Hello and welcome to a special Black Friday edition of Burning Questions! By the time you read this, I'll already be home from my 6 am trip to the Lego store to try to get the new Star Trek Enterprise Lego set (and exclusive gift with purchase!). I've been saving a little every month since it was first rumored. This week in Snap has been buggier than usual, but there's still plenty to be thankful for! Let's dive in!
1) What is up with all the bugs?
If the game has been feeling a little buggier than usual, you're not alone. I've seen even more complaints lately, and I've had trouble building decks myself! What's going on?
Following the November 18th Patch, many users were experiencing frequent crashes and long load times. Then, on the 19th, there was a behind-the-scenes hotfix.
The first thing I noticed afterwards was the incredibly fast start-up! Opening the game has been taking longer and longer, so this was a pleasant surprise. However, many users, myself included, were barely able to load the deck-building screen and were unable to add or remove cards from decks without significant lag or crashes. Users on iOS were experiencing freezes. On the 24th, there was finally another hotfix.
However, I'm still seeing many bug reports and crashes, and I'm still having trouble myself. I'm not one of the people who complain that Marvel Snap is too expensive, but the cost we pay monthly to play should buy us a far less buggy game. Hopefully, these issues will be addressed soon. Sound off in the comments to share your own recent experience!
2) What are you thankful for about Marvel Snap right now?
After a bit of a sour first topic, let's turn to something sweeter and find some positives. Here is a list of what I'm thankful for in Marvel Snap.
- LTGM variety - We're hitting critical mass on game modes where there is something for everyone. Even if you don't love Sanctum (my personal favorite, but probably not the most popular), there are modes to appeal to different types of players. Plus, we're getting a really cool-looking run of Grand Arena and Team Clash coming very soon, giving us alternative ways to play with the most popular characters.
- Commissioned artists - My favorite art in the game usually comes from working artists that Second Dinner commissions for Snap art, and we've gotten a fantastic crop of such art recently. Artists like Brett Bean, Derrick Chew, James Ryman, and Lee Chiola have had some bangers lately, and they continue to commission art from fan-favorites like Dan Hipp and Peach Momoko. I'm thankful they make an effort to continue featuring the most popular artists while adding new ones for us to enjoy.
- Flavorful gameplay - I am a sucker for elegant game design. Still, I also love when there are little nods to the source material in the game, and any comic book-y flavor is particularly special to me. The mirrored similarities between Hydro Man and Sandman, the Spider characters' links to swinging, and characters with healing factors tied to destruction and regeneration are just recent examples of what Second Dinner's always done well. Continuing to make these flavorful choices enhances the experience.
3) What's on your Marvel Snap shopping list?
Have a few extra bucks to buy something nice for yourself? Here are my favorite upcoming cash bundles this holiday shopping season!
The best "value" cash bundles, currently or datamined, are generally $50 and $100. However, there are a couple more reasonably priced bundles, including a solid "winterverse" bundle again this year.
Now, let's hop over to the official Marvel Snap Discord and grab a couple of developer questions and answers.
4) Question:
This is a question about themes in card design. I would view skills as spells (astral projection) or an action taken (deafening chord). But gear seems to be all over the place. Cerebro is a character, Hulk Buster is a character that is "equipped" on another character but Flight harness is a skill (It should be more like Hulk Buster in my mind).
Why this inconsistency? Were some of e.h. the prowler kit ever tried to be non-skills?
Answer:
The early distribution of creative concepts didn't take into account some directions we might've wanted to go into the future. No big deal, very common in CCGs. As a digital game, perhaps one day we'll sort that out.
We did debate whether Prowler's should be more action-oriented, because we knew we wanted them to be skills—as "normal" cards, they'd both be repetitive with Kate Bishop and also gunk up movement for decks we liked him in. But naming them after actions captured less of the fantasy: "Kinetic Slam" or whatever might be fine for the Gauntlets, but we were less excited about "Take Flight" or "Mine Trap" and decided to just use the item names.
-Glenn
Scosco's Note:
It's too constraining to have all Skills strictly be "skills." My preference would be for them to lean into the source material as much as possible for the standalone skills. I definitely agree that something like "Take Flight" is way less flavorful than Flight Harness, so I think they've made the best decision with Prowler. Upcoming cards are more mixed. I love that we're getting a card called "Fastball Special," but look a bit side-eyed at the "skill" of Adamantium Infusion, while I think Majestic Wingbeat is just awful.
5) Question:
About 6 months ago, a team response said that global matchmaking was pushed back / delayed due to the self publishing that took place and the team working on global matchmaking was needed for that, is there any update that can be provided for global matchmaking?
Answer:
It's still something we'd like to enable, but we're not actively working on it right now after encountering some blockages and finding higher-priority assignments for engineering.
-Glenn
Scosco's Note:
This is a real shame as it's near the top of my wishlist for Marvel Snap. A global queue could help with not issues and leaderboard integrity while adding variety to the opponents we face. Hopefully, they circle back to this soon.
That's it for this week! Eat your fill and buy some cool stuff, but be sure to get outside this weekend! Find me on social media for more Marvel Snap and comics talk!