Interviews// Infinite Crisis

SPOnG: But ultimately with a MOBA the centre of attention is not with the player, but with the creepers [automated units]. How is that replicated in Infinite Crisis as the players are controlling super-heroes/villains?

JS: You're talking about the drones, yes? Well the characters are fighting in a world where there are lots of other people and things in it, so they are basically using the environment to their advantage.

So you can refer to them as armies or creepers but they are really drones on each team's side to even the odds between them to drive more dynamics into the game, so that it is not a constant 1v1 series of exchanges during each match. We don't spend too much time going through a convoluted story context for why this is, but it is very important that players must feel they are as much part of the environment as everything else.

That's why the way the drones come about is based on what the player is doing. So the drones are more reactive to the player's activities as they are causing them to happen. At the end of the day it just adds dimension to the strategy of the map. The drones are like little chess pieces that make things a little more complicated as the player tries to figure out how they're going to take control of the map. The drones are but a small part of what's actually happening on the map.


SPOnG: So you're saying that in the case of Infinite Crisis the player's are not the facilitators of the battle, which runs against how most MOBAs function?

JS: When you say 'facilitators', yes players are part of the siege that is the ultimate end goal of a match and both sides are focused on that. But in Infinite Crisis we have broken it down into other interactive events that are just as important as the siege itself.

Taking control of certain objectives turns the tide of a battle significantly, such as by creating tougher and more powerful drones that do so much to increasing the firepower of the side that succeeded in capturing the installation that creates them. This allows teams to choose different strategies on how to approach a map. We are still (seeing) new tactics being employed in some of our older maps as the evolution of play continues apace.

We also try to take a little bit of pressure off the players at the beginning of the match, because we're cognisant of the fact that we have a lot of people coming to play because they are attracted to DC comics. They, however, may or may not have experience with MOBAs. So certain things like spending a significant amount of time in the beginning just figuring out that the player needs to mine for credits so that they can have the currency to enhance their character. When people play a MOBA for the first time they spend a lot of time wondering why they are not advancing and not getting any more powerful in the game.

Every time a player kills a drone it drops credits and the player collects it by walking over it. Like many MOBAs, the last hit brings it to the player, but it's not a major mechanic that the player needs to learn in order to farm credits. We want players to move past credit collecting quickly so that they can focus on playing as part of a team. We still wanted to keep that mechanic of MOBAs in Infinite Crisis as players like it and want to use it to farm credits.


SPOnG: With most MOBAs, the style of play demands the player holds back and does not expose themselves too much to danger for fear of 'feeding' [boosting the opposing team with experience points] the opposing team. How does that fit with the superhero/villain motif of Infinite Crisis?

JS: Once players start playing Infinite Crisis they become cognisant of the fact that they are playing a superhero/villain and will want to charge into pushing each lane towards the opposing team's base. But there are these additional objectives that require players to come together as a team in order for them to fight. I think it is about the team's fighting and less about pushing the lanes that sets Infinite Crisis apart.

But the most important thing and the thing teams will expending most of their energies on is the aggressive team fights. One team against the other team has nothing to do with the drones as they are there as a means to end the siege. The objectives on the maps are cyclic and they therefore have a timer placed against them before they can be triggered. The Dooms-day device for example has a recharge period of around 9 minutes before it can be fired again. Therefore there are moments where a match can be turned around based on the triggering of these objectives, regardless of how ahead or behind a team is.