Interview: Conan Exiles And Its Brutal World With Lead Designer Dennis Douthett

Developer Funcom recently celebrated the launch of Conan Exile's latest major content update, the Age of War Chapter 1, on 22nd June 2023, which sees the introduction of Clan Hoards and Clan Emblems with weapon and combat rebalances added. This comes off the back of the studio celebrating the game's 5th Anniversary in May 2023, which saw plenty of cake and epic in-game festivities.

We were fortunate to gain an exclusive interview with Funcom's Dennis Douthett, the Lead Designer for the ongoing survival game Conan Exiles. In this interview with Douthett, we talked about five years of Conan Exiles, the success of the Age of Sorcery, the Age of War, and what lies ahead for the survival game.

Conan Exiles Dev On The Age Of War, PS5 Port, Secret Easter Egg And More Maps

So, I want to start this interview with an icebreaker question, and my mind is quite curious to know: Is there a unique Conan pop culture reference or Easter Egg that you may have inserted in-game that players have yet to find?

Dennis Douthett: We have a handful of references, but most of our references are worn well on our sleeves! We try to keep the number of silly references to an absolute minimum because this universe is BRUTAL! Without spoiling it, the most recent one would be a Savage Sword of Conan reference that I haven't seen anyone bring up yet.

Firstly, congratulations to the Funcom team on the 30th Anniversary, which came off the back of Conan Exiles' 5th Anniversary and 15 years of the Age of Conan. What has been the most profound moment or experience working on this character or IP from a developer's perspective?

Douthett: Thank you! It's been an exciting journey for us! I could talk all day about the exciting moments we have had as a team and that I've had personally. When we started making Conan Exiles, I was still a member of our QA department. I'll never forget sitting with the rest of the team when we entered early access, watching streamers get their hands on the game we had been working on feverishly for several months. Seeing their communities dumped together into a sandbox of bloodshed, watching them organize attacks and counterattacks against each other, was absolutely thrilling.

I also have a personal moment I'll always remember. It happened right when I became a lead designer on the project, and our lead designer in Oslo asked me to take some work off his plate. My task was to review POIs (points of interest) on the Isle of Siptah – a new map we were developing at the time. I put my graphics on max settings, cranked up my music, and teleported all around the island from place to place, soaking in the majesty of the locations we had crafted and I was emotionally overwhelmed by the beauty and backstories of those places, the history of the IP, and the adventures we were sewing the seeds for others to have!

As one of the leading independent studios for real-time strategy, survival, and MMO titles, looking back on your successes with The Longest Journey, Anarchy Online, and The Secret World, what has helped shape or contributed towards the development of Conan Exiles? Whether it be the game or visual design, audio mixing, worldbuilding mechanics, or the tools and software utilized in conceptualizing this expansive world of the Exiled Lands.

Douthett: "The Park" was our first game using the Unreal Engine. Prior to that release, we worked exclusively in the evolving proprietary tools used to make Anarchy Online, Age of Conan, and The Secret World. Seeing that we could work more rapidly and with less restriction in the Unreal Engine allowed us to create Conan Exiles much faster than we could have if we were making new tools in-house that would require frequent feature requests!

Age of Conan has been a huge inspiration as well. The team that worked on the visual representation of the Hyborian Age in Age of Conan created an extremely solid foundation for Exiles to grow from. We still look back to Age of Conan for inspiration today! Our music is even made by the same composer that worked on Age of Conan.

The most important thing that shapes the development of Conan Exiles is player feedback. We're fortunate enough to have a huge audience that gives us a lot of input about how they feel about the games we make – whether it's positive or negative, and I think that feedback is the absolute number one most important thing when it comes to developing any ongoing game.

Speaking of Conan Exiles, I mentioned that the game celebrated its 5th Anniversary in May with plenty of celebrations in-game and beyond. What have been some of the more unique, or hilarious ways, players celebrated five years of Exiles?

Douthett: One of our common content creators (Pixelcave) made a 5th-anniversary video that was a conga line of frozen poses the camera circled around while polka/party music played, and when the camera moved up to look down at them, they were in the shape of a "5" then a banner advertising our free anniversary cake popped up! There were a ton of great content creator videos for it!

The past year has been a massive year for Funcom and Conan Exiles, with the release of the Age of Sorcery, which has been a huge hit amongst players. Did you anticipate how well-received the Age of Sorcery would be, like the addition of Sorcery, an overhaul to the Journey system, and the Golem Shaping feature, to name a few?

Douthett: I don't know if anyone can claim to know their updates will absolutely be a success! I mentioned how important player feedback is to us, and one of the points of feedback we got a lot was, "When are you going to add sorcery to the game?!" so seeing that as a highly requested feature made it a more sure success than it would have been if we picked a feature out of a hat.

The transitional period was a huge undertaking for us. We went from a game that had just DLC you could buy to a game with guaranteed content updates, a battle pass, an in-game shop, and its success was vital to the continued development of Conan Exiles. We knew there would be some adopters, and we knew it might drive some people away, but we thought it was the best chance to be able to continue creating content for the game! Here we are now, having just released the Age of War. Our community is going strong, and we have a ton of ideas for new content that we'll be able to continue adding, thanks to everyone's engagement.

Building has also seen massive improvements during the Age of Sorcery with the launch of Creative Mode. As I'm sure players will be looking to build their treasure rooms, can we expect more features for Creative Mode in the Age of War, like, building a replica of Scrooge McDuck's vault?

Douthett: Well, we've added some coin piles in the Age of War, so you should be able to create something like that already! We are working on giving those coin piles a bit of a glow-up as well, in addition to more coin pile items coming down the line later on.

Building aside, you've outlined a content roadmap for the Age of War, which sees new balance changes for weapons and combat and the launch of Clan Emblems. Regarding the Journey system, will we see some tweaks incoming, and what can you tell us about any new changes or improvements for the Age of War?

Douthett: There won't be any major changes to the Journey system in the immediate future. We do want to continue adding additional support for journeys that can teach you how to explore, find content in the game, and learn new systems we add, though. The obvious callouts here are updating the Purge journey in Chapter 2 and possibly adding a journey for the PVE Purge in Chapter 3.

I'm most excited to finally see Purges getting some love in the Age of War, as there have been some concerns about how underwhelming Dynamic World Events can be. What was the studio's approach to revamping the Purge system, and how did it will tie in with the new story content and overall lore of Conan Exiles?

Douthett: In the beginning, the purge actually had several different implementations planned. I won't go over them in case we decide to use them later (it will keep the surprise fresh!), but at release, we got one version of the purge that was intended to be the world pushing back against you. For making yourself a presence in the Exiled Lands, you would be attacked by its inhabitants, who would attempt to wipe you from the map. We're working more closely with the lore in regard to the purge now. On your adventures, you may stumble across a treasure hunter that lets you know there are armies in the world coming to steal treasure and artifacts from anyone they can find.

The purge will now attempt to do just that! Instead of walking to your base and smacking it with a mace, they will deploy more intelligent tactics to try to breach your walls and walk out with your treasure in their hands. This includes bringing trebuchets, explosive jar head golems, and battering rams to your doors!

The original Purge system was created in a very short time and left us with a lot of technical debt to resolve unless we built the system again – so that's what we decided to do. Instead of salvaging what was there, we would instead make a more streamlined version of the system that would adhere to all of the new rules the design team created.

Additionally, PvE activities will be given attention and care much later in the Age of War, as Sieges will be added in Chapter 3. What changes, improvements, and additions will we see, and how different will the gameplay experience be for players?

Douthett: We haven't given out a lot of information about how these sieges are intended to work yet, but in Chapter 2 of the Age of War, you will get access to a new system that lets you employ followers rather than simply taking them as thralls. Through this method, you might also get access to some followers that allow you [to] use the currency you've racked up in your coffers on unique tools, additional allies, consumables, or really anything you can imagine could be sold. So when it comes time to enact your own siege and take the battle back to the Stygians' doorstep, you won't be coming alone!

The Public Beta for Conan Exiles' Age of War is currently underway on PC before its release later this month. Can you briefly overview the Age of War and what we can expect from the new story, content, and incoming features?

Douthett: Well, by now, I'm sure the Age of War has gone live for everyone! Each new Age brings a new narrative to follow through the battle pass tableaus. As you progress through the battle pass, you'll scrub away the mysterious runes in the corner of the image that lets you glimpse what's going on!

In the Age of War, you'll first start out collecting treasure. Bring it back to your clans' coffers and bask in the glory of your riches! This activity is primarily for people who like to explore or build! In the second chapter, its usefulness will increase, as you can then use your funds to attract enemies and allies alike. The purge can be initiated to cause the Stygian army to come to take the treasure you have accrued while you defend tooth and nail to keep it – only to make more allies and reap more riches if you defeat them. Finally, you'll take the fight directly back to them, lay siege to their walls, and topple their evil commander!

There have been big updates to the way combat feels and plays, and the majority of that can be experienced now. There is still one major quality-of-life update for combat coming in Chapter 2. It's the change I'm looking forward to everyone getting their hands on the most! We have updated every attack animation to let you continue to aim your swing for a period of time before your attack connects. This significantly reduces the frustration of missing a swing in combat!

We'll also have a host of general quality-of-life improvements and bug fixes that we get in with each of our major releases.

On the topic of the Age of War Public Beta, what has been some of the positive feedback and critiques received regarding the new story, content, and features many have been playtesting?

Douthett: I was worried that treasure rooms might not be very well received, but everyone's reactions to being able to pick up and carry treasure and then dive into a pile of gold coins have been fantastic!

I have also been seeing more and more positive feedback about the updates to stamina, weapons, and enemy health adjustments. At first, feedback was much more negative. I think this was during a time most people weren't testing the changes firsthand. As more people experience the changes for themselves, the number of people in favor of those changes increases more and more!

We also got many great reactions about what happened to Mek-kamoses, one of the centerpiece characters of the Age of Sorcery got a bit of karmic backlash that left him… beside himself.

Development-wise, what distinguishes the Age of War from the Age of Sorcery, from gameplay to how quests will play and how players interact with the environment?

Douthett: Well, the Age of Sorcery had a lot more mysterious content, eldritch connotations, and evil deeds. It was almost like the "Age of the Bad Guy" – but in the Age of War, you defend yourself and stand your ground against invaders who would take from you.

We're really focused on the title of those Ages as the driving factor for how gameplay should feel. In the Age of Sorcery, you should expect magic spells, human sacrifices, and dark pacts. You should expect blood, steel, and destruction in the Age of War. The systems that support the theme of the Age are all systems directly related to war.

On the future of Conan Exiles, in terms of what the base game could offer players with exploration and environments, there have been players wanting a few critical features added to the game like building connectable maps and more content and improvements for the Isle of Siptah. Are these features that the developer could consider bringing to Conan Exiles?

Douthett: The Isle of Siptah has a massive amount of content we packed into it throughout development. It's different content than the Exiled Lands, but that's really Siptah's goal! Instead of being more of the same, it's another unique adventure you can have in Conan Exiles. At the moment, we don't have any plans to focus content into the Isle of Siptah that won't also go into the Exiled Lands.

Connectable maps are an entirely different beast. First, the Exiled Lands is a prison! You are trapped there! By those rules, you shouldn't technically be able to move to another map. If we disregard that rule, however, the foundational architecture of Conan Exiles maps doesn't currently allow interconnectivity. We would need more maps to justify this, as there are presently only two official maps and a handful of modded maps (on PC only). If we continue to develop new maps, I'm sure it's a topic we'll have to cover again.

As it stands, Conan Exiles is currently available on PlayStation 4 and through backward compatibility with PlayStation 5. Is a standalone PS5 version, supporting native 4K and running 60FPS, on the cards? Or at least up for consideration for Conan Exiles?

Douthett: At the moment, I can't give any news on a PS5-specific version – but we know it's something a lot of people do want. For now, I can only say to keep an eye out!

Funcom has dabbled into worlds created by Frank Herbert for Dune Awakening and, most notably, Robert E. Howard's Conan the Barbarian. Is there a fictional world that the studio wants to explore next?

Douthett: I think there's a LOT left to be explored in our own IPs still! It's hard for me to speak for our studio by large. Still, I personally would love to work more in the Conan universe from different perspectives than just Conan Exiles. Mutant Year Zero is extremely high on my wish list of IPs to work with, as is The Secret World! I think both IPs have a ton of untapped potential in the survival game space.

As we round out this interview, what is the one thing you would like to say to the Conan Exiles community as we approach the launch of the Age of War Chapter 1 on 22nd June 2023?

Douthett: Exiles! Thank you all for joining us for the Age of War and for all the footsteps you've walked and the journeys you've completed in the time leading up to it. I can't thank you enough for your continued support, and I hope the Age of War leaves you with new stories to tell and memories to share!

Conan Exiles is available on PC via Epic Games Store and Steam, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, and Xbox Game Pass. The Age of War Chapter 1 update is available now.