Welcome to Devblog #15! So much has happened since our last post and we’re excited to share the latest updates. The start of testing marks a significant milestone and we’ve been working around the clock iterating on feedback and implementing new features for testers to get their hands on.
In this update, we’ll provide insight into the current state of the game and outline our plans for future improvements.
State of Play
TCGs and Pet battling games historically share the same particular limitation. They often play out in a flat and linear manner, where players have a hard limit on the creative decisions they can make when overcoming an opponent’s strategy at a higher level of play.
Typically, a player is trying to set up their win condition (defined by their ‘deck’) without paying much attention to their opponent’s actions. As a result, repeated matches against players that employ heavily optimized decks/strategies often feel indistinguishable from one another. The game’s outcome may feel predetermined by the pure strength & strategic matchup of the ‘decks’ being brought to the table.
Pixl Pet’s design is focused on ensuring a high level of player agency throughout the course of a match; we aim to achieve a sense of control and expression that you’d commonly see in a fighting game or MOBA.
Our formula for disrupting this long-standing pattern within the genre stems directly from its roots.
We recall watching the original Pokémon animation and enjoying battles where, at a critical moment Ash would shout “Pikachu, Dodge their attack and use Thunderbolt!”.
The additional command to Dodge (or Jump, Duck, Dive), has been completely lost in translation to traditional Pet battling gameplay!
We’re bringing it back, and by bringing it back, we’re restoring the ability to actively respond to your opponent’s actions, just like in the anime. The best Pixl Pet trainers will actively predict their opponent’s moves, and can drastically alter the outcome of the battle by doing so.
Pixl Pets will thrive by striking a new balance between the moment to moment decision-making of piloting your Pets in combat alongside the unique strategies you theory-craft while building your team.
Battling is more than throwing your strongest attacks at each other to see who has the highest numbers, every turn there is the potential for your decisions to entirely mitigate the offense of your opponent, or, to punish your opponent’s defence, up to doubling your damage for that turn.
The numbers certainly matter — having the right Pets in your collection makes a critical difference, but paying close attention and making smart moves in a moment of battle can overcome an advantaged opponent when it matters most.
Testing Outcomes
Two community focus group tests took place with dramatically different game builds; the first on May 11th, the second on June 11th. Invites will be sent out shortly to the next wave of testers for our third session after the launch of this dev blog.
Our initial test was focused on gathering first impressions of the foundational systems that drive our combat system. Despite encountering stability issues with the build, we were pleasantly surprised that players were, in a single session, able to see the potential for depth provided by the game’s core systems.
Otherwise, the majority of the feedback received from the test was in-line with our expectations, e.g. UX/UI difficulties, control issues, known bugs with system mechanics etc. Many of which solutions existed for, but complications prevented them from being in the test build.
Despite this early build being a mere skeleton of our comprehensive plans, we left the test confident that our base systems were solid and workable.
The second test solved many of the build’s stability issues, as well as adding auxiliary combat systems such as Energy, Glitch Commands & Pet Swapping.
The improved stability and featured combat lead to us receiving valuable feedback on the PvP combat experience itself. We were happy to see testers attempting a variety of strategies right off the bat, and, on top of that, the first glimmer of ‘fighting game-esque’ mind games began to emerge.
However with some of the auxiliary mechanics that were added in this test, some of their counteractive parts were not available to more effectively balance out the polarity of the interactions. In some situations, this would end up with less than ideal pacing outcomes which are addressed in the upcoming tests.
The upcoming test should bring us significantly closer to a balanced experience. We’ll be addressing the aforementioned issue, as well as dramatically tuning the Cooldown & Energy cost of every move available in the test build.
Beyond designing and balancing the game’s systems, there’s one key area we’re always working to improve. The impact this area has on every player’s experience, and on the quality of the feedback we receive cannot be underestimated…
UX/UI, The Never-ending Journey
One of the main barriers we face in creating a more-complex-than-average combat system, is how do we make sure that Players have all the information they need to make informed decisions without a visually overwhelming UI that is guaranteed to create a negative first impression.
In tackling this challenge, we continuously iterate over ideas, testing new colours, new icons, new buttons and even new perspectives. Here are some of the mock-ups from this ongoing process!
A key tool in our toolbox for dealing with this issue is Dynamic UI. Shifting the information being displayed based on soft Player input e.g. hovering a mouse cursor, holding down or swiping a finger, helps keep all information on screen maximally relevant to the Player.
From a development perspective, we’ve jokingly called Pixl Pets ‘UX/UI the game’. We say this because we are going above and beyond to ensure the play-experience remains focused entirely on the complex and interesting decisions player’s have to make each and every match, without feeling overwhelmed by the breadth of the information that goes into making those decisions.
A New World, A New Name… A Relaunch?
If you’re in the Pixl Labs Discord, or have been paying close attention to Wab’s twitter, you may have heard the news already, but in case you missed it, Pixl Pets is getting a fresh coat of paint, and much more.
We want to make sure Pixl Pets is in the best possible position for wider appeal and adoption. To us, this means:
- A new Name
- A new World
- A great Story
- A phenomenal Trailer.
There has always been a surprising amount of lore and worldbuilding involved in the process of designing and creating Pixl Pets. Until the relaunch, there haven’t been many avenues for us to share it with you. So we’re very excited to begin revealing more and more information about this world; what are Deity pets? What is ‘the glitch’, and how are Trainers harnessing its power?
As for the name, a new name has already been chosen, but it will remain unannounced until the Trailer launch, sorry!
We can’t share many more details on this right now, but please know that the relaunch will be the start of a new and exciting era for Pixl Pets. You can expect to see a significant marketing push around this coming in the near future.
Opening up the Testing Pool
We are almost ready to dramatically increase the number of testers beyond our initial focus group!
We feel that with the coming round of visual improvements and some additional polish on some of the fresher core systems e.g. energy/glitch commands, the game will be ready to be seen and played by a larger audience.
This won’t happen all at once as we’ve detailed in previous posts, but the first group of people we’re looking at to get access to testing is rightfully our Founders Pass Holders and core ecosystem participants.
Conclusion
We’re excited to be taking the next steps on this journey with even more of you being directly involved, and we’re looking forward to all of your thoughts and feedback. Everyone here has the opportunity to shape the future of Pixl Pets and your input and support is invaluable to us as we continue refining the game.
We hope this development update has provided you with a clear understanding of the game’s current status and our plans for future improvements. Please feel free to chat with us and ask any questions you may have. We will do our best to provide answers and address your concerns.
Stay tuned for more exciting updates in the near future!
