Interview with Game Producer Martin

Welcome back to our blog series, where we introduce the people working on Lost Legions.
In these short interviews, team members talk about what they are currently working on, what excites them, and how the game is coming together behind the scenes.

Introduce yourself:

Hey, I am Martin. I am the Game Producer at Tarock Interactive, and I have been working on Lost Legions for about six months now. I started with three months as an intern and then moved into a full-time position.
My job is mainly about keeping the project moving forward. I help structure planning, support the Game Directors, prepare and run meetings, and make sure communication inside the team works smoothly. When questions come up about where the project is headed, why certain decisions were made, or what the current status of a feature is, I am usually the person who either has the answer or knows who to ask.
What I enjoy most is seeing progress. When the team builds something cool and you can actually see it appear in the game, and the game gets better because of it, that is the most rewarding part of the job for me.

What are you working on right now, and why are you excited about it?

At this exact moment, I am responsible for making sure these blog posts keep coming and for running the interviews. Since our community manager Bat El recently had a baby, I have taken over that part for now.
On the game side, my main focus is preparing the upcoming combat rework. Our current combat system is fairly straightforward, and early next year we want to give it much more depth and challenge, together with feedback from the community. We are taking inspiration from games like God of War, Ryse: Son of Rome, and Batman: Arkham Knight.
Right now, I am laying the foundation for that work. I am documenting player abilities, camera behavior, enemy signals, and the overall intent behind the system. The goal is combat that feels clear and readable, where players react to what enemies are doing instead of just button mashing.

How does your workflow look from the start of a task until it is done in the game?

My workday is usually very fragmented. I am constantly dealing with smaller tasks like bug reports, questions, and coordination, which means I often only have a few focused hours for deeper work.
When I work on larger systems like combat, I usually start with the basics. I define what the system is supposed to do and why it exists in the game. From there, I describe player actions and interactions, meaning how players engage with enemies, the world, and other systems. Features come after that. Everything is documented in our game wiki and updated regularly. Nothing is ever truly finished, it evolves alongside the game itself.

What do you think players will appreciate the most from your recent work?

I think players will really appreciate the new direction we are taking with combat. We are putting a strong focus on clarity, with better feedback, more readable enemy behavior, and challenges that make sense. Different enemy archetypes work together to create interesting encounters, supported by a new camera system and smoother combat flow.
If we get this right, Lost Legions could offer some of the strongest combat in the survival genre. Combat is often a weak point in survival games, and because we focus more on narrative and world building than hardcore survival mechanics, we have a real chance to stand out here.

How do you make players feel like a Roman unit deep behind enemy lines?

We often talk internally about a Roman way of doing things. A lot of our design is built around contrast, with Germanic factions approaching problems very differently than Romans do.
Romans are disciplined, controlled, and prepared. Players are encouraged to plan ahead through crafting, positioning, and reading enemy signals, and then execute their strategy decisively. When you play smart, combat feels controlled and powerful. You are not just surviving fights, you are taking control of them. That is the Roman fantasy we want players to experience.

What upcoming moments are you most excited about in the next one to two months?

January is going to be a huge month for us. It is when we lock in the core feature set that will carry the game toward release. After that, the focus shifts more toward polishing, improving, and adding content.
Reaching the end of January and knowing that all major systems are in place will be a big milestone. Shortly after, we will start larger playtests again, gradually letting more players in and gathering feedback. Seeing players engage with what we have built and help shape the game through their feedback is something I am really looking forward to.


That is it for today’s chat with Martin.
With big systems like combat moving forward and important milestones ahead, Lost Legions is entering a crucial phase of development. We will be back soon with more behind the scenes updates.

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Welcome to our new blog series where we share short interviews with the people creating Lost Legions.
Each post gives someone from the team a chance to talk about what they’re working on, what they enjoy, and what challenges they face.
We hope this format gives you a fresh and personal look at how the game grows.

Introduce yourself:
Hi, I’m Ruben. I’m a Junior Level Designer at Tarock Interactive, and I’ve been working on Lost Legions for the last 6 months.
I started as an intern in summer and apparently made a name for myself, because I was offered a junior position shortly after. In my time here I learned a lot about building an open world.
What I enjoy most is giving players a good experience when they explore the game.
My main job is to plan and structure the world, especially the points of interest like enemy camps or places where players can find loot.

What are you working on right now, and why are you excited about it?
Right now, I’m working on the first big biome, the Meadows. Inside this biome, we have different sub-areas, and at the moment I’m building a bigger Germanic camp. It’s a lot of fun to plan this camp so that it works well for gameplay and player guidance. I’m also very excited to see how it will hold up during the upcoming playtests and what players will do in this place. I’m really looking forward to that.

What challenges do you have at the moment, and how do you solve them?
This Germanic camp is special because it is part of a stealth mission. So the layout needs to be different from the normal camps in the world. For this, I had to do some research again, because I’m still learning a lot as a junior. I looked into how stealth gameplay works, what players need, and how cover is usually placed. Now I try to use that knowledge. For example I place tents so players can use them as hiding spots or sneak around. In other camps, open combat is normal, but here stealth also needs to feel good.

How does your workflow look from the start of a task until it is done in the game?
When I get a task like “design this biome and polish it,” I split it into smaller steps. First, I plan the area on a 2D map. I decide what we need in this biome, where points of interest should be, and how everything connects. I think about how players move through the area and what they can discover.
After the 2D planning, I start reworking the landscape in the engine. I shape the terrain and paint it, deciding where forest, meadow, or other materials go. Then I move into the blockout stage, which is the process of planning directly in the engine with basic shapes like cubes. With player guidance in mind I place torches, fences and other small elements that help the player to understand their surroundings and what they can do. After that I clean everything up and add some comments before I hand it all over to the environment artists for set dressing. Which is the process of detailing the environment with items. After that comes the polishing and optimizing stage. Based on final observations and feedback I tweak the object placements, fix small things, and make sure the area has the quality we want. It’s a step by step routine, from rough to fine.


How does the Roman survival setting change your work?
Building an open world with a story is already a challenge. On top of it, our setting is based on history and mythology. You are a Roman soldier in Germanic lands, and the world around you needs to feel like that. You can not just place any camp somewhere. It needs to look Germanic and fit the 'feel' of the area. The whole team supports me on my quest. Some with knowledge about historical context, some with technical expertise or game design direction and others by playtesting and providing feedback. We all come together in the world design to create something special.


What do you think players will appreciate the most from your recent work?
Right now, probably the Germanic camp. I spent a lot of time on it, and I think players will enjoy taking it over, attacking it, and eventually looting it. But I also think exploring the whole biome will feel rewarding, because the individual areas become more unique the more time I spend on them. Wherever you go in our game, the world should offer something meaningful to the players, and I think that makes exploring fun.

How do you make players feel like a soldier behind enemy lines?
In our game world, the player is almost always surrounded by Germanic encampments from small hunting posts to large, heavily fortified strongholds. As a Roman unit deep in enemy territory , you constantly have to regroup, plan, and adapt to whatever the world throws at you. Depending on your playstyle, different strategies can lead to success: sometimes things get tough, sometimes you slip through unnoticed, but you always have a fighting chance.
As in all survival games you start with nothing, and need to build your gear up as the game progresses. This also means that you need to be aware of the loadout of your opposition and regularly fortify yourself to focus on advancing your technology.
Capturing camps is a core part of progression, and their placement is designed to give players hidden opportunities. If you prefer, you can use a stealthy approach or try an all out open attack.. I want players to constantly make decisions about how to solve a specific problem, basically how we imagine legionnaires would to survive in a hostile environment.

What upcoming moments are you most excited about in the next one to two months?
The Meadows biome is nearing completion, and reaching the point where we can finally say ‘this is ready’ will be a huge milestone for me. It feels like I’ve been working on this area since day one. Looking ahead, I’m especially excited about the upcoming community playtest. The thought of players exploring something I’ve built makes me come to work everyday. I’m eager to see what resonates with them, what needs improvement, and to use that feedback to refine the level design for our Early Access release. Thankfully that date is a bit farther away in the future, because there is still so much I want to add in the game.

That’s it for today’s chat with Ruben. The Meadows biome is getting closer to the finish line, and it’s great to see how much detail goes into every camp, path, and generally all points of interest.
We’ll continue sharing more details from behind-the-scenes for you soon. Stay tuned and thanks for hanging out with us.

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