There are a bunch, but at least most of them are older, since most games in the genre didn't really make money. Hero Academy was an exception. Anyways, here is what I can think of - all good, but size of fan base could be an issue at this point: Uniwar - oldest, a little primitive looking but had already lasted for a long time when HA came out due to loyal fans Outwitters - most like hero academy. Great Big War Game - Slightly more complicated, but great combination of Hero Academy with tanks & such. Combat Monsters - There are just too dang many cards IMHO, makes it not super-friendly from an entry level perspective. A really good game, but it may not be enjoyable enough to get through the curve at this point.
Thanks for the info, I'll try those. Just out of curiosity, why do you think those games didn't make money? was it something intrinsic to their game design? were they too mid-core, i.e they weren't easy enough to get into for the majority of gamers, or didn't have enough depth for hardcore boardgamers? or do you think it's just those games don't work as well on mobile as others do (simple tap/swipe/endless runners etc) ?
I think it was just math. Say Hero Academy sold 1,000,000 teams at $1.99 each. That is only $2 mill. And that was the success story in the genre. Something like Clash Royal or any of the other big FTP sells gems to truckloads of people every month, and some few spend thousands. So (much) smaller target audience plus no way to tap the whales (big spenders) = much lower cash. Outwitters had this same problem, and the developers were unhappy with the financial yield for their time, even though the game was widely praised. Combat Monsters was one of the few with a way to tap the whales because it is a CCG, but with its complexity, it lacks the simple, broad appeal of the big FTP games. I believe that some of the ports of CCGs may fit the bill you are looking for as well. Some of those may still be going strong. I always preferred the vibe of Hero Academy & Outwitters more than the CCG-based ones and don't remember all the names.
Once you buy a team in HA, all the ads turn off and even though I presume the game constantly costs money to run (server costs), they're not getting anything from their players to cover those costs, which seems an odd business model. I'm a big fan of these games (starting with Defender of the Crown! giving my age away somewhat with that ) and I'm thinking about making a game like one of these myself. I think there's potential for really fun mid-core strategy games.
I'm still working on my own real time strategy/CCG but that looks pretty cool thanks, I'll look forward to playing that.
Ugh, you had me excited. But it is going to be real-time and collectible cards. Real time means that if the player-base isn't large, you can end up waiting forever for a game. Games with only a real-time mode tend to die quickly once the popularity starts to decline. Pretty much every realtime only strategy game that isn't Clash Royale or Hearthstone level popular has a limited shelf life. Collectible cards is an even bigger issue. For every Clash Royale that gets the balance more-or-less right, (more or less) you have 10 other games that any reasonable person would agree is pay to win. This is really going to be a totally different game. Its even being made by a different developer.
Ah, ok. Yeah that's not what I was getting at in my earlier post. When I said 'real-time' I should of said turn based, asynchronous play, not 'this whole game is happening right now and both players need to be there at that moment to participate', which is what HA 2 is? If that's the case, then it's a what I would call an action strategy game, or arcade-strategy game, similar to Clash royale. Also I hadn't checked, but it's not being made by the same HA devs? (even though it's being published by the same company). The great thing about HA is that you can jump in and out of it on your time schedule, that's probably the reason I don't play Clash Royale, even if matches themselves don't take too long. My long term goal is a turn based, asynchronous fantasy game. Imagine HA but with a whole lot more depth, but without sacrificing the (on the surface) simplistic gameplay. And CCG elements. No idea yet if I would want to make it F2P or not. One thing I'm fairly sure of is it's going to be 2D. I'm looking forward to using some great artists to create the visuals.
