TiMi Studio’sDelta Forceis a revival of the classic tactical shooter series that kicked off in 1998 and paved the way for large-scale first-person shooters in the decades to follow. In a substantial shift from its predecessors, it’s a free-to-play online shooter with two distinct modes: its classic Warfare mode in which teams of players compete to carry out objectives, and its extraction shooter-like Operations mode. With a dizzying amount of customization and weapon modifications, distinct playable Operator classes, and now a co-op reimagining of theBlack Hawk Down campaign,Delta Forcehas something to offer first-person shooter fans of every proclivity.
Game Rant recently sat down with game design director Ricky Liao to talk all aboutDelta Force, including its place in the long-running first-person shooter series. Liao weighed in on howDelta Forceaims to honor that legacy while bringing its own flare to the mix, along with sharing some plans and goals for the development team.This interview has been edited for brevity and clarity.
Honoring Delta Force’s Legacy
Q: Bearing the Delta Force name, what did you feel was most important to capture from the original games?
A:I have beenplaying Delta Force since I was a kidand have been a big fan of the whole franchise. The most shocking part when I first played the game was that I felt like I was literally transported into the boots of a soldier about to complete a series of missions that seemed almost impossible.
Let’s talk about the classic Black Hawk Down for this game. I literally felt like I was that soldier in that very environment — needing to be mindful of my own status and my ammo, always being put in an open space with a lot of rules to choose from to finish the mission. That game doesn’t really rely on a lot of cuts or cinematics to tell the story. Instead, as I progress through the mission, I feel like I’m part of the story and driving it forward. That’s something very unique for me, and I didn’t really experience that kind of uniqueness with other shooter titles.
When we were making thenew Black Hawk Down campaign, that’s the kind of experience we wanted to capture and deliver to our players. We want players to feel like they are part of the story, instead of just standing by and watching it unfold. For example, we have a mission in the game where you need to defend a position — sort of like a last-man-standing scenario. You’ll see your ammo running low, your health dropping, your character breathing with difficulty, and your vision getting blurry. You really feel like you’re in the story, not just watching it — and that’s the kind of immersion we want players to experience.
As for the most memorable part of Black Hawk Down and similar titles, what really impressed me was how big and open the maps were. It was the first game where I felt like I was truly interacting with the map and other players — engaging them from long distances and utilizing different tactics. The map was designed with enough, let’s say, scope for me to really explore all sorts of ideas and gameplay freedom. That’s something we want to carry forward and improve in our game.
Q: You mentioned the original Delta Force did some things you hadn’t seen often in other shooters. Are there things that you wish you saw more of in the broader shooter genre that you now get to do in today’s Delta Force?
A:For our PvP modes, we have two modes available for the players. The first is Operations, and the second is Warfare. We want to follow an experience-driven philosophy for game design.
There are two types of shooter games. The first type issomething like Call of Duty— very fluid, competitive, and fast-paced in terms of combat. Then there are games like CS:GO, Valorant, and Rainbow Six Siege, where you really need to rely on strategy and teamwork. Both styles are great and have their own amazing communities.
We want to combine the best parts of both. We want players to experience competitiveness and fluency in movement and combat while also having the strategic depth to slow down, observe, gather information, and plan their approach. When it comes to execution, that’s when the pace will pick up — that’s when you’ll feel the adrenaline rush and the fast-trading intensity. It’s about finding the right balance between fun, fluidity, competitiveness, and strategy.
This is the kind of experience we love making, and our players love playing.
Q: Until the Black Hawk Down campaign, Delta Force was a PvP game. Now that you’ve dipped into PvE, is that something you’d like to explore more?
A:For our future plans, we’re aiming to improve the current content in the game forWarfare and Operations mode. We still have a lot of ideas to explore with both modes, and we’ve also received a lot of valuable player feedback about things like map design and overall gameplay. We feel there are some great suggestions that we can implement to make the experience even more fun for players. So please expect more frequent and meaningful updates from us, introducing improvements and new content for these modes.
Over the past few patches, you may see that we’ve been constantly improving these modes. For example, one patch was heavily focused on vehicle handling, which saw a huge improvement. In future patches, you can expect similar updates. For the next season, we’ll be introducing a new version of select maps, offering a totally different experience for players. This approach will carry over to other future patches as well — we’re planning new maps and new mechanics that will make the game feel fresh and exciting for players.
Of course, that’s on top of the new content players are expecting and loving from us, like new operators, new weapons, new maps, and new vehicles.
Q: Some fans have wondered about infantry-only Warfare mode. Do you feel like that runs counter to Delta Force’s identity as a combined-arms game, or is that on the table?
A:For Warfare mode, we want players to feel that each map is unique in its own way — that’s our philosophy when introducing new maps to this mode. For example, we’ll be adding an archipelago map where players can engage in both land and sea warfare. We’re also working on canyon maps that will offer more vertical space for players to explore, and urban warfare maps that will focus on close-quarters combat. Our goal isn’t to make any single element absolutely necessary — instead, we want players to feel like it’s a dynamic and engaging war experience that remains fun and interesting with each new map.
Q: What was the process like coming up with the capabilities of each operator and making sure that they could work together as a team, but also as opponents to each other?
A:For operators, we want to make sure that their design aligns with the game’s high-octane philosophy. For example,operators like D-Wolfand Vyron are great assault operators — they excel at breaking through enemy lines and spearheading the attack. They’ll have a combat advantage, but they’ll lack abilities to gather information for their teammates or provide support. That’s why we also have support and recon operators in the game, each with their own strengths and specialized roles. A key aspect of our operator design is ensuring that each operator has a unique position and skill set that fits the overall game philosophy.
For new operators, we want to verify that each one feels unique. Our standard for defining a well-designed operator isn’t based on how popular they are or how many players use them. Instead, we want to see if an operator can develop a loyal player base — players who will main these operators for a long time. For us, that’s the true sign that we’ve done a good job designing a new operator.
Q: Realism is always a hot topic in shooters, especially tactical shooters. How do you decide when to do something because it’s realistic or just because it’s fun?
A:That’s a great question and a very good observation. It’s also an ongoing challenge for Delta Force, because we’re aclass-based operator shooter game, and we’re constantly introducing new operators. Yes, there are times when we come up with cool new gameplay features that are super fun but not always super realistic.
When we’re designing a new operator, we start by creating prototypes of their skill sets and playtesting them to ensure they work well. Then, we check if their skill set makes sense and can be supported by real-world technology and gadgets like military equipment. Only when we’re sure that their skill set is ready for players do we move forward. This process also serves as a great foundation for designing the operator’s identity and personality. Because of this, it takes a long time for us to fully produce an operator, from concept to in-game implementation.
In terms of level design and world-building, we always work very hard to make sure we’re following a tangible, futuristic philosophy and style. The levels take place in the year 2035, which isn’t too far off from where we are now. We want players to feel that everything they see in the game is either something that could realistically exist in the near future or something that totally makes sense 10 years from now.
Q: Speaking of equipment, Delta Force has an extensive range of weapons and modifications. Can you talk about what the process is like coming up with these customization options and balancing their impact? It seems very complex and difficult to manage.
A:That’s absolutely right. It’s a lot of work for us because we have two modes,a variety of operators, weapons, gadgets, and modifications. We actually do balancing separately for each mode. We do this because we want players to have a great experience in each mode, and the only way to ensure that our balancing works is to tailor it for each mode individually, while also making sure it works well when both modes are combined.
For us, there’s no one-size-fits-all solution when it comes to balancing — there’s no balancing that will work for all sorts of scenarios in our game. What we can do, and what we are doing, is to identify all the possible scenarios carefully and focus on balancing each one individually. This way, we can ensure that the gameplay experience is as refined and enjoyable as possible in every situation.
Q: Is there anything you recall being particularly difficult to get feeling right in the game, whether it was a certain weapon, vehicle, or operator?
A:To be honest, it’s not about designing any specific part — it’s about managing all the moving parts in our gameplay design. The most difficult challenge is fitting all the pieces together and making sure they work perfectly. For example, if you put the combat experience of PUBG into an Apex map, it wouldn’t work well, and vice versa. For us, the toughest part is taking all those moving pieces and making sure they click, providing a cohesive and enjoyable experience for the players while still feeling unique. That’s both the hardest and the most satisfying part of the process.
We spend a lot of time during our playtests debating which part needs adjustment — is it the operator, the vehicle, the level design, or the weapons? It often takes a lot of time to figure out which aspect to tweak in order to make everything come together and really create that “magic.” But it’s also incredibly rewarding, and we’re very happy that we managed to ship the game on time while still delivering a great overall experience for players.
Q: Time to Kill is also a defining characteristic of shooters. It’s a key difference between a game feeling like Halo or Counter-Strike. How did you decide on Delta Force’s pace in combat?
A:Let’s say that Time to Kill (TTK) is the starting point of all our design decisions because it plays a crucial role in determining the kind of experience we deliver to our players. We spent a lot of time early in the game’s production deciding onthe ideal TTKfor our game, as it significantly impacts the pacing, combat flow, and overall feel of the gameplay.
We are making a Delta Force game, and we really want to respect the Delta Force identity, which requires a game that rewards players for utilizing both strategy and combat prowess. Eventually, we decided to rely on the OODA model. I’m not sure if you’re familiar with that.
Different games will have different ratios. Forgames like Rainbow Six, players will spend a lot of time observing and orienting because they need to gather enough information before deciding what kind of action to take. When it comes to the action part, it’s often very quick and swift. On the other hand, the situation is completely different for games like CoD. In CoD, you don’t spend a lot of time observing and orienting. You don’t need to gather much information — you just engage in combat. That’s the kind of model or philosophy we’re using to decide our TTK in the game.
For our game, we want players to have a bit more time during the observation and orientation phase. The action part won’t be as long as CoD, but it will be slightly longer than games like Counter-Strike. We feel that this kind of balance is right for Delta Force and aligns with the experience we want to deliver to players.
Player Feedback and Delta Force’s Future Plans
Q: You mentioned the importance of player feedback. How do you factor feedback into Delta Force’s development? Can you recall a moment where feedback helped guide certain decisions?
A:We actually have a lot of examples where player feedback has impacted our design direction. For instance, last year, we had a patch where we felt that the character animations and movements weren’t realistic or convincing enough. They were also a little too fast, which didn’t give players enough time to think and strategize their movements. So, we introduced slower animations and movements for the characters, making them move more naturally in the game. We thought it was really awesome and cool. However, after we shipped that update, we received a lot of feedback from players saying that the characters didn’t feel as responsive as they had hoped or were used to.
That’s when we stopped everything we were doing and spent the whole day looking at this clear feedback, discussing whether we should reverse the change. Eventually, we decided to reverse it. Not only that, we introduced more animation transitions for the characters to make their movements feel more natural, improving the overall production value and quality of the game, as well as making the characters more responsive to players’ liking.
This is just one example. The player feedback loop is always in the works. We have our community team constantly looking at all the comments players share about our game. Our designers are also very active in the community, with their DMs open for all sorts of player feedback and input, including myself.
It’s this kind of openness, trust, and transparency that has helped us create a very organic and healthy community. They are happy and willing to share their feedback with us, which we truly appreciate. This also allows us to co-create the game together with our community. Very often, when we see something created by the players that we think is really nice and awesome, we’ll eventually implement thatplayer-created content into our game.
We have players creating all sorts of cool content. For example, we have adorable and fun art from the Japanese community, as well as cosplay. We also see fun-created stories, animations, and sometimes even theories. We think they’re really nice and cool, and we might or might not incorporate some of that into our game.
Q: Looking at current development plans, what do you feel is most important to focus on right now?
A:Right now, our focus is on improving the main game and refining modes for the operations. We’re working on a new map that will feel very different from all the previous ones. As for warfare mode, we’re developing new maps that will feature in-game events, which will drastically change the feel and gameplay loop of these maps.
We’ve also received clear feedback thatplayers love the boss enemiesin our game and that they want to engage in these encounters as well. While we’re not guaranteeing anything, this is something we’re currently considering.
We also feel that Delta Force is a really great game for esports. Both modes are fun to play competitively and enjoyable to watch as well. This is another direction we’re focusing on, and we’re fine-tuning both modes to ensure they align perfectly with esports. We’re also experimenting with different formats to create an esports ecosystem that’s enjoyable for both players and viewers.
In terms of details, there are a lot of things like map details or the look of certain elements, but when it comes to the general direction of the game, we feel that we’re pretty much on track with what we envisioned five years ago when we started this project.
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