Drifters Loot the Galaxy is a brightly colored, goofy, frenetic team shooter based around immense freedom in mobility and a strong set of unique heroes to play as. Every character is equipped with jetpacks to send players skidding across the map or launching upwards into advantageous positions, plus a grappling hook used to swing around tight corners or get out of a pinch. Movement is key, and the vibrant character design seems to draw out wacky antics at every turn. The first thing we wanted to know was what got the team inspired to make the game look and feel the way it does.

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Drifters’ Inspirations for Gameplay and Design

With a team that has worked on many engaging shooters, (Borderlands 2 and Sunset Overdrive come to mind as immediate examples), we wondered if Blind Squirrel had picked up anything from those titles that helped in making Drifters. Dalton responded that the big Triple-A titles that many team members had worked on inspired the level of quality, but didn’t directly influence the core mechanics of the game: “We leaned into their experiences and into our own expectations of what makes a fun shooter.”

Drifters has been compared to both Overwatch and Smash Bros because of its hero-based team combat and emphasis on movement. Often, players slam each other around or send each other flying in the heat of battle, with a quick recovery just as important as good aim.  However, we also wanted to get a grasp on how the team came up with the game’s unique art style and character design, which goes hand in hand with a tie-in comic series by Vault Comics.

All those comparisons certainly ring true, but Drifters still has an air of uniqueness in all of its charm. Perhaps the thing that players can most look forward to during the beta and after release is the team’s commitment to interacting with fans and building the game around their needs. In Dalton’s words, Blind Squirrel is “a small enough developer to be agile to the needs of our players… we know it becomes just as much theirs as it is ours.” At the very least, it’s worth checking out the open beta just to get a taste of the drifting, grappling, rocketing movement that is the heart of Drifters Loot the Galaxy.

Drifters Loot the Galaxy is currently in open beta on PC.

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