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Arc Raiders devs used a daily randomizer to roleplay pacifists and aggressors in GDC playtests

Production director Caio Braga said Embark Studios staff deliberately switched between 'Care Bear' and aggressive playstyles during GDC playtests to better understand noncombat player behavior.

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Embark Studios staff deliberately switched between cooperative and combative roles during playtests to see how different player types experience Arc Raiders, production director Caio Braga said in an interview at GDC.

Braga said the studio’s internal testers tended to default to PvP, so the team started using a daily randomizer to force a wider range of behavior. “We played quite aggressively internally,” Braga told GamesRadar. “In our play tests, we are more PvP-leaning, but every now and then our team tries outright not to play PvP and to be a bit more friendly.”

The randomizer meant a developer might be “playing as a Care Bear” one day and “very aggressive” the next, Braga said. That switch-up helped the team imagine the choices of pacifist players who prefer questing and cooperation over immediate combat. Braga added that some designers specifically advocated to keep nonviolent options in the game, like the “don’t shoot” emote, during debates about adding PvP features. He noted the emote’s retention stemmed from a belief that real players would use it, and that it subsequently proved popular.

That internal push to roleplay different approaches runs alongside other community-facing challenges for Arc Raiders. Embark acknowledged a recent surge of cheaters in January and said changes to detection and bans were coming, showing the studio has been juggling combat balance, social systems, and enforcement at once.

Braga framed the practice as part of designing for fun across the player base. By deliberately stepping into varied player mindsets, the team tried to better understand what different groups would find enjoyable and how systems like emotes and questing would fit into a live PvP environment.

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