Setting the foundations of Battleworld: interview with Kabam’s Scott and Shane on Marvel Realm of Champions

Revealed at 2019’s New York Comic Con, Marvel Realm of Champions has been in the works for a while. Its basic premise sees you transported to the Battleworld, with the mystery of Maestro’s death looming over everyone as you fight the other champions. We have Kabam‘s Senior Quest Designer Scott Bradford and Senior Game Designer Shane onboard to answer a few curious questions. From their names, you can pretty much get the idea of what they do: as part of a larger game design group, Scott handles narrative, level, and encounter design primarily, while Shane focuses on gear, ability, and progression design.

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THE START OF IT ALL

While waiting for reveals, the burning question is definitely going to be the release date. If you haven’t seen it already, Battleworld will be officially launching on 16 December 2020, so champions will have a month or so left to wait. Hond on tight!

Realm of Champions isn’t Kabam’s first time with Marvel, with Contest of Champions also under their belt. From its launch in December 2014 till today, that’s coming to six years working with Marvel! Scott talks about the trust they’ve built up over the years, and Marvel being incredibly receptive to the new project, providing plenty of feedback in their partnership to get Marvel fans of all stripes to play the game. Shane reveals the project itself had been in the works for at least 2 years, building off the work of a small team and gradually ramping up and expanding the scale of the game. The launch is just the beginning, as we all head into 2021.

We’ve gotten beta access, which you can read about here, and during that period, updates came in pretty rapidly. Scott explains this is to get player feedback as quickly as possible prior to the launch. He also says that there isn’t a strict content cycle per se, but you can expect updates relatively frequently. A rough estimate will be monthly updates – by no means a definite metric – following Contest of Champions‘ scheduling. There will be seven champions available at launch.

THE MEAT OF THE GAME

At a glance, you might think Realm of Champions looks quite similar to Marvel’s Avengers; playing super heroes, customizing their gear… Scott lays out the key differences between Realm of Champions and Marvel’s Avengers, and indeed, the other available Marvel titles:

First of all, it’s a mobile game, with gameplay closer to a brawler with MOBA elements… part of it for us was making sure you can play a match in under 5 minutes so it’s really built for mobile.

We are really focused on making sure customization is a core part of the game: when you equip a piece of gear, it changes how you look and play – weapons change your abilities and play style.

Scott

Coming back to the seven champions, wanting to know how they’re designed will always be an ever present question. “Firstly, it’s from a brand perspective, right?” Scott points out. “A player playing a Marvel game has some expectation that they’re gonna be able to play as, for example, Black Panther, Iron Man, or as Hulk.” The other reason is for gameplay: there are basically three core roles in the game, and the characters chosen will be able to fit into the roles you would “expect” them to be in. Hulk’s bulk makes him the tank, Doctor Strange takes the support role, and Black Panther deals the damage. It’s a mix of the brand, player’s desire to be these characters, as well as gameplay conceits.

Customization also ties into wanting to be a character, with how much emphasis the game has on that. You express yourself through your choice of champion, and the gear you put on them. As they gradually add more characters, you will be able to play who you’d most prefer, in the style you like, to uncover whatever secrets this world has.

The gear is the customization, as you mix and match the stats and skills they have. Scott describes it as building a puzzle, as well as an attainable goal to obtain the specific pieces you want for the style you want to play. Those pieces themselves also have colour variants, making them both style and function! Whether or not there will be skins in the future is not something that can be fully discussed right now since the game isn’t even out yet. It would be interesting to have both the “practical” customization, and the “cosmetic” side, wouldn’t you think?

ADDRESSING THE COMPETITION

You can play both with or against other players in the game, so there needs to be consideration for the matchmaking. Shane reveals that they have developed a proprietary matchmaking system, with each game mode having custom settings. As you play games, the matchmaking ratings in use for the specific modes will update accordingly.

• Stronghold
  • Key metrics: Battle Points, total Champion Rating, Threat Level
    • Threat Level rises when you win games, and lowers on losses
    • Players will be matched to those with the closest matching aspects
• Arena Conquest
  • Key metrics: Battle Points, player roles, Champion Rating, party size, etc.
    • There are other inner workings, of course, to be constantly optimized and help fine-tune teams the best they can

Wins and losses will be the one constant as you play in competitive modes especially, and comeback mechanics would certainly be helpful. What Shane can tell us now is the Battle Point rating system, which adjusts dynamically on wins – to get tougher opponents – and losses – for easier ones. It’s a major component to matchmaking. To ensure you can remain competitive, you’d natirally want to get better gear and improve your Champion Rating so that you can be stronger when fighting those at your Battle Point level.

The nature of the game also means there’ll be players of all stripes, from disconnections due to bad connections or pure rage quits. A reporting system is in place for others to flag down those with egregious behaviour, so that’s one less thing to worry about. An “AFK Protection” system is also in the game, measuring user activity in a mode to detect connected players who aren’t participating. Likewise, match connectivity is also monitored which can be used to mete out penalties depending on a player’s track record, to see fine-tuning over time to minimize such disruptive behaviours. You can at least breathe a little easy knowing what’s in place to improve your game experience with others.

LOOKING TO THE FUTURE

They obviously don’t want to give too much away, but knowing what to expect is also part of the fun to build up that hype, from game modes to the reveals behind the secrets of Battleworld. There’s a Story Codex in the game, where players can learn about locations within the game, besides the story of Battleworld, and the history of the arenas. It’s just the first step, as Scott assures more story content will be coming in the future. The specifics will not be revealed at present, but we will get the juicy lore in time to come.

Look forward to the champions still yet to come, besides the lore which we can assume will be updated over time over their socials and website. Expect more game modes, weapons for champions – gear in general – to change their playstyles to ensure the meta can continuously evolve and thrive, new missions, modes, and all that good stuff. There’s at least 80 years of Marvel history to draw on, which allows for plenty more yet to come.

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In any case, there’s a lot to keep an eye out on in Realm of Champions as we approach the release date. We can keep asking about the other factions within Battleworld, the champions they’ll be fielding in regards to the lore, and of course, all the shiny weapons they will be packing for different experiences on the same champion.

Check out their official website, and stay tuned for more!