THE FINALS developer talks Dynamics, Season 5 and beyond

Since its release in December 2023 THE FINAL has received several updates with new features and quality of life improvements. To mark the upcoming anniversary, the developer shared its plans for the future of the never-ending game show.

Ahead of season five, I had the opportunity to speak with the creative director of THE FINALGustav Tilleby and animation director Mikael Hogstrom talk about the upcoming fifth season and take a look at what awaits us afterwards.

One of the areas the developer is looking forward to in the coming year is dynamics. “Dynamism is one of the core features of this (game). So destruction is part of it, and there’s so much more that we want to get into when it comes to delving deeper into this feature. But we also want to expand what dynamics mean in general by adding new ways to interact with the environment, and there are a lot of exciting things to come,” said Tilleby. We’ve seen new gadgets added to the game that add to the dynamics and can change the way the game is played, such as the Anti-Gravity Cube in season two. Tilleby added this as the destruction struck THE FINAL is impressive, there is much more the team can do.

On the same note, Hogstrom mentioned the upcoming Club feature in season five THE FINAL Take on clans. “You can be part of this 50-player club that lives within us THE FINAL. I think this is a milestone for me to actually fill the game with players,” he said. Clubs promise to be the social hub of the game, where players can come together, play, sign contracts and earn XP. “At the moment it’s mostly about the social aspect, not so much about the competitive aspect. That’s why we’re currently trying to focus on the social aspects of clubs. So there won’t be a lot of leaderboards and things like that in the first iteration that we did,” Hogstrom added.

Season five of THE FINAL takes participants to Bernal, Mexico with a new map, weapons, gadgets and cosmetics. The Mexican village of Bernal is the new map that, according to the creative director, plays similarly to Monaco but “puts more emphasis on rooftop gameplay,” making it familiar yet new. In addition to the new map, new weapons with unique mechanics and two gadgets also ensure the aforementioned dynamism. The Gravity Vortex and Lockbolt Launcher offer more utility for team play and objective-based play, which is what the developer wants to focus on in season five.

The main goal when adding new gadgets is to keep the game fresh. When Hogstrom spoke to the developers about the possibility of there being too many gadgets or weapons in the game at some point, he said that currently each season could have different goals when it comes to items, and once things calm down, maybe The team will complete fewer tasks. Tilleby added that the main thing at this point is to develop different playing styles. “Once we’re there, we can start thinking about other approaches, like: do we want to do revisions, do we want to take something out of rotation, change it to something else, things like that, so we’ll see how.” We play it long term.”

In the third season THE FINAL introduced World Tour – a game mode with rotating events that play into the fantasy of the game show. In the current state of the game, World Tour feels like the center THE FINAL, and I was curious to see where the developer would take the mode next.

When asked about the future of World Tour, Tilleby said that the developer has only scratched the surface with what it can create when it comes to interesting and fun ways to interact with the game, as the developer is here to experiment and can be more creative. “I think we started small, you know, but we have big plans for the future. Here, too, I don’t want to reveal too much yet. Maybe that’s an excuse. I’m sorry for that. But all I can say is that there will be a lot more in terms of the World Tour,” Tilleby added.

While some of the things the developer has planned could still be months away, the fifth season of THE FINAL starts on December 12th. As the season progresses, we can also expect some more additions to celebrate the game’s anniversary, such as the upcoming music player.