Respawn Senior Game Designer wants more “non-BR” modes in Apex Legends

Respawn Senior Game Designer Daniel Z. Klein is a big fan of Apex Legends’ non-BR modes, and would want the studio to experiment with a few more concepts after seeing how successful the Winter Express has been.

Admittedly, Klein isn’t a part of the game modes team at Respawn, but the senior developer gave his preference on which direction the battle royale could take from here. Previous modes like Hunt and the Winter Express tweaked Apex’s typical formula, giving players something different to get their hands on.

The team at Respawn has proven they can make modes that don’t feed into the normal BR format but still create products that resonate with their players. Klein would like to see more of this out of Apex in the following seasons, though has said there’s not much to reveal on that front as of yet.

“I really want us to try more non-BR things; I think Winter Express was a wonderful proof of concept that Apex can be super fun in non-BR modes,” he said on Reddit. “I think something Mario Party-like, like (League of Legends’) Nexus Blitz, would probably be a bit too much for a game like Apex, but there are LOTS of cool things we could do.”

He isn’t wrong on that final point. Aside from being a solid battle royale in the bustling genre, Apex Legends has something unique that not many games can boast about: it’s incredible characters.

Respawn have injected a vast amount of lore and personality into their cast of 15 Legends, meaning they can produce nearly any mode they want without struggling with how it logistically fits into the game.

• Read more: Apex Legends dev defends Wraith nerfs coming in Season 8

We kind of got a taste of that type of ingenuity with the Fight or Fright Collection Event, that showed Pathfinder teleporting into a night version of Kings Canyon which introduced the Shadowfall mode.

Now that there’s vehicles and loads of new gameplay mechanics in Season 7, non-BR modes like races, new PvE concepts, and more can be a frontrunner for possibilities to explore.

• Read more: Respawn hope to bring Wraith “under control” in Apex Legends Season 8

Like Klein said, there isn’t anything Respawn are ready to announce for Apex Legends as of yet, but players have loads of content to hold them over until they do.