The hero shooter genre remains as competitive as ever. Certain titles, such as Marvel Rivals and Overwatch 2, continue to evolve. Others like Concord haven’t been nearly as successful. Even with some occasional flops, any new offering aims to make its mark in a highly crowded field. The next contender up is Fragpunk, an upcoming 5v5 hero shooter from Bad Guitar Studio and Netease.

Fragpunk blends sci-fi and cyberpunk themes, along with fast-paced gunplay, to keep players on their toes every round. Most notably, it features a Shard Card system where teams select from a randomized pool of over 100 cards, some of which alter mechanics and environments, to make matches as unpredictable as possible.

I spoke with Xin Chang, creative director and producer of Fragpunk, to learn more about the project. He gave me some backstory on Hangzhou-based Bad Guitar Studio, which Chang helms, and how it went from a team of 10 to 100. A lot is riding on Fragpunk’s success, given that it’s also the debut title for most members of the development team.

From concept to reality

Fragpunk merges the adrenaline of first-person shooter combat with the unpredictability of a roguelike. Two opposing teams select characters, known as Lancers, with special perks and abilities. From there, a match turns into a frantic race to eliminate foes and plant/defuse bombs at specific sites. In between rounds, teams can also spend points to use Shard Cards, with various effects ranging from regenerative healing and increased movement speed to completely removing all doors in a level or turning a player upside down.

“Our team took inspiration from the successes of other FPS games such as Counter-Strike and Valorant,” Chang tells Digital Trends. “We knew we wanted to make a fast-paced game because it’s central in making our unique feature shine through. Fragpunk is, I hope, a great combination of what makes competitive FPS fun while also bringing a novel feature and strategic depth to the mix with Shard Cards.”

Fragpunk is expected to have 13 Lancers at launch, all with unique skills and ultimate moves. For instance, Broker’s Cherry Bomb creates energy blasts, while his Smokestack Lightning skill (i.e. smoke grenade) is more defensive in nature. He also has an ultimate ability, Goddard’s Vengeance, where he blows up foes with a rocket launcher. Some characters are similar to Broker in that their ultimates also grant them special weapons for a limited time. Examples include Hollowpoint’s Meteora rail gun that fires single-shot high-powered rounds and Axon’s Electric Guitar that allows him to blast enemies explosives.

“Our Lancers were born from gameplay-first brainstorming: ‘What element feels missing in a match?’” Chang says. “Abilities evolved through playtests — some ideas were scrapped for being too disruptive, while others [were retained] because they enabled unexpected synergies with cards. The process is long and sometimes difficult, but as long as the Lancers bring a refreshing experience for our players, then it’s all worth it.”

Chang even listed their top three characters from other sci-fi media that would fit well in Fragpunk’s setting: “David Martinez (Cyberpunk: Edgerunners) is definitely up there because he’s a rebellious soul with high-tech combat styles. I’d also include Jinx (League of Legends and Arcane) due to her anarchic energy and explosive gadgets. And, of course, Neo (The Matrix films), since his bullet-dodging and reality-bending powers are perfect for our card chaos concept.”

Cards and clashes

The most fascinating aspect of Fragpunk is the Shard Card system. The large pool of cards allows players to strategize in between rounds, determining which options to allocate points into. As Chang tells me, “Fragpunk’s Shard Cards have special ‘rule-breaking’ powers, including changing the weather, landscape, weapon and even characters in the game.”

Most importantly, teams can select up to three cards each round to come up with unique and surprising combinations. “One of my favorite card combos involves the use of Blade Master and Turtleback,” Chang says. “The former lets you block attacks from the front and the latter blocks shots from behind. When these two cards come into effect together, you’re able to block bullets from the front and back, and enemies can only damage you by shooting at your legs and feet!”

Since cards are randomized each round, it creates an element of uncertainty and even excitement. Of course, it can also lead to frustrations since luck plays a huge role. “Randomness is inherent to our Shard Card system,” Chang says. “However, we did notice that some less interesting cards appeared too frequently during testing. That’s why we included a mechanic called ‘Relic’ that allows players to retain a card between rounds if they find something that they like.”

Given all the above — 13 characters, 17 weapon types, and over 100 Shard Cards at launch — Fragpunk is filled to the brim with potential combinations and synergies. That said, it can be a nightmare to balance or track potential exploits. Chang agrees and shares one particular issue that the team encountered.

“When designing the ‘World Flip’ card at the beginning, we wanted to really turn the whole level upside down. But when we started to integrate the card with the levels, we experienced tons of bugs. After [brainstorming] for a whole week, we had to change our way of thinking and turn the character upside down instead (as seen in our trailer for The Game Awards). So you can see how wild our thoughts can be sometimes!”

Competition breeds innovation

The success of hero shooters depends on how studios keep their player base engaged for many months. “Fragpunk has competitive and strategic elements, but we also want to bridge casual and competitive crowds,” Chang says. The card system lowers the barrier for entry since anyone [might be lucky enough to get] a game-changing combo, but mastery comes from leveraging RNG strategically. For example in ranked Shard Clash matches, thinking carefully when picking your team’s cards and banning your enemy’s cards can [create opportunities] to flip a losing match into a comeback.”

To that end, Bad Guitar Studio focused on faster time-to-kill (TTK) ratio, as opposed to a slower pace. “Faster TTK rewards sharp reflexes and positioning, while slower TTK emphasizes sustained accuracy and teamwork,” Chang says. “Fragpunk leans more toward faster TTK to complement its high-octane card combos.”

It’s clear that the team wants to stand out among the competition, but that competition includes games within its own publisher. Fragpunk is being published by Netease, which is also behind Marvel Rivals. I was curious if there was a healthy rivalry brewing among Netease’s development teams.

“We do try out each other’s games sometimes, but most of the time the teams work separately,” Chang says. “Healthy competition drives the genre forward, and we’re all players at heart — so we’re excited to see how different studios interpret the hero shooter space!”

Chang is also a realist who recognizes that the hero shooter genre is a bit overcrowded right now and Fragpunk has to do something special to entice players. “We recognize that the hero shooter market is highly competitive, but we’re highly motivated by our passion for this genre,” Chang says. “Other than the Shard Card system, we designed a Duel feature [as a tiebreaker] to highlight each player’s individual skill. Also, apart from the standard Shard Clash mode, we will be introducing a number of different concepts to enrich player experience such as a ‘one-shot-one-kill’ mode. There’s much more to discover once we officially launch, and we are confident that we will stand out from our competitors.”

Fragpunk has all the tools needed to keep matches refreshing and its player base engaged. Now it’s up to the luck of the draw as players decide its ultimate fate.

Fragpunk launches on PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X/S on March 6.