Summary
Marvel Snaphas continued to grow into the preeminent mobile card battler in the nearly two years since its launch, and its recent Alliance feature brings a whole new dimension to the game. WhileMarvel Snaphas always brought players together for PvP matches, the game lacked a true social system where players could connect outside of in-game matches. Now that the Alliance feature has debuted, players can join up to take on challenges together, communicate via text chat with other Alliance members, and earn rewards in this clan-like system.
Game Rant recently spoke withMarvel SnapDesign Director Kent-Erik Hagman and Senior UX Designer CJ Robinson from developer Second Dinner about the creation of Alliances. While this feature had been a part ofMarvel Snap’s roadmapfor some time, the team at Second Dinner wanted to ensure that it was implemented in a way that was enjoyable without presenting too much of a burden on players looking to check it out. The result is a social mode that allows players of all kinds to interact withMarvel Snapin a new way, elevating the content the game offers players.
Marvel Snap’s Alliances Were Designed For Players of All Skill Levels
When creating asocial feature forMarvel Snap, a big hurdle the team faced was designing it in a way that would appeal to both new players and veterans. The flexibility of the Alliance feature is one of its biggest strengths, allowing new players to join up with veterans to learn the ropes while they are just starting theirMarvel Snapjourney. For example, Alliances could be used in a way that allows long-time players to share their bestMarvel Snapdecks with newer players as they progress through the early stages of the game.
As Hagman describes:
“[Alliances] would allow opportunities for newcomers to join an Alliance where someone who’s more experienced can share with them, like ‘hey here’s some tips, now that you’ve unlocked this card you should go see what auto deck builds around this new card you just unlocked.’ We loved that idea.”
Conversely, Alliances also offer more hardcore players a chance to join up and go all-in on completing challenges and earning as many points as possible from bounties. Finding a balance between these two types of players, and those in between, was at the core of Second Dinner’s design philosophy when creating Alliances, and this idea can also be seen in the bounty system that makes up the gameplay side of Alliances. Regarding rewards for bounties, Hagman describes how the team tried to find a happy medium where all types of players could enjoy tracking bounties andearningMarvel Snaprewardswithout feeling overwhelmed, saying:
“We consciously didn’t want to overdo it on the rewards and make it too compulsory where people feel like they have to do all this stuff. So it was really like trying to thread that needle.”
Players Can Choose to Engage with Marvel Snap’s Alliances as Much or as Little as They Want
Between joining an Alliance, or creating a new one, and working together to earn rewards in a social setting,Second Dinnerwanted to create a system where players can choose how much they interact with it, and conversely, how much they get out of it.
Robinson sums this philosophy up nicely, saying:
“We were looking to build a social feature, not a job. The feature was definitely designed to be for everybody, which is why we did a lot of work around, like ‘well what are the filters for clans? I want to look for a clan that’s into deck building.’ Cool, we made that possible for the player using Alliance tags.”
The resulting Alliance system can be approached from a variety of different angles, depending on what the player wants out of the system. Overall, Alliances seem like a great addition to themodes and features already available toMarvel Snapplayerswithout feeling like a necessity for those who would prefer not to interact with it.
