Apex Legendswas released at the beginning of 2019, introducing gamers to an all-new battle royale experience. The game included many unique features that helped set it apart from other titles in the genre, such as the ability to move while looting. Players often use this mechanic while accessing enemy death boxes ora Loba Black Market, as it makes them more challenging to hit. However, a recent message from a developer at Respawn Entertainment revealed that this feature almost failed to make it into the final game.
In a January 7 message on TwitLonger,Apex Legendsdeveloper John Larson highlighted an interesting detail concerning looting. According to thedeveloper at Respawn Entertainment, the popular “moving while looting” mechanic seen in the battle royale was actually a bug missed during development. “This may come as a surprise to some, but moving while looting is a bug,” he admitted.
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Fortunately for those concerned that the feature could be removed, Larson assured players that it was here to stay. “Is it a bug we’ll ever fix? No,” he said. While the developer said that he would have agreed with only having stationary looting at the launch ofApex Legends, he admitted that his opinions on the matter have changed. Over the past couple of years, the development team has learned to embrace the implementation of the unintended feature. “I saw an efficient looting meta-game emerge pretty quickly,” he said.
In addition to revealing that thelooting mechanic was a glitch, Larson addressed the idea of making it accessible for controller gamers. (Currently, only mouse and keyboard players can loot and move simultaneously.) While the developer agreed that it was “reasonable to think moving while looting on controller should be an option,” he noted that making it a reality is very challenging.
He claimed that previous ideas put forth by players such as former pro Eric ‘Snip3down’ Wrona to swap the inputs and let the menu cursor be controlled with the right stick would be hard to pull off. “It’s not as simple as adding a menu option for ‘loot with right stick,’” he said. The problems with adding the feature to controller pertained to menu movement being hardcoded to the left stick. Larson stated that attempting to make looting with the right stick work would require significant changes to many areas of the game, such as UI, code, and design.
It is interesting to hear developers reveallittle-known details about popular games, such asApex Legends. Time will tell if players learn even more secrets about the game from the developers in the coming months. Regardless, players should have a new appreciation for the ability to move while looting in the battle royale.
Apex Legendsis available on PC, PS4, Switch, and Xbox One.
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