Q&A with Oktagon - October Edition (10/25/17)

Brigby

Q&A with Oktagon - October Edition

Hi Everyone,

Several weeks back, we started a discussion thread that requested players submit any questions they'd like Oktagon to answer. We narrowed down a list of the most frequent and hot-button topics, and compiled them together for their review.

Here to present to you their answers is Oktagon's Assistant Producer, Thorben Jensen.

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Who is Oktagon, and what is your vision for Magic, the Gathering: Puzzle Quest (MtGPQ)?

Oktagon Games is one of the leading game development studios in South America and was founded more than 10 years ago. We have worked with Steve Fawkner, the creator of Puzzle Quest, on other titles before and are very excited to directly contribute to the design and execution of Magic: The Gathering - Puzzle Quest.

In relation to our vision for MtGPQ, please allow us to only share the most immediate portion of that vision, and hold the rest for later. We believe that great communication is an essential part of supporting the community, so rest assured that we will proactively provide you with more detail on other specific improvements, closer to the point at which we will be launching those initiatives.

What is your experience with paper Magic the Gathering (MTG), and how will that translate into designing cards for MtGPQ?
We have been avid players of paper MTG for years. As professional game designers and developers, we have also followed Mark Rosewater’s Making Magic Column for a very long time, so you can be sure that our implementation of new card decks will be influenced by him. More importantly, all of our decks flow initially from the Wizards of the Coast designs and balancing of that core game.

Our real avenue of creativity is how we translate that balance into a game with a different combat mechanic. As you might expect, it is a combination of art and science, and the artistic part is dominant. The design challenge of MtGPQ from the beginning is how best to mesh two quite successful gaming franchises in a way that maintains familiarity and accessibility to both audiences without alienating fans of either. Some concessions are frequently necessary to achieve this objective. Some common topics of debate within the studio involve card costs vs. rarity, how to avoid power creep, and which existing cards need to be re-balanced in light of the new card designs released by WOTC.

Are you planning on changing or adjusting the way Events work?
Naturally, we are always looking for improvements, but changes to the events are not the top priorities right now. Some of the factors we will be addressing on existing event design will be improving the objective systems, adjusting boss recharge times, and making scheduling a bit more timezone friendly. After the Booster Crafting System is deployed and balanced, we will also be expanding the variety of event types.

What is the team’s prioritization like when it comes to upcoming or new features?
We have just finished scheduling events through the end of the year and doing a broad based code/design review of both the client and server side of the game. Initially we are intent on finishing the Booster Crafting System that you have been patiently awaiting for so long. We are getting close on that, expecting to deploy it prior to the holidays.

The second priority is to catch up to paper MTG`s set release schedule. Third, we are in an early design stage of some new features related to story, cosmetic changes, game modes, as well as quality-of-life changes to the UI. Once these three priorities are complete, we will move on to potential improvements for the code/design review mentioned above.

How does Oktagon handle content testing and bug-fixing?
We understand that balancing new content is extremely important to the game, therefore we are actively working on a revised process to test and balance new cards, relative to existing older cards. Rest assured that new cards will not be developed in a vacuum.

Our QA Team is always searching for problems or potential exploits. Once identified, our Engineers give immediate priority to fixing those problems that can, or do, negatively affect your experience in the game. If you encounter an issue at any time, please notify us in the game forums and we will keep you and the community informed of our progress toward resolving those issues.\

How does Oktagon plan on communicating with the player base?
The lifeblood of any successful game is an active and engaged community. We will, together with D3 Go!, be scheduling monthly open Q&A sessions to clear any doubts you, the players, may have.
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And there you have it: the first completed Q&A session with the new development team, Oktagon Games!

As mentioned above, this will be a monthly Q&A session. Just like the October Edition, I will post a thread at the beginning of the month, requesting questions from the community. After a week has gone by, we will close the thread, and compile the Q&A list for Oktagon's review. Once they have provided us their answers, we will get it ready for posting on the last week of the month!

Please let us know if you have any questions, comments, or concerns. We hope you enjoyed this first round of Q&A!