Pictured above: Sergi Berjano, producer at Ubisoft Barcelona
How do you differentiate it from other titles in the same genre? I would say that we have worked really hard on the production value: our graphics are shiny! Our talented team designed all 400 creatures with a lot of love and care, from spell design, to the art style and the animations. This is one of the most praised aspect by our players. Gameplay-wise, we do offer the avatar system. A fully customisable character, in appearance and gameplay, which can greatly influence the outcome of the battle. In addition, we have the newly released Guild feature. We do believe that the Guild collaborative quests we offer is a strong feature and we do have big plans to enhance this feature even further. Lastly, augmented reality brings a whole new layer in the game. Players can take snapshots or selfies with their favourite creatures by their side. They can also choose to play PvP battles in augmented reality.
In terms of design, how did you find a balance between trying to satisfy longstanding fans of the franchise and being welcoming to newcomers? We want every Might & Magic fan to enjoy the game, thanks to its faithfulness to the saga and the huge work that has been done to replicate on mobile the key components of the Might & Magic universe. Since the game is both accessible and complex, it completely fits with newcomers who never played any title of the series and RPG mobile gamers. Even though we introduced big changes in regards to art style, we always had the fans in mind. We shared our vision and the game early on with some of them during soft launch and we took note of their feedback. Even if the first reaction from some of them was not overly positive at the start, they changed their opinion after playing a bit and we are proud of that!
What made you want to include an AR mode? Is there a key gameplay reason, or is it just to make it stand out? To be completely frank, it started as gimmick feature from the team but finally ended up into something great. All players are now praising the AR mode. It also has a big potential for social: pictures sharing, competitions and so on. After seeing what the first parties like Apple and Google have in mind for their AR technology, we are also very excited to see what we will be able to do with the upcoming AR features, like the shared environments. Stay tuned!
What are your expectations and ambitions in the longer term for Might & Magic: Elemental Guardians? We are planning to support the game as long as players keep playing it! The updates will include free additional content such as new levels, new creatures, new events, but we also plan to add many other elements that we hope will please our players. We have big plans for the future and we will follow the same strategy as we did during soft launch. We are going to listen to the player’s feedback and include it in our production roadmap.
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