Do not index
Do not index
Welcome to a latest Marvel SNAP developer update roundup! In this article we will share some of the most popular questions by the community that Second Dinner answered on the official Discord, including how they balance unreleased cards, the cadence of new locations being added to the game, etc. Keep reading to find the answers to these questions— and many more— below.
Are the cards from Arishem going to get his custom border?
Q: I've noticed that the cards Arishem shuffled into the deck don't have his borders/background/splits, which is very different from how card like Nick Fury, Loki and other card generators operate. Is this on purpose or a bug that'll hopefully be patched in the next update?
Stephen: Its a bug we are working towards fixing it. We want players with a dope Arishem split/border combo to be able to show it off on all of their generated cards.
Wolverine's Pass Variant
Q: I recently realized that Wolverine's pass variant doesn't count as a bonus for his album. Shouldn't it already count on the fact that it meets the condition of being a variant of the ill-tempered wolf? Will it be added in the future?
Chris: Hey thanks for catching this, the season pass variant for this season (Maximum Effort) was indeed meant to be a 'bonus' variant in the Wolverine character album. We will make sure this is added as soon as we can.
Spotlight variants in shop after a year
Q: I’m just wondering if we misunderstood the plan for returning spotlight variants in the shop? According to this we were expecting to see them today (July 12) as it’s been 12 months since they were first launched. When should we be seeing them?
Stephen: They will start next week. It is based on the end date of when it ran in a spotlight originally (ie one year from the end of the week it first ran)
Balancing unreleased cards
Q: It has been mentioned in the past that sometimes a card is created and then waits until there is a good season to release it. How do you balance a card when it has a very long time until release? Every few weeks, there is a completely different meta that has different cards and combos excelling. Do you keep regularly balancing it until it's release?
Secondary question, do you balance individual unreleased cards only against released cards? Or can/do you balance multiple unreleased cards in the same games and environment?
Glenn: Design occurs in phases, and one of those phases is specifically tied to release. A card can’t really make it that far until it’s on the schedule, and that step includes final balance. We have at least three seasons in active development at all times, so every card at least sees deliberate play with cards two seasons after its release. After that, it may be more open to playtesters’ whims, but if we see something we want to test we’ll specifically assign it. For example, while we’ve finished September’s cards, we just a couple weeks ago assigned bonus playtesting for one based on the design of a card releasing months later.
Loading screen, will there be more?
Q: First of all, thank you for the gorgeous deadpoolified loading screen! Who did the work on that? Can we expect more variance in the future, maybe more changes than Deadpool faces?
Addison: There was underlying work to allow us to update the screen (and to be able to do so remotely!). While I don't know exactly what the plans are for it, I would certainly hope it's a feature we intend on reusing!
Any chance for more new locations?
Q: I seem to remember a time when there was more new locations each season. Any chance we can get 3 or 4 new locations a season? Maybe as a theme for a season even. Or is that just not feasible alongside designing the new cards as well?
Glenn: It’s more likely we do one or none than three or more. We have a lot of locations already, we don’t really need to make many more. We mostly do because it’s fun and gives some interesting levers to pull in the metagame and other game modes long-term. They’re not especially burdensome, but I’d rather the VFX team work on older cards, for example, than bonus locations.
If you are still hungry for more answers, or you have questions of your own, feel free to visit the team-answers channel in the official Discord and be part of the conversation.
Some of these questions and answers may have been edited for clarity and brevity.
Written by