WorthPlaying: Who are we talking to today?

Joshua Mills: My name is Joshua Mills. I'm the game director on Rainbow Six Siege.

WP: So, Dual Front and the 6x6 gameplay. Adding an extra player makes the teams bigger, but the big change with Dual Front is that you're attacking and defending at the same time. What kind of back-end design decisions went into bringing that dual gameplay to the Siege universe, especially with all the operators being specialized?

JM: A bunch of different conversations went into play. Mainly the question we were asking ourselves is what if we could actually have what we see in the animes that we release that show our operators doing operations? We said to ourselves, "What if we did that? What if we gave players the opportunity to actually play those experiences?" Because they're actually mixing attackers and defenders in those animes. And we're like, "Why not? Let's see what we can do here."

There's unique interactions that you've never seen before because of this combination, and that was kind of a driving force behind us for Dual Front. It's meant to be a more approachable game mode for Siege, so that you can get into it, and see the magic of all the different interactions and the strategies that can come out in it. You get to be a lot more creative and to bring that back for our veteran players who haven't ever done these combinations. That was a big driving force.

How do we let our players run their favorite ops and enjoy the favorite parts of the game that they have? Historically, attacking is a very intimidating job when it comes to Siege. So if you're like, "I'm a defender main, that's what I do. My whole team, my squads, we defend." It's like, cool. Well, you can do that. So you can just enjoy that part of the game and really embrace it. Then because of the respawn, because of the other things we've done within Dual Front, we've opened up the possibility for you to experiment and step out of your comfort zone, and start to be exposed to the other aspects that are Siege.

WP: With Dual Front having that flexibility, being able to change operators, how are you educating new players who are coming into this for the first time? Siege is very much a "play the objective" game. Dual Front is a little more open, but it still has objectives. With Siege X going free-to-play and bringing in a bunch of new players, what's the expectation of the learning curve so veteran players aren't frustrated in matchmaking with newbies coming in and going, "I just want to shoot everybody?"

JM: So, well, two things on that. The good thing is we have our matchmaking MMR system, and that'll be present in Dual Front. So, our veteran players who are really, really strong within their strategies and the strategic nature of Siege, they'll be going up more or less against other players who are in that kind of pool.

The other side of it is really, we've talked about, actually, I'm just going to go on a tangent, sorry. Little ways back, I think it was two SIs [Six Invitationals] ago, we were up on stage, and we were talking about the reps of Siege, getting your reps in. Like that is how you learn how to play this game. Map knowledge is everything. Being able to see different interactions, and experiment and live it, is super important. The uptime in Dual Front is so significantly higher than it is in a standard core match at 5v5 that you experience a lot more, a lot faster, which means you're accelerated in a learning path. So, you actually get to play hands-on experience, live it, way more than you do in a normal 5v5.

This was one of the key pillars to building this mode. We wanted you to play Siege and play more Siege and just to get to experience it. So, lessons are learned through every death in Siege, and you're going to die in Dual Front. That's going to happen, that's fine. The best part about it is, you can reset, get back in there, and go back in.

You mentioned the six players, this is actually a really interesting thing too. Each part of Dual Front is very targeted about different pain points that players might experience with a game as challenging as Siege. With six players, this is kind of like a social adjustment, where if I'm in a group of six and one of us goes down, the impact of one person dying at that point or being eliminated is not as severe as one person in a group of five. So, you have less pressure on you as a newer player coming into this, because if you make mistakes, it's OK. People can carry that a little bit easier. That actually makes it a little bit easier for players to get in and experiment and make those mistakes, because you're going to have to, and it's part of the process. We try to make that as smooth as possible.

WP: Another aspect is the neutral sector and the assignments that come in. We played a hostage rescue, but are there more assignments when this goes live? Aside from points and drawing people away from the objectives, how does it affect the gameplay? You guys have seen many multiple matches. When you're looking at the data, what does that neutral assignment do to matches? How does it tweak the flow of the game?

JM: So, it can be panic-inducing, or it can be something that fortifies what's going well for you. When an assignment activates, it's a dynamic called action that takes place in the neutral sector, and those assignments are seasonal. We'll be launching with the one you've already played, and then next season and season three, there'll be a new one. Every time you come back to Dual Front every season, there'll be a new assignment going in there, and other changes that we'll dive into. In that particular case, it's kind of a risk-reward assessment that your team has to make.

You have to go, "OK, if we stay on the attack and they go to assignment, then we're going to have less people stopping us from doing what we need to do, and we could take this. But if we don't put some people over there to try to stop it, they're going to capture two nodes of our sector, and that could be detrimental to us. Or maybe we're far enough ahead that we don't mind, so we're going to put all our pressure on the go." It becomes this risk-reward decision where you have to really decide where you're going to put your efforts, or where you're going to deny theirs.

Sometimes we've seen players just go specifically to not allow the other team to get it. They don't care if they get it, they just don't want them to get it, and they'll just do that. And it's like, "OK, that's a very fair strategy." We've seen people see the notification for their assignment, peel off immediately, and go and set up a ridiculous defense, reinforce stuff, and just make it impossible for them to get the hostage to the helicopter, or just make it that much harder. At the end of the day, it really comes down to adapting to the situation that's been created over the course of the match.

It's an essence of Siege that you have to be creative, and you have to adapt. You can have the best laid-out plan, and have the best execution, but something's going to go crazy, someone's going to blow up a hole you didn't expect, there's a new angle that you weren't thinking of, and you have to adapt. That is what the neutral sector is. It's that kind of wrench in the gears of a perfect execution, where it's like, you have to pivot, you have to redesign.

I know I'm rambling a little, but it's also an opportunity for us to showcase that idea of these operations, and the rich universe that we have in Siege, and bring that into the game, because we get to tell some more stories that way, and express more things that way. You saw the CG that we showed at SI, with all the operators, and Dokkaebi was captured? Well, at SI this year, when we showed our big reveal trailer, there was a little bit at the end, where Phobos had captured Dokkaebi, the operator. That's the operator that you're rescuing.

WP: So it's actually part of the meta story.

JM: That's right.

WP: You were talking about flow and map control, and that's something that is core to Siege. There's a lot of control options that you can put in, putting up barricades, blocking things out. How would you explain that to players who are new to Siege? Even though you've got a map that starts out mirrored and equal on both sides, once players get to building and blocking, those paths can open and close dynamically.

JM: That's the magic of Siege. Dual Front is an extension of the DNA of Siege, and it's the scenarios of what if, essentially, when it comes to the Siege DNA. This is why I can play Clubhouse from year one all the way up to year 10 and have a different match every time I play. The players are, this is going to sound so cheesy with like, Siege X coming, but the players are the X factor. The reality is, that's what it is. They come in and they make the game what it is. They change the strategies.

We get surprised constantly with stuff that our players are doing, and being able to see that stuff and react to it, and to see the magic unfold, because it's such a systemic design game from its very foundation. This is why we wanted to make this mode, to allow players to see the magic that is Siege, and get into the fray of it, and experience it, and be like, "Holy, wow, wait, wait!"

Literally every night you log on, you can have a great time and experience a whole new game. You can refine that, and adapt your strategy as much as you can, but players are going to keep you on your toes at the end of the day.

WP: In our gameplay sessions, we had one match that ended with Blackbeard defending a room that four of us were trying to attack. He ended up taking out all four of us by using the shield well. Even losing, it was a great gameplay experience, but with all the available operators that selection can be overwhelming for new players. What should they look for when they're starting to play, if you've got suggestions for operators, or how to figure out which operator fits your play style?

JM: It's a great question, and ultimately this is why Dual Front, again, is so approachable, because we have a reduced roster, seasonally, for Dual Front. It's actually bi-seasonally, so we'll have a reduced roster when it launches, halfway through the season we'll update the roster, and then, again, at the next season launch. That way it keeps it fresh, and we keep rotating the operators a little bit, but we also bring that scope in, so you don't have to think about 64 different operators, you can focus on the ones at hand.

We've also decided to make sure that the Pathfinders, which are our original operators, are always present. They'll always be there, so you have that bedrock that you unlock through the new player onboarding. If you're brand new to the game, you'll unlock a bunch of operators going through the different tutorials and challenges, and those operators will always be there for you.

The reason that, even to this day, the Pathfinders are still played on the stage of SI, is because that's how this game has been built, in the sense that every piece is there for a reason, every piece has a purpose. You can stick to those Pathfinders and be confident that you can find success.

My personal thing, I like blowing things up, so I always roll Thermite, but that's just me, so the bigger the explosion, the better! You'll find your own style over time, and ultimately, with the initial lineup of operators that we give you, there's a little bit of something for everyone.

WP: Is there anything we haven't talked about that you wanted to add?

JM: Specifically on DualFront, I think this is such a great opportunity for us to explore a lot of really, really unique opportunities that we normally don't get to do in 5v5. Like I mentioned, we're pushing the seasonal narrative, we're pushing these different ideas. It's a super, super exciting time, if I can geek out on the developer side, because we get to unleash the different potential of what we can do and continue to ask that "what if" question.

Editor's note: This interview has been lightly edited for clarity. For more on Rainbow Six Siege X and Dual Front, be sure to check out our preview!