Ever since Spacelords launched as a free to play adventure in shooter form, the MercurySteam development team understood that the game’s unique proposition would attract a particular kind of player — one who wanted to experiment something beyond the more traditional formulas found in the genre. We have always maintained, both in previous Xbox Wire blog entries and in our own social media channels, that community feedback was key to the game’s success, and that the players input should, and would, have an impact over the future of Spacelords.
In many occasions, players have requested new features or gameplay adjustments that were totally aligned with what the studio had already planned to implement; something that speaks volumes of our community’s understanding of the game and reassured us about going in the right direction. But sometimes you find surprises along the way. Lovely surprises, but difficult to address too.
When Spacelords’ third campaign, Hades Betrayal, was released, the Raiders faced their most fearsome foe yet: Aneska, riding her powerful red mech to battle, she descended with fury and fire over the Raiders, and gave them the fight of their lives. Of course, as it is the fate of every final boss, she was defeated, and that was the end of her story, right? No, of course it wasn’t.
Somehow, with scarcely a few minutes of screen time, Aneska managed to capture our community’s imagination. Not a single day passed without reading emails, tweets and blog posts asking, no, demanding Aneska to join the ranks of playable characters in Spacelords. The public had spoken, and we needed to be good to our word and listen.
Turning a powerful final boss, able to dominate a whole map riding a huge war machine, into a playable character is not an easy feat, and for months the MercurySteam Design team struggled to encapsulate Aneska’s essence into a playable, balanced character. Ultimately, they found what we consider it is an elegant solution to the problem: the narrative component.
The Aneska that our players will enjoy playing with in their games won’t be the exact same character they faced as an enemy, but an evolved one. An elite soldier fallen from grace, who must face the consequences of her defeat at the Raider’s hands and must now find her own cause to fight for in the ongoing war for the Broken Planet. Aneska wears her scars with pride, and she is no longer a soldier, but a warrior.
And thus, the day has come! Aneska can now be recruited as a playable character in Spacelords, and we are looking forward watching our community enjoy playing with this charismatic character. And if you are discovering Spacelords for the first time reading this blog, Give it a try for free and let us know what you think on Twitter and Facebook. We are always listening! Thanks for reading and see you on the Broken Planet!
Spacelords is a free to play title for Xbox One that you can download today from the Microsoft Store. Click here for more details.
See the rest of the story on Xbox Wire
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Source: Xbox Blog
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