Christopher Rogers, Creative Director at Harebrained Schemes on GRAFT • Interview Series

The Lamplighters League creator Harebrained Schemes is currently working to finesse the formula of its upcoming survival-horror RPG, GRAFT—a title that will reportedly feature intense real-time combat and  “labyrinthine techno-catacombs,” to list just a couple of its primary ingredients. Curious to learn more about this upcoming project, I recently caught up with Christopher Rogers, Creative Director of Harebrained Schemes, who kindly filled me in on the details.

We appreciate you for taking the time out to speak with us! Please could you introduce yourself to our readers and tell us a bit about your position at Harebrained?

Christopher: My name is Christopher Rogers, and I am the Creative Director at Harebrained Schemes.

Let’s talk about your upcoming survival horror RPG, GRAFT, and its place in the Harebrained universe. Firstly, where did the inspiration for the RPG stem from, and what are you hoping to achieve with its induction into the survival horror sphere?

Christopher: We started with the central idea of the game: that you need to graft parts onto yourself to survive, and that in doing so you also take on some piece of the original owner’s identity, their memories or desires. Throughout the game you are becoming something else, both inside and out.

As we built on that idea we started saying, “You are the Ship of Theseus” which is a thought experience about the authenticity of something. The story goes that the Athenians displayed the hero’s ship as a way to remember his adventures. As time wore on pieces of the ship were replaced, until nothing of the original remained. At that point is it still the Ship of Theseus? We v wantto put that in front of the player as they are trying to survive.

Will you still be you when you reach the end of the game?

With The Lamplighters League and BATTLETECH being largely centered around turn-based strategy and tactical role-playing, the gradual shift towards survival horror has certainly caught us off guard. Tell us, what inspired the decision to explore the horror RPG genre?

Christopher: It’s about telling a powerful story where we crank up the tension and the stakes as high as possible and making sure the gameplay fits that experience. We’re keeping the tactical choices from our turn-based games, but for this one we want you to be on edge moment to moment as you push deeper and deeper into the strange world of the game.

Once, the Arc hung in the sky like a jeweled moon—a continent-sized station filled with biomechanically enhanced citizens, all working toward some greater purpose lost to time.

Now, the Arc is dying—and full of horrors. Escape the Arc. Wishlist GRAFT: https://t.co/31DiZdZFeB pic.twitter.com/7GKA0nHlxn

— Harebrained (@WeBeHarebrained) September 10, 2024

We’re curious to hear more about these “labyrinthine techno-catacombs” and the world in which GRAFT takes place. Could you tell us a bit more about the setting and the keystone landmarks that we’ll encounter throughout the story?

Christopher: Sure! The game takes place on a continent sized space station called the Arc. The facility uses the same grafting technology to construct itself, but at a much bigger scale. The Arc is dying, and vast sections of it have lost power and life support. City sized chunks are tearing away and then grafting themselves back on to the main structure in new places. As that happens, spaces stop making rational sense.

Those techno-catacombs were once fields of pods where new bodies could be grown for dying people on the Arc. Now they’re buried under layers of superstructure and the bodies that are in them aren’t fully formed and starved for power, but your presence stirs those ancient subsystems to life…

When the game starts you are forced out of one the last walled cities on the Arc and find yourself in the Downs, a cavernous desert of structures where there’s no power or life support. That’s what we mean by post-cyberpunk—you’re a cyberpunk character thrust out of a dystopia and into something much stranger.

Moving on to the combat and other important gameplay features — how would you best describe them? Also, “GRAFTS” — what’s the deal here, and how exactly will these in-game power-ups influence the experience?

Christopher: Combat is real time and paced so that you need to keep an eye on your resources, starting with ammunition.

As you defeat enemies you’ll be able to graft their limbs and their abilities onto yourself. The deeper you go the more you’ll gain abilities: poisoned barbs that protrude from your skin, cloaking, explosive nodules. At first you’ll only be able to deploy these powers occasionally, but as you level up you’ll be able to use them more regularly.

Grafting has a narrative impact as well. As you add new grafts you’ll find you will have new conversation options in narrative encounters based on something you have learned through grafting. You may also need to hold back new impulses that your grafts have imbued you with.

Do you have any words of advice for those who are hoping to delve into the Arc and its bottomless depths in the future? Are there any dos or don’ts that might be worth taking note of ahead of the game’s global debut?

Christopher: Embrace change. You won’t be powerful enough to survive the Arc until you start remaking yourself through grafts. It’s a battlefield metamorphosis where you will evolve into what you need to be in order to survive.

Can you think of a memory that-if someone else could actually experience it as you once did-they would just 'get' you? Hold off on sharing the specifics, but HOW OLD were you when that thing happened? I want to see something… pic.twitter.com/IZiZz3KsIS

— Harebrained (@WeBeHarebrained) September 11, 2024

Of course, we’d love to stay up to date with all of this. Are we able to share any important details, newsletters, or upcoming events with our readers?

Christopher: You can sign up for news about the game at harebrained-schemes.com and follow us on X and Instagram at @webeharebrained and Facebook as HarebrainedSchemes.

Is there anything you would like to add for our readers?

Christopher: We’re a small indie dev and there are a lot of games out there. Wishlisting  GRAFT helps us build awareness and show interest from players in a concrete way. If you’re reading this and excited for the game, we would really appreciate you hopping over to Steam or Epic and wishlisting the game.

Thanks for your time, and best of luck with the ongoing development of GRAFT. We look forward to seeing more of it over the coming months!

Christopher: Awesome. Thank you for the opportunity!

You can check in with Harebrained on X (Twitter) for more information and live coverage here. Alternatively, you can visit the website for additional details here.