Smash Legends Interview: we spoke to the design team behind the fast-paced multiplayer brawler
In case you haven’t been keeping up with our coverage so far, Smash Legends is a real time action multiplayer brawler that comes courtesy of publisher Line Games.
Designed to deliver a simple, fast-paced, gameplay experience, Smash Legends features a distinctive line-up of fairy-tale themed characters as well as 6 versatile co-op and pvp game modes in which to do battle.
Having recently launched on PC, iOS, and Android this week, we got in touch with Smash Legends’ design team to learn how the game received its unique and colourful style and what fans have to look forward to down the road.
The art style of Smash Legends was designed to make it intuitive, easy to recognize and run smoothly even on low-end devices so players from all over the world can enjoy Smash Legends comfortably.
Because our target players are from teens to 30s,we decided on a 2D animation style shading for the graphics so that the design would appear casual, but not ‘too childish’ nor ‘too heavy’.
We also paid special attention to details such as the camera view. For instance, being a 3D quarter-view game, there was an issue with players discerning the height difference of characters, so we placed the camera more closely to the character in a perspective view to create a 3D effect while giving a sense of reality.
We also tried hard to find the optimal size for characters. If the character is too small, it would be hard to immerse into the game; If the character is too big, it would be difficult to understand the situation of the battle.
Taking these considerations into account, we directed the scenes before and after the battle as close-ups of characters, so players can feel each Legend’s characteristics. And during the battle, we make the camera zoom in and out according to the situation so that players can immerse themselves in the fight.
What motivated the decision to base Smash Legends around a fairy-tale theme?Fairy tales are stories which are familiar to all ages, in every country. Our development team always wanted to create characters and stories that many people would love.
We needed a background which our target users (teens to 30s) can understand easily. So we tried to find easy and popular materials.
In order to connect the various myths and fairy-tales into one homogenous theme, we developed a background world called ‘Library world’ and a competition called ‘Smash Legends’ so characters from different stories can get together.
Fairy tales fit perfectly with our theme, and we are planning to add more stories and characters inside the game.
What are the biggest challenges when it comes to designing a game for both PC and mobile?Apart from the technical problems, the most difficult part was balancing the difference between control output between mobile and keyboard. This was especially important as this difference is expected to affect the play performance much more as the player progresses to higher ranks.
To correct these issues, we balanced the control input of the PC and, as a result, we were able to fix the win rate of PC users at a reasonable level.
We also had to worry about matching mobile users with PC users. For instance, FPS games usually separate the matching server between PC and mobile, because of the inherent control output gap.
But, in our case we thought there was no significant difference between the platforms in our game, so we decided to match mobile and PC together.
Of course, there are inevitable issues related to fairness. But we tried to narrow the gap by adjusting each platform’s strength and weakness appropriately.
For example, PC users will have lower pings, faster reactions while mobile users can control 360 degrees using the virtual pad.
Which Legends were your personal favorites to design?Of course we have worked hard with all of the characters, but the most important character we paid attention to was ‘Witch Queen’.
Designing ‘Witch Queen’ was a new challenge. Her background was very interesting and the working process was fun.
We tried to emphasize her ‘Hat’ to maintain her mysterious atmosphere, while showing her gloomy and charismatic characteristic. As a result we were able to design ‘Witch Queen’ as a cool character.
‘Witch Queen’ will emerge as an important character as the story of ‘Smash Legends’ moves forward. Also there will be interesting connections between the main characters.
Another favourite was definitely Master Cat. Most of the characters Ultimate Skill(Ult) mechanic was basically designed as ‘if you damage or get damaged, the Ult gauge fills up, and when it goes MAX, the Ult skill will be ready’.
But Master Cat’s Ult was quite unique because it triggered for a set time when you succeed 3 normal attacks. This concept was first turned down because it didn’t match with the game.
But somehow Master Cat’s Ult mechanic was used in-game, and the reaction was great. Master Cat is a monumental character that opened a new horizon so that even characters with unique mechanics can be used in the game.
Can you give any clues as to what new characters will be making their way to the game?We are preparing characters motivated by various fairy tales from all over the world; not only those that come to mind when people think about famous folktales of Europe, but also myths and legends from various cultures like Asia, South America and Africa.
As such, it will be very interesting finding relations between characters inspired by various stories all around the world.
There are a lot of features currently under development. While we cannot reveal all, we will be happy to hint a few.
To name a few, we are developing custom modes which players can enjoy Smash Legends with their friends, a ranking system which players can compete, and Clan systems for social networks.
Detailed information will be available on our official website before being released, so stay tuned for more.
