Hello again fellow Sentinels fans! We know it’s been a while since we talked about the SotM video game for iOS and Android tablets, but we have something to show you (and only you) today.
First of all, thanks for all your feedback and support so far! Your comments on the prototype video were really helpful in letting us know what the fans really want from a SotM video game. More than anything else, the biggest question in our minds (and probably in yours) is “how do you take a game as expansive as Sentinels of the Multiverse and fit it on a tablet screen?” Starting today, we’ll begin to show you how we plan to do so, starting with the player screen.
There are a couple of disclaimers up front. The images posted below are not “in engine,” but Photoshop mockups. That being said, we are currently part way through implementing the first iteration of what you see here. We expect (but can’t guarantee) that we’ll have some actual in-engine gameplay to show you by the end of May. Secondly, you might remember that we promised to have you “playing in the environment” when we showed off the gameplay prototype a few months ago. That is still our goal, but the environment art you see here is just lifted as-is from the card game. We’re hard at work on the real environments but none is close enough to show off yet.
In the first concept screenshot below, the game is a number of rounds in. It’s the Wraith’s turn. The heroes are a little beat up, and Legacy has been incapacitated. Since it’s the Wraith’s turn, you can see her play area fully. You can also see the villain and environment cards in play. To quickly see another hero’s play area you just tap their panel - as seen in the second concept screenshot.
Below that, we’ve included an “annotated screenshot” to give you a slightly better idea of what’s going on if you haven’t worked it all out for yourself. Keep in mind that this is a concept and a work in progress, so many things are in flux, such as icon design & precise card layout.
You’ve probably noticed that the cards don’t look exactly like SotM cards on this screen. We’ve taken this approach in order to display as much important information as possible on this screen. At any point, you will be able to bring up a “full card” from any card you see (possibly a double tap, possibly tap-and-hold, we’re still working out the details). This will show you the card exactly as it exists in the card game, with a couple cool things you can’t do in the physical world like calculating (H) values automatically.
As I mentioned above, this is the “player screen.” This is what you will see during a player turn. Villain turns and environment turns will look a bit different, but we’ll get to those another time.
You may have noticed that this looks suspiciously like 2 pages of an open comic book and that’s not by accident. The most common compliment of Sentinels of the Multiverse is that “it feels like playing a comic book” and we are very interested in supporting that feeling.
Thanks for taking a look, we can’t wait to hear what you think!
(Click to bring up a larger version)
