VP - Game Design for Champs Hey Folks, I figured I'd cast of the dark shadows of the lurker say hello given how many of ya'll are asking questions about our game. I'm the lead designer on Champs and I'm happy to do what I can to fill in some gaps. If anyone has any further questions, I'll make sure to check in and answer 'em. Also, people that aren't a fan, don't be shy about dropping in and saying so. We'll never get to where we want to go if we only listened to people who agreed with us. Some high level stuff: Who We Are Quark Games. We're a small independent studio built on the idea that we can make high quality hardcore games for mobile and tablet devices. Our dream is to build up Champs over the course of years into an amazing experience. Currently, we're releasing new Champs every week and we're shooting for a major update around every month. International Expansion We're looking into this. Since the game is real time, we need to set up separate servers to reduce lag issues for our foreign players. We also want to translate the game into local languages before we launch. Disconnects We're looking into this issue very carefully right now. The short answer is that it appears that some mobile networks aren't performing as well as we'd like. WiFi should generally eliminate these issues. Also, international players are going to have a rougher time until we can spin up local servers. Matchmaking Our matchmaking is tied to skill level and army strength. We're just beginning to ramp up the community, so we expect better matchmaking as the game grows. Currently, we try to find an "ideal" match for 20 seconds and then expand the pool until we find "any" match. Some day, we dream of always finding an ideal match. Farming You can play through all the campaign and get quite a bit of loot for your efforts if you can 3 star 'em all. Additionally, you can play Training Grounds or PvP to get as much currency as you can stomach (and buy every Champ in the game if you so desire). Free To Play The game monetization takes certain cues from League of Legends. Basically, we allow players to earn everything in the game. We do not want to force people to pay to win. We don't think that's a sustainable experience for a competitive game.
Just went a full minute (60 seconds) without being matched. Yeah, I'm impatient, but I dont wait more than a minute. To me, this suggests the game is a failure and I shouldnt waste my time. I've played plenty of online games, and my 60 second rule has never led me astray. Once it starts taking longer than that, players go away and games die. If it never gets under that, the game is doomed. Pretty much, anyway. Tried at 10:15 am EST on a weekend, not 4am on a weekday.
Don't disagree regarding a reasonable queue time. We're targeting 30 seconds as a queue time. However, we're waiting on the release of our next update (which has our Community Lobby), before we really push people to join the game. Ideally, that will happen this week (we're waiting on Apple approval). Then we can really get the game going in earnest. Thanks for taking the time to write out your thoughts friend.
Hi, I am new here, but I've played Champs for a while now. I really enjoy it. I like the new updates and the gameplay itself. The graphics are great and effects are cool to see. I appreciate how the characters are so different from each other as well well as new champs plus it is a fun challenge learning how to use the Champs well. To me there is nothing to critique about but one thing I do want to know are your own CHAMPS set up and strategies. It's always nice to see how other people think in a strategy type game like this.
Glad you're enjoying Champs! For more info on strategy, there are two major places to check out: 1) Our official forum - ask players there for help, they're friendly! 2) Our official wiki - lots of strategy guides to digest here You can ask for specific details in this thread too, if you like!
New Champs 1.2 update Hey everyone! Today's a big day for us, we FINALLY got our 1.2 Game Update through Apple approvals... and we're live! We added this cute-but-deadly critter today, the Chibbet Lookout: Fast and nimble but with a powerful debuff and a DoT attack, the Lookout shouldn't be underestimated! Like every other champ in the game, the Lookout can be obtained with BP (Battle Points) which are earned just by playing. Or alternatively if you don't want to wait and save, you can purchase a Lookout using Quark Points, bought with real money. If you want to save some cash or BP, you can also upgrade any Wilder to this Tier 2 terror, and only pay the difference between the cost of the Wilder and the Lookout. As well as adding the Lookout we've also added an in-game Lobby. This is primarily an easy way for us to communicate with players, so keep your eyes peeled for updates, and to know when we're streaming on Twitch!
The Shade, getting a preview on Twitch today Last Friday on our Twitch stream PwnLaw revealed the Shade, the new Tier 1 Undead Champ coming to the game this week. You can watch the highlight of that stream here where PwnLaw talks about the Shade. Today's the day you can see the Shade in action! Make sure you tune in at 5PM Pacific (8PM Eastern) to get the first glimpse of the Shade. You'll start to see why you're really going to want this Undead Champ in your army! Click here to watch us on Twitch TV!
A new Champ approaches... We're going to be announcing our next Champ tomorrow (Friday 20th) on Twitch TV! Make sure you tune in for this BIG reveal. http://www.twitch.tv/quarkgames 5PM Pacific / 8PM Eastern
The Revenant - now available We revealed the Revenant last week and launched him in-game today! A fearsome magical tank with deadly ice and frost abilities, the Revenant is available in-game now! You can get more details on the Revenant in this YouTube video: http://youtu.be/4ItflX580Rk
The Sunsear! Hey Touch Arcade people! We've added another new Champ to the game today, a deadly nuker/buffer - part of the Sun Elf race - the Sunsear! Check out her wiki page for more information, and pick her up now in the in-game store! Oh, and if you want to get a few more details on the Sunsear, watch this highlight from our Twitch TV stream last week.
They're saying on their streams that Europe release is soon, but no dates yet. So hey, almost there! Anyway, with Bard nerfs and release of my new favorite unit Abomination, Champs is looking as good as ever. I just hope more worldwide release goes out successfully so that there are plenty of opponents to face.
Game Impressions I just started playing, not sure if I missed the hype. While I sort of like the game, to me it has 2 noticeable flaws: 1 - controls (as mentioned) seem to have been designed to make playing harder rather than fast & beautiful. A game that could have been Star Wars Chess instead is 'select this / select this / select this' non-stop and constant panic, without really being able to watch the gameplay or amazing graphics. 2 - no real customization. Don't get me wrong on this one, I hate the "select the nose / move the chin up or down" super-customization screens in mainstream games. BUT allowing players to give their minions names, to show gear (in this case fairly generic 'artifact stones'), to have different outfits, etc. Not sure about other players, but when I go to battle, I have a hard time differentiating my team b/c they all look generically the same. I can't even designate a leader (give them a different 'glow' or ?), or somehow make one Level 4 initiate look different a Lvl 1 initiate. Maybe this changes? The game idea is tops. The implementation is ... so so.
Just thought of this again today as I was cleaning out my collection on my Mac. What on earth happened to it!? The Facebook and Twitter leave no clues but announcement that it would be no longer all of a sudden, even after having a pending steam release. Crazy. Lots of development down the gurgler. Anyone with knowledge of what happened?
