More Marvel Snap updates are planned for the future, and with shorter intervals, to help address balance problems
More Marvel Snap updates are planned for the future, and with shorter intervals, to help address the mobile game‘s balance problems, developer Second Dinner announced in a new blog post. These updates will happen live each week and won’t require a download, and the development team will use them to buff cards in the Marvel game and make meaningful changes in between the larger, monthly updates.
“One of the things we’re wary of with balance patches is ‘how much change is too much?’ We’ve avoided changing more than a handful of cards at a time for a while now, and we think that’s a good thing because they’re easier to digest,” Second Dinner said in the blog post.
“Plus, pacing out these changes lets us lightly freshen the metagame periodically, rather than shake it all up at once and then watch things settle into a new state of stasis.”
These weekly updates will happen on Thursdays, which will reportedly help give the QA team time to work through everything before launching the changes, and Second Dinner plans to target two to four cards with each.
Buffs are the primary intent – Second Dinner said they have a list of buffs to get through – though a small number of nerfs will go live through these updates to help keep the metagame balanced.
Unity predicts an increase in mobile games, titles from smaller studios, and hypercasual games – thanks in part to Unity itself
Unity, the company behind the ubiquitous Unity development engine, released its gaming report for 2023 and predicts an increase in mobile games, high-quality titles from smaller studios, and hypercasual games – thanks in part to Unity itself. The report coincides with a new promotional trailer that debuted during the 2023 Game Developers Conference that highlights what Unity tools can do and who they help.
The trailer features a broad selection of games released in the past 12 months or slated for launch soon, ranging from the watercolor adventure Dordogne and FMV mystery Immortality, to the climate-conscious builder Terra Nil, space simulator Kerbal Space Program 2, and pretty much anything you can imagine in between for multiple platforms.
Multiplatform releases may become more common in the next year, but Unity believes that mobile development will become more attractive for smaller studios who, thanks to Unity tools can develop “AAA-quality” games for mobile, such as 2022’s surprise hit Marvel Snap. The report showed that interest in mobile gaming remained high after Covid lockdowns, even as spending declined and commitment to other gaming platforms diminished.
It likely won’t be just Genshin Impact-style mobile games with higher production values, though. Hypercasual games – mobile games that are usually free and require little input from the player – have become substantially more popular in the past five years. Unity believes the ease with which these fit into daily routines makes them ideal for busy students and working adults alike and sees potential in combining social elements with the usual gameplay loops.
Several of the 230,000 developers surveyed for Unity’s report, including those from indie studios and large companies like Zynga, said the Unity engine makes developing high-quality games in these hot categories easier and more accessible for studios of all sizes.
“There are more tools and resources available now to help studios start projects,” Navengate lead producer Anahit Fernandez said in the survey. “It helps smaller studios transition from having an idea to actually getting started.”
The asset store, for example, sells models and animations that can trim weeks and even months off of development time. Unity’s other offerings, including cloud systems, helped studios stay afloat during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Takuto Nakamura, director of Mistwalker, the studio behind Final Fantasy creator Hironobu Sakaguchi’s Fantasian, said it saved the team three months on modeling, while Marvel Snap’s Ben Brode said Unity Cloud Build let the team continue development even after shifting to fully remote work.
While these tools don’t mitigate every risk in the production process, they do mean developers can ship faster, free up resources for new projects or long-term support for existing games, and even launch their games on multiple platforms with greater ease.
It’s not just mobile games, either. Some studio members in the survey said the range of tools at their disposal makes it feasible to develop “hyperlocalized” games – games designed for a very limited target audience that might have no appeal elsewhere. Naturally, the same is true for projects in between, like Terra Nil and Immortality, games that might lack the broad appeal of a Genshin Impact but still have an interested, paying audience.
A new Top Eleven mode lets you revisit defining moments in soccer and adds Xabi Alonso and Jose Mourinho-themed content to the sports game
A new Top Eleven mode lets you revisit some of the defining moments in soccer history and adds Xabi Alonso and Jose Mourinho-themed content to the sports game. The mode, Proving Grounds, is live now through March 23, 2023, and also adds new challenges and the chance to purchase an iconic player, jersey, and emblem with event currency.
The mode lets you recreate some of the sport’s defining matches and moments, managing every aspect of the match and seeing how they helped the game evolve over time. While some knowledge of how the mobile game works is ideal, new players can pick it up and dive in as well.
“English football is a storied tradition filled with iconic, unforgettable moments,” Marko Jevtić, Top Eleven’s game lead said in a press release. “With the new Proving Grounds: England feature in Top Eleven, we are challenging our players to put themselves in the boots of the country’s most famous football squads to recreate history’s biggest plays!”
Developer Nordeus is also adding new content created in partnership with Xabi Alonso and Jose Mourinho to celebrate their contributions to soccer. The first collaboration follows Xabi Alonso’s journey from star player to fledgling coach, though Nordeus hasn’t announced the Jose Mourinho event’s specifics yet.
Here’s our lineup of games you can play on your iPhone without having to spend your hard-earned cash.
Free mobile games have come a long way and their focus has shifted from simple ad-based revenue systems to complicated gacha rollercoasters that try to take every penny without consideration for your poor wallet.
It’s through that seemingly endless stream of pay-to-win and freemium games that Apple makes its 30% from every transaction.
However, fortunately, not all games rely on heavy transactions to make a profit while actually delivering quality content. This list features a lineup of titles you can play on your iPhone without having to worry about missing out on any key moments or having to spend your hard-earned cash (or ask your parents for some pocket change).
Netflix is making video games now, and they’re free if you have a subscription!
Netflix Games is updating its mobile app on Nov. 3 for Android and iOS later on to include video games.
The Netflix Mobile App will come with five games at release. Two of them are based on the wildly popular Stranger Things series, while three are original titles.
Games that’ll be available on the Netflix Mobile App at launch include:
Stranger Things: 1984
Stranger Things 3
Shooting Hoops
Card Blast
Teeter Up
Netflix claims there are more exclusive games on the way for Netflix Games, and there will be no extra fees or in-app purchases. You will need a Netflix subscription to play any of the games, though.
Here’s how you can access Netflix Games:
✅ Login to the Netflix app
✅ Access Netflix Games from the homepage or the games tab
Apple Arcade’s library features tons of premium games. Here are the best of them.
Apple’s video game subscription service, Apple Arcade, has been around since 2019, offering a staggering selection of more than 200 games to play on your iPhone and iPad.
While it’s easy to download a trial and try out each game on the service, that’s a lot of games to pick through. We only have so much time on this Earth before Death’s skeletal hands reach out and pull us into the mire. Luckily for you, we’re here to help you squeeze more out of life before you expire.
Whether you want a grand adventure, a short story, some platforming fun or deep strategy, there’s an Apple Arcade game on iOS for you. So let’s dive into some of the best iPad and iPhone games on Apple Arcade.
For many, mobile games don’t exactly have a glowing reputation. Thanks to bombardments of in-game ads and a penchant for bleeding players’ wallets dry, it’s no wonder that many in the gaming community turn up their noses at smartphone games.
Yet where early iterations of mobile titles focused on cheap gimmicks and greedy cash grabs, our trusty mobiles now play host to some of the best gaming experiences out there.
In fact, with smartphones getting increasingly more powerful every year, some of the best console and PC interactive experiences have slowly found their way onto the two dominant mobile platforms – Android and iOS.
