Making of Quandary - MPQ Blog

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MARVEL Puzzle Quest’s New Mysterious Boss

The 10th Anniversary of MARVEL Puzzle Quest marks a new milestone and plenty of firsts – the next being Quandary, the first wholly-original character and newest addition to our ever-growing cast of Super Heroes and Super Villains!

Shrouded in mystery - they’re a force to be reckoned with. Secrecy is the name of the game and Quandary lives in the unknown. Quandary is not revealing their hand just yet and neither is the creative team (no spoilers). Nevertheless, there’s much to be said about the work going on behind the release of our newest event with the god of the unknown, Quandary, right in the center. A force for evil? A force for good? Something in-between? Only time will tell and you never know where she might crop up next.

Brand New PVE Event

For Quandary’s introduction to MPQ, we wanted to offer something interesting to both newer and experienced players so we’ve created our first new PvE event for their debut!

Diving into "The Labyrinth”, we’re doing a few things differently with this event so that everyone can participate and enjoy the new content together:

• First, the level of enemies in this PvE will be comparable to the campaign missions; we want to make sure everyone has a chance to jump in!
• Second, we’ll be offering a flat reward structure - everyone will be eligible for the same rewards as long as you complete the event!
• Finally, we’ve designed a number of unique puzzle abilities for this event; you’ll need to keep a close eye on the board and your enemy to discover the solution to each 😎 quandary 😎

Following the PvE event, we’ll be releasing a brand-new Boss event for Quandary. We’re excited to finally release Quandary and we hope you have a lot of fun with their events as we kick off the MARVEL Puzzle Quest 10th Anniversary celebration!

Now over to our fantastic art team and our resident Art Director, Amber Ansdell!

Quandary’s Design

Hey all! We on the art team pulled out all the stops for this latest event, which involved switching up how we tackle some of the brand-new character and boss content production side. For context, many of our heroes utilize 1-2 artists per character throughout the process of conceptualizing and illustrating a new character for release. These artists work closely with the Art Director as well as our collaborators at Marvel Games in order to brainstorm ideas, consult with one another on canon, and address any thoughts or feedback that come from discussion. This is the case for every character that we’ve released for MARVEL Puzzle Quest.

However, for Quandary's up and coming event, we’ve opened up the floor to multiple artists and collaborated with more voices at Marvel which has made this a collaboration involving many fiercely talented and passionate folks. From concept and animation, to lore crafting and comic synergy, there’s been countless hours poured into the upcoming release of Quandary.

Each artist who worked on Quandary’s concept, design, and illustrations brought something unique to the table and were able to iterate on many facets of Quandary as a character. Speaking to the creative process, MPQ artist Heather Schwartz writes-

“I helped with some initial exploration sketches for Quandary, and it was a lot of fun to explore all the different ways that we could create a mysterious Super Villain. We had a blast experimenting with all manner of ideas including neon lights, glitch effects, cyberpunk fashion, and flashy, colorful magic fx – all aesthetics that I personally love. We eventually settled on one of Michelle's initial designs for the all-powerful Puzzle Master and it was really rewarding fine-tuning the elegant gold armor and dark leather costuming and guiding them towards a final form. The glowing, iridescent arm was the cherry on top for me. It was a unique experience getting to help create a brand new, original character, especially one specific to MPQ, and I'm very happy with how she turned out.”

Speaking on conveying Quandary’s personality and overall feel, MPQ artist Michelle Martinez adds-

“It was awe-inspiring having the opportunity to be a contributing concept artist on Quandary. When we first started designing, we were asked to come up with several different directions for their design. Initially when designing them, I wanted them to always be in control and one step ahead of the situation at all times. I wanted them to feel mysterious and powerful. I chose the gold and black with color accent and art deco design motifs to help emphasize their elegance and the solid gold mask adds to the mystery of who she is. As the design of the character developed, so did her story. As the team developed her background and abilities, we made changes to the overall design. The final result of Quandary is from a lot of concept iterations and discussions. I am honored to be a part of the process. The whole team put in an immense amount of work and I am so happy with the final design. I am so excited to have Quandary finally in the hands of the players!”

Speaking on the graphic elements and character costuming, MPQ artist Omar Field-Rahmen breaks down his thought process-

“Creating an original Super Villain in the Marvel Universe for MARVEL Puzzle Quest allowed us to find a unique voice within our game's lore. We wanted to find a new direction for our mysterious Super Villain that combined a certain level of Modern aesthetics, elegance, and danger. For this, we looked towards high fashion influences, particularly within the couture New York fashion industry, to find bold shape design whilst keeping a chic, work wear sensibility to make Quandary feel like a powerful and intelligent threat. It was a fun creative exercise finding ways we could incorporate the visual cues from MARVEL Puzzle Quest into her costuming. Gold trim and details across her clothing with the iconography from the game gave us a way to design a character that fans of the game would notice while still feeling integrated as a real design element rather than a gimmick. I'm excited that all the hand work we put into Quandary paid off, creating a formidable opponent for our players.”

The 10th anniversary marks the beginning of a new era of MPQ and with it the emergence of Quandary, the denizen of puzzlement, a god of many forms, and a reckoning to shake the boundaries of the MARVEL Puzzle Quest universe. We on the team are so excited to jump into this new era with you and uncovering the mysteries it has in store!