"There are only so many buttons on a controller": How Pragmata overcame huge design challenges to deliver a "memorable and satisfying" action game

2026 has been a busy year for Capcom. Launching hot on the heels of Resident Evil Requiem came Pragmata, a third-person "dad-and-daughter" shooter set in a lunar facility overrun by a rogue AI. Themes of duality run through the whole game, a series of pushes and pulls that somehow balance one another out – humanity versus machine, shooting versus hacking, and two little android girls created with a very specific purpose in mind. The response from the community has been resoundingly positive. To learn more about Capcom's reaction to all the buzz, I managed to get some questions across to producer Naoto Oyama to fill in the gaps following our last interview with the Pragmata team. (Image credit: Capcom) Q: Capcom's known for a lot of really strong legacy franchises, but Pragmata is a fantastic brand new addition. What do you think is important to get right with a new IP like this? Naoto Oyama, producer: Since the start, our focus was to create something genuinely distinct, which is crucial when making a new IP. With that in mind, for Pragmata, we challenged ourselves to make a game which meshes unique combat and puzzle-solving encounters within a striking lunar setting. Our aim was to create something new and fresh, but also intuitive to actually play once held in the player's hand.Releasing a demo to showcase elements of the game was also beneficial, as it allowed us to communicate the game's core 'hack n shoot' mechanics for new players to understand.I would also add that making the game tightly paced allowed for each individual system and narrative beat to have its time in the sun. For a new IP, this helped us deliver something neatly packaged, memorable and satisfying.Q: The game features sectors of the space station that were constructed to resemble what an AI might build itself, as a digital mind that doesn't quite understand humanity. How did you approach this almost uncanny design challenge? Naoto: Regarding environmental design, we aimed to create spaces that felt they could be designed by a near-future AI on the moon. These digital spaces, on first glance, contain items and structures which resemble what they look like in the real world, but on closer inspection actually contain oddities. This is where that uncanny aesthetic fits; these are places and things which look familiar, but are distorted in some strange and peculiar way. In the New York inspired sector, taxis, for instance, are literally phasing through the floor, and buses protrude from the walls. We created structures and things which appear functional, but in some bizarre way, collapse when closely viewed. This is essentially how we've designed the game's sectors – from the perspective of a system trying to imitate human environments.No generative AI was used in the design process - even the most uncanny elements you see in the game are all hand-designed by human artists! (Image credit: Capcom) Q: GenAI is a hot button topic at the moment. How has that influenced your approach to tackling AI as a core theme in Pragmata? Naoto: We started development on Pragmata before generative AI became quite as huge as it is today, so we were surprised by this development. Perhaps the near-future world we envisioned is closer than anyone thought!Q: Half the controller feels like it's for shooting, and half for hacking. It works really well on a controller. How challenging was it to make doing two things at once feel right? Naoto: There are only so many buttons on a controller, so we've worked to ensure the controls are simple and intuitive. In the early stages we've limited the maximum number of enemies that appear at once and slowed down their approach speed, so that players can get used to the basics of hacking and shooting at the same time. As the game progresses and players become more accustomed to the controls, new weapons and actions are unlocked, while the number and strength of enemies change, so players gradually get used to performing multiple actions simultaneously.Balancing all this was very difficult, and took a lot of playtesting and refinement, including regularly getting feedback from first-time players. I think this approach worked and we got great results. (Image credit: Capcom) A lot of reviews have compared Pragmata to an Xbox 360-era title as a compliment [a [url=https://www.gamesradar.com/games/third-person-shooter/pragmata-leads-love-when-you-say-it-feels-like-a-ps3-game-because-that-was-a-time-when-a-lot-of-different-developers-and-publishers-were-experimenting/]sentiment echoed by director Yonghee Cho[/url]]. Why do you think that is? What's your response to that? Naoto: We take this as a compliment! We know many players from the Xbox 360 and PS3 console era resonate with compact action games which contain engaging gameplay mechanics. Each sector in Pragmata is designed to introduce new additions (weapons, hacking nodes) which layer themselves on previous mechanics, and this sort of design is something players from that e

Jun 24, 2026 - 00:12

"There are only so many buttons on a controller": How Pragmata overcame huge design challenges to deliver a "memorable and satisfying" action game

2026 has been a busy year for Capcom. Launching hot on the heels of Resident Evil Requiem came Pragmata, a third-person "dad-and-daughter" shooter set in a lunar facility overrun by a rogue AI. Themes of duality run through the whole game, a series of pushes and pulls that somehow balance one another out – humanity versus machine, shooting versus hacking, and two little android girls created with a very specific purpose in mind.

The response from the community has been resoundingly positive. To learn more about Capcom's reaction to all the buzz, I managed to get some questions across to producer Naoto Oyama to fill in the gaps following our last interview with the Pragmata team.

(Image credit: Capcom)

Q: Capcom's known for a lot of really strong legacy franchises, but Pragmata is a fantastic brand new addition. What do you think is important to get right with a new IP like this?

Naoto Oyama, producer: Since the start, our focus was to create something genuinely distinct, which is crucial when making a new IP. With that in mind, for Pragmata, we challenged ourselves to make a game which meshes unique combat and puzzle-solving encounters within a striking lunar setting. Our aim was to create something new and fresh, but also intuitive to actually play once held in the player's hand.

Releasing a demo to showcase elements of the game was also beneficial, as it allowed us to communicate the game's core 'hack n shoot' mechanics for new players to understand.

I would also add that making the game tightly paced allowed for each individual system and narrative beat to have its time in the sun. For a new IP, this helped us deliver something neatly packaged, memorable and satisfying.

Q: The game features sectors of the space station that were constructed to resemble what an AI might build itself, as a digital mind that doesn't quite understand humanity. How did you approach this almost uncanny design challenge?

Naoto: Regarding environmental design, we aimed to create spaces that felt they could be designed by a near-future AI on the moon. These digital spaces, on first glance, contain items and structures which resemble what they look like in the real world, but on closer inspection actually contain oddities. This is where that uncanny aesthetic fits; these are places and things which look familiar, but are distorted in some strange and peculiar way.

In the New York inspired sector, taxis, for instance, are literally phasing through the floor, and buses protrude from the walls. We created structures and things which appear functional, but in some bizarre way, collapse when closely viewed. This is essentially how we've designed the game's sectors – from the perspective of a system trying to imitate human environments.

No generative AI was used in the design process - even the most uncanny elements you see in the game are all hand-designed by human artists!

(Image credit: Capcom)

Q: GenAI is a hot button topic at the moment. How has that influenced your approach to tackling AI as a core theme in Pragmata?

Naoto: We started development on Pragmata before generative AI became quite as huge as it is today, so we were surprised by this development. Perhaps the near-future world we envisioned is closer than anyone thought!

Q: Half the controller feels like it's for shooting, and half for hacking. It works really well on a controller. How challenging was it to make doing two things at once feel right?

Naoto: There are only so many buttons on a controller, so we've worked to ensure the controls are simple and intuitive. In the early stages we've limited the maximum number of enemies that appear at once and slowed down their approach speed, so that players can get used to the basics of hacking and shooting at the same time. As the game progresses and players become more accustomed to the controls, new weapons and actions are unlocked, while the number and strength of enemies change, so players gradually get used to performing multiple actions simultaneously.

Balancing all this was very difficult, and took a lot of playtesting and refinement, including regularly getting feedback from first-time players. I think this approach worked and we got great results.

(Image credit: Capcom)

A lot of reviews have compared Pragmata to an Xbox 360-era title as a compliment [a [url=https://www.gamesradar.com/games/third-person-shooter/pragmata-leads-love-when-you-say-it-feels-like-a-ps3-game-because-that-was-a-time-when-a-lot-of-different-developers-and-publishers-were-experimenting/]sentiment echoed by director Yonghee Cho[/url]]. Why do you think that is? What's your response to that?

Naoto: We take this as a compliment! We know many players from the Xbox 360 and PS3 console era resonate with compact action games which contain engaging gameplay mechanics. Each sector in Pragmata is designed to introduce new additions (weapons, hacking nodes) which layer themselves on previous mechanics, and this sort of design is something players from that era associate with the game.

As with other titles from that era, rather than opting for a dense open-world, each sector is a bespoke and tightly designed zone where combat encounters steadily introduce new mechanics that test the player and diversify their tactical loadouts.

Q: Do you see Pragmata as the potential start to a new series?

Naoto: We're very grateful for the positive reception from Pragmata and the responses we've seen from players. While we can't talk about future plans, the game has only just been released and we're going to work to get even more players to join Hugh and Diana on their journey.

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