Digital Dragons - Gravity Rifters Takes Us to the Future of Work with Cosminers

Among the lights and pavilions of Digital Dragons, the space dedicated to independent realities often hides the most fascinating stories rooted in the territory. This is the case of Gravity Rifters, a Polish team based in Katowice that decided to combine the industrial heritage of their homeland with pure science fiction. The result is CosMiners, an interesting cooperative shooter/base defense game that puts you in the shoes of a future worker: the space miner.

We chatted with developer Marcin at their stand to learn about the game dynamics, the heavy cinematic and video game inspirations, and the complex challenges that a team of 15 people faces today in the saturated Polish market.

The Future of Work Has Ancient Roots

Q: Hi Marcin, welcome to Gamesurf. With CosMiners, you've created a title focused on what we could call the "work of the future," deep space mining. Where did this idea come from?

Marcin: Hi! Yes, the inspiration is closely linked to our reality. Our company is based in Katowice, in Upper Silesia, a region of Poland historically linked to mines and coal extraction. Nowadays, we don't literally dig underground, but we are creating a video game focused precisely on mining activity, which makes it all very interesting.

In the game, you play a cosmic miner in the future. You find yourself having problems on Earth because, you know, life is life, and so you decide to sign a contract with a strange company that promises you everything will be fine, that you don't have to worry, and that money will just flow into your pockets in total relaxation. Obviously, as soon as you arrive on this alien planet, you clash with harsh reality. The company forgot everything, even to install the oxygen generators. So you have to get to work immediately to survive by managing food and oxygen. Once you're safe, you can finally go underground to do the real work, gather resources, craft new items and tools to pay off your debt and be able to return to Earth.

Surviving the Night: Cooperation and Tower Defense

Q: Looking at the gameplay, daytime exploration and material gathering give way to a strong nighttime combat component. How does this dynamic unfold?

Marcin: Exactly. During the day you can explore the surface and go down into the mines, but during the night, due to the pollution and noise generated by your very presence, local aliens will be alerted and try to destroy your base. This is where defense comes in, which can be approached in different ways: you can use your firearm, place minefields, or build defensive turrets following the typical tower defense style.

As you progress through missions, you can upgrade your character, unlock abilities, and go deeper and deeper to face bigger threats and monsters. Every few missions and for each underground environment, you'll face a huge boss.

Q: The game also supports multiplayer. How did you calibrate the experience?

Marcin: CosMiners is playable both in single-player mode and in online co-op with up to four players. So you can decide to face the planet alone or with three friends.

From Deep Rock Galactic to Helldivers: The Great Inspirations

Q: Looking at the game material, several significant influences are perceptible. What were your biggest sources of inspiration?

Marcin: The inspirations are many. Besides our geographical area in Poland, cinematographically there's definitely the film Mickey 17, which shares a lot with the type of experience in our game. On the video game front, we look a lot at Dome Keeper, a small 2D indie gem that made us think: "Hey, let's try to do something like that but in 3D."

Then, several guys in our studio really enjoy playing Deep Rock Galactic, from which we take the experience of digging underground, although in DRG we encountered some problems maintaining orientation underground, and for this reason, in CosMiners we opted for a different approach to level structure. Finally, as a last reference, it's impossible not to mention Helldivers, which is somewhat the go-to title right now for this genre of multiplayer experiences.

Massive Campaign vs. Game as a Service

Q: Cooperative multiplayer games require a lot of effort and constant post-launch support. Is there an idea to turn CosMiners into a game as a service (GaaS) in the future? How do you see the risks of this market?

Marcin: At the moment, we are a small team and our budget is limited. For this reason, we have focused 100% on giving the player a lot of fun right away through the main content. The main campaign is massive: we're talking about 8 biomes with over 15 missions in total. To finish everything will take about 100 hours of gameplay, also counting the side missions necessary to unlock every element.

For now, our priority is to refine the core game experience. In the future, we already have plans to add free content or DLC depending on how many players become part of the community. If the game then turns into a huge success, then why not, we could consider evolving it into a true service.

The Hard Life of an Indie in Poland: Funding and Talent Hunt

Q: The video game industry in Poland has literally exploded in the last fifteen years. What are the real challenges for an independent studio that needs to emerge in such a crowded landscape?

Marcin: The first big challenge is absolutely securing funding. In recent years, it has become very difficult to find an investor or publisher who sees the project with our same developer's eyes; almost everyone today demands an almost finished game or a solid vertical slice. If you create a microscopic game with one or two friends after work, it's simpler because the costs are minimal, but in our team, we are about 15 people because we want to maintain a very high quality level, and maintaining this structure has a cost.

The second challenge is keeping the team together. Being a small studio, it often happens that programmers or artists dream of working on colossal productions like The Witcher 4 or GTA 6, so retaining them in the office requires a great effort. And then there's the general competition in Poland: there are hundreds of companies, and you have to make the work environment excellent to ensure people are happy and stay with you. Even obtaining government funds is a huge challenge: you have to compete with 300 or 400 companies to be among the 10 or 15 best projects that will get funding, and often it's not just about the best game, but also the cultural and political reflections of the proposal.

The Roadmap to Steam

Q: To conclude, what are the next steps for CosMiners? When can we get our hands on it?

Marcin: Our first public release was right here at Digital Dragons a year ago, where we gathered invaluable feedback. Throughout the year, we've shown the game around the world: at WePlay in Shanghai, Pax West in Seattle, Pax East in Boston, London, and Gamescom in Cologne.

We are currently preparing a demo build that will be ready by the end of summer. Initially, we will distribute it to a small group of avid fans, and then move on to a demo open to everyone. The main plan is to participate in the Steam Next Fest in October, so that anyone can finally enjoy and explore the world of CosMiners.

Q: That's fantastic. Marcin, I can't wait for October to try it. Thank you very much for your time, and see you!

Marcin: Thank you. See you, bye bye!