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Our First Year of Power
- DE
- PL
First Steps
We are thrilled to celebrate the one-year anniversary of Masters of the Universe: Battleground! It has been an exciting and rewarding journey to see players from all around Europe engage in battles and create their own stories on the battlefield. When we first started working on this game, I never imagined the level of interest and passion it would generate among gamers. As I reflect on the past year, I am grateful for the opportunity to bring this vision to life and for the support of the community that has made it all possible.
From Preternia to the Evil Horde
In the year since the release, we have been hard at work developing new content to keep the game fresh and exciting. Wave 1 introduced four fan favourite characters - Sorceress, Teela, Beast-Man and Scareglow, while Wave 2 added a very anticipated game mode where players could hunt a ferocious dinosaur. Wave 3 then introduced even more characters, followed by Wave 4, which added a whole new faction - The Evil Horde - complete with their own characters to learn,and strategies to master. And finally, our latest addition Wave 5 added basic soldiers to all factions. We are proud of the way these expansion packs have expanded the possibilities of our game and provided players with new challenges and experiences to enjoy. But you all know that stuff, don’t you? Let's discuss something different.
The Ballad of Evil-Lyn
As I sit down to write this blog post, I find myself pondering what interesting topics I can explore as we reflect on the past year. While there are many aspects of the game's development that I could discuss, I thought it might be interesting to take a closer look at one of the characters from our starter set and how she evolved throughout the development process. So, let's delve into the evolution of one of the most iconic characters – Evil-Lyn.
Evil-Lyn’s statistics remained relatively unchanged over time. However, her Shared Power skill underwent significant revisions and improvements. In its initial iteration it looked like this:
Version 1 - Danse Macabre: Before Evil-Lyn makes a defence test, she may spend up to 5 Mana and add 1 extra Dice to this test per Mana spent.
We had big plans for Evil-Lyn, hoping to create a character with a wide range of potential playstyles. By allowing players to choose how they spent her Mana, she could become either a potent damage dealer, capable of unleashing powerful attacks with Shadow Strike, or a surprisingly resilient tank, soaking up damage with her defensive capabilities. However, in practice, this approach didn't work out. Players almost always opted to go all-in on attacks, leaving poor Ram-Man to suffer the brunt of their fury. It quickly became clear that a change was needed. As a result, we made the tough decision to retire Evil-Lyn's original skill and replace it with something that better reflected her playstyle and character.
Version 2 - Shared Power (Old): Test Power against the Mind of an ally within 16'': 1
Evil-Lyn's second ability, should allow her to trade one wound for four points of Mana (three, if we consider the cost of activating the skill itself). While this mechanic had some clever synergy with Skeletor's Havoc Staff, it ultimately proved to be an underwhelming tradeoff. Players found the exchange to be too steep, and the ability didn't provide enough utility to justify its inclusion in the game. This idea simply didn't make the cut.
Version 3 - Shroud of Darkness: Place a Mark within 16''. Spells and ranged attacks coming through an area within 3 hexes from the mark have scope decreased by 1.
Despite our best efforts, Evil-Lyn's third ability failed to resonate with players as we had hoped. While it looked impressive on paper, in practice it simply wasn't utilized as much as we had anticipated. Worse still, this iteration of Evil-Lyn felt like a pale imitation of Skeletor - a budget version of the game's primary villain. We knew we had to do something drastic to make the character more viable and unique. In the end, we made the difficult decision to pivot Evil-Lyn's role to that of a support character, a choice that has since become a defining aspect of her playstyle. Additionally, we passed her old skills onto other characters like Orko and Scareglow, allowing us to repurpose those mechanics in ways that felt more engaging and effective.
Masters of the Universe: Battleground will be celebrating its first anniversary with exciting surprises for fans. The team is working on a surprise, which will be revealed with the premiere of Wave 6. Additionally, there will be special promotions on our online store. Fans are encouraged to follow the game's social media channels for updates on the anniversary celebrations. Archon Studio would like to thank their loyal fans for their support and is looking forward to another year of epic battles in the game!
