to explore any good ideas or concepts.

This means that any team member, from gameplay planners to IP planners and concept artists, can initiate a new character design based on an interesting idea. When a new concept is proposed, a cross-functional team, composed of these three roles, is formed to advance the character’s design and production. During this iterative process, ideas are exchanged and debated, and not every concept makes it into the final product. If we feel a character isn’t shaping up to be good enough, we might put it on hold and explore new ideas.

Ultimately, a character’s success is measured by player reception. We don’t expect every hero to appeal to everyone, as that’s impossible. Our goal is ensuring every player can find at least one character that they genuinely love. This creative process will continue indefinitely, with many more unique heroes planned for future releases.

Is the team planning to make any notable gameplay and balance adjustments before launch? If so, what are some of the changes you plan to make?

Balance is one of the most critical aspects of any competitive game, and we take it very seriously.

When making balance adjustments, we focus on two key factors:

1. Player feedback – including input from newcomers, high-ranked players, and professional competitors.

2. In-game data metrics –  such as the usage rates and win rates of in-game weapons and characters across different ranks and matches. Throughout testing, we continuously monitor these factors to stay informed.

During the Closed Beta Test (CBT), we’ve already implemented one major balance patch based on early technical test data and player feedback. For example:

• Weapons: Reduced the damage output of the Gladiator assault rifle.

• Characters: we strengthened Solvia and Xi, who had poor win rates, while we weakened Nagase, who was over performing.

Currently, both the feedback and data suggest that the game’s overall balance at the moment is relatively stable. We haven’t seen a single “optimal” meta emerge. However, we’re not taking anything for granted, as this could always end up being temporary. Balance is an ongoing process, as players delve deeper, they may discover unexpected strategies or synergies that could shift the landscape. That’s why we’ll keep a close eye on the game’s evolution throughout testing.

Will there be any more opportunities to try out Fate Trigger before the game launches?

We highly value every testing opportunity and interaction with our players. Yes, we do plan to have more playtests – please stay tuned as we’ll plan to update you when those end up being announced. 

Fate Trigger is planned for release on mobile, PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X|S. Has the team thought about developing a Nintendo Switch 2 version of the game?

Supporting a multi-platform strategy is part of our long-term vision, though this would require significant additional development time. Currently, our focus remains on perfecting the PC and console versions first. We need to ensure these platforms are polished before expanding to others.

Is there anything else you would like to share? 

Thank you for this interview. To our players: We sincerely hope you’ll participate in Fate Trigger’s tests and share your feedback afterwards. Our development team deeply values all community input – whether it’s praise or constructive criticism, every opinion helps us improve the game.

Don’t forget to follow Fate Trigger on Steam, and we’d be thrilled if you added it to your wishlist! Your support means everything to us.