At PAX East this weekend we got the chance to chat with the team at Ship of Heroes. The team continues to build out the game and is working on a challenging and fun game which heralds back to the City of Heroes days.
Talking with Casey McGeever about the project, he was able to tell us a clear timeline in which the game has been progressing from a development standpoint. Their timeline is very important to fans and Casey has been working directly with the community to make sure all the information is available. Casey highlighted the Combat Alpha which the team just successfully tested. Now that this step is behind the team they are setting up to focus on network testing and making sure players can login without issues. As they prep for that design, the team plans to start testing out their raid system sometime in the third quarter of this year. Casey explained that everything is still being worked on, but remains open to fans for updates and any schedule changes.
The team has set high standards to begin working on more highlight effects or as they call them “popcornFX” for the game. This combined with new powers and more importantly new costumes for players to explore. We went in depth with Casey about how customization is missing from a lot of games this year. The team wants to make sure that players have enough pieces on their hero to set them apart and allow them to build their own designs. So many games sell skins now, that there is little mix and match on the market. City of Heroes was known for the in depth customization system and Ship of Heroes plans to meet that high standard.
As the team works on new abilities and designs they want to continue their positive feedback with the community. Casey highlighted the player polling they have been doing on their site and how helpful it has been for design. The polls and metrics combined with the deadlines they have set for the team create a great atmosphere of collaboration which allows the developers to set and achieve their goals. The next goal Casey has on the list is the Network Test which will ensure that players can get into the game and exist in the environment without issues.
Casey also mentioned that the team is testing Day/Night cycles for the game. They are working on adding in a new power set for players too. The power set will be based around the healing dynamics. As the game comes into more structure it will be much easier to add in these features. Casey was very about the power sets and remains open to discussing how to balance them with fans.
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With all this great news coming. Ship of Heroes has a solid timeline they plan to follow. In May and June they are looking at balancing one of their power sets and planning for raid preparations. They also are working on a network of villains that really mean something for the players to battle. Casey wants to build an ecosystem to encourage the community to battle together. Raids will be a big part of that.
Ship of Heroes continues a solid development cycle and the team continues to work with fans to build a great game. As PAX East hosted a lot of independent titles hopefully we see more with Ship of Heroes out there and making the rounds at shows. For now follow all the updates at the team’s site and feel free to give feedback on their polls!
