What's Your Gam3? #34

Welcome

Welcome to What’s Your Gam3? My aim with everything I do is to introduce you to new games! As I continue to improve the newsletter, all feedback is gratefully received. Now, let’s see what has happened this week.

What’s That Gam3? [review]

You can join me live as I play new games on Twitch! Alternatively, you’ll find edited versions of my playthroughs on my YouTube channel. [Don’t forget to follow and subscribe].

Fableborne

TLDR: 

• Easy onboarding

• Enjoyable difficulty curve

• It treads the line between good frustration and just frustrating

• Clean graphics and animations

• We are starting to see more variety of maps to increase replayability

• Heroes offer different playstyles

How to play

• Playable on mobile

• Free to play [Time gated]

Game Loop

• The game has offered different modes during the various time-gated playtests

• For all modes, the core loop is pretty similar, just the goal, which changes.

• Loading in, you have two heroes: Glint, the heavy tank, and Rift, the high-damage mage.

  

• The map consists of 2 or 3 rooms

• Each room is populated with a range of NPCs to defeat

• Your arsenal consists of a basic attack and four special attacks

• Depending on which hero you are running alters these attacks

• Each attack has a re-fill timer; once used, you must wait for them to be ready again.

• The rooms are consistent in size; however, the layout changes depending on the level, with varying obstacles added.

  

• You have a health bar; if it reaches 0, the run is over, and you must restart from the beginning.

• Each run has a set time limit to complete all the rooms.

• At the end of the run, you are rewarded with gold and gems

• These are used to upgrade your units and heroes

• The upgrades increase your base stats

Game feel

• The graphics and animations are clear, engaging, and consistent throughout all the art.

• The feedback from attack and receiving damage has a “feel” to it, making the fights feel active.

• The obstacles added to the rooms increase the variety from the initial playtest. However, I am hoping they continue to add more variety to avoid it feeling stale quickly.

• Having varied enemy combinations and an expanded enemy pool allows for different strategies in each room.

• It has a delicate balance between fun frustration and stop-playing frustration.

• All the skills of having timers can be a little underwhelming if you spam everything and are left running around waiting for moves to come back online. This could be a skill issue, but I always like to have something to do with mobile games.

• Competitive leaderboards create a great sense of competition and increase community interaction. In chats, there was a lot of trash-talking.

  

Rating

• Frustrating yet fun

• Clean graphics and animations

• Maps enough variety for the time open, will need more variety when fully open.

• Leaderboards added a great sense of competition

• Each map is short and bite-sized

• I enjoyed the game and would recommend playing it

Web3 integration

• The project has Primordials NFTs on eth.

  

What's Your Gam3? Ep. 87 - Raven Quest - Every Tuesday 8.30pm UTC+1

Background and Career

Founders and Roles:

• Nicholas Knight, CEO of Tavern Light Games and creative director on Raven Quest.

• Matt, CMO at Raven Quest, is working closely with Nicholas.

Project Focus:

• Raven Quest is a pixel-based MMORPG developed over eight years, building on the success of Raven Dawn.

• Launched in January with 20,000 monthly active users through organic marketing and a modest budget.

Game Overview: Raven Quest

Game Concept:

• It is a pixel-based MMORPG with a dynamically changing world, a player-driven economy, and rich lore.

• Offers open-world exploration by land or sea, extensive player customization, and diverse gameplay systems.

Key Features:

• Open-world housing and land management.

• Multiple PvP and PvE modes including arenas, battlegrounds, and dynamic events.

• A classless system allows players to customize their characters with different archetypes, weapons, and Raven cards.

Web3 Integration

Blockchain Elements:

• Uses blockchain to create a secure and transparent player-driven economy.

• Allows players to own and trade in-game assets safely.

Community Engagement:

• Strong focus on building and maintaining an active and engaged community.

• Emphasizes transparency and ethical practices in the Web3 space.

Development Philosophy and Approach

Game Design:

• Balances fun and monetization with a player-centered design.

• Emphasizes creating a unique and immersive experience with deep gameplay systems.

Web3 Adaptation:

• Sees MMORPGs as naturally fitting for Web3 due to their player-driven economies and long-term engagement.

• Aims to create a safe and accessible environment for trading and player interactions.

Future Vision and Industry Trends

Upcoming Features:

• The first expansion on the Web2 side will be released soon. It will introduce new systems for player progression, such as the Adventures Board.

• Plans for full game release in the fall, with an early access event on August 29th.

Long-Term Goals:

• Aims to pioneer the future of crypto gaming with a proven Web2 foundation adapted for Web3.

• Focused on building a sustainable and engaging game that stands the test of time.

Personal Insights and Community Building

Player Engagement:

• Believes in the importance of community in MMORPGs for long-term player retention.

• Utilizes Discord and social media to keep the community informed and engaged.

Development Journey:

• Shares the challenges and rewards of transitioning from Web2 to Web3, highlighting the passion and potential in the Web3 space.

Contact and Follow-Up

How to Get Involved:

• Follow Tavern Light Games and Raven Quest on social media for updates and community events.

• Join the Discord server to participate in discussions and gain early access to the game.

Catch up on all previous episodes on YouTube.

Don’t forget to join us next week!

Thanks for making it to the end. That is all the new games for this week. Do you know any games you’d like to hear more about? Let me know.

Remember to tell your friends about What’s Your Gam3? Otherwise, they’ll hate you for letting them miss out on all the new games.

Remember to play games you enjoy!