Let’s talk about names, upgrades, leveling, matchmaking… and Energy

Last time I wrote about the game, I was reflecting on how the recent addition of armor sets really felt like a game-changer.  Since that time, we went much deeper on player customization and drove it into the creative center of the game. It’s all about competing to earn credits and using those credits to purchase and upgrade new gear like weapons and armor. It really feels fresh and provides a compelling bonus reward cycle to the deathmatch gameplay at the heart of the experience.

If you haven’t seen the latest trailer, go check it out on the newly revamped Eliminate website as it attempts to describe the entire ecosystem of the game in under 2 minutes. See, as you compete in global matches, you’ll also earn credits.  The better your performance in a match, the more credits you earn. You’ll earn something even if you’re in last place, but great performance will always pay back the highest earnings. As you use these credits to buy new weapons or armor… or to upgrade your gear along multiple upgradable dimensions, you’ll gain an advantage over your enemies if they’re not upgrading too. And that’s where our matchmaker algorithms really become critical.

As you start performing better and winning more matches – by pure skill or with the help of upgrades or any combination – the matchmaker will continually match you up against better performing players. This keeps the individual matches balanced overall even as one player chooses to upgrade and another chooses not too. You’ll always find yourself matched against other players of similar potency. Ultimately, the player at the top of the global leader board will possess both skill and a healthy assortment of upgrades. Part of the fun is gearing up your character to reflect the style of play you enjoy the most. Are you all about offense? Maybe evasive moves? Or do you love blasting enemies with rockets above all else? The in-game armory and upgrade options give you the tools to play the way you like.

If you use up all of your energy, you can continue practicing on the global servers, but no credits will be earned until your energy levels are sufficient. You can recharge your energy at any time by using Power Cells. Your app download will include some Power Cells and you can purchase additional Power Cells from iTunes or acquire them through other methods to be revealed later.  Or you can wait for your energy to recharge automatically.

Why bother with Energy? We use energy for a lot of things: to regulate and balance the game content, to help stack-rank the queue of players waiting for their next match (current default wait time is 5 seconds), and of course to pay for the global servers and infrastructure we host for lobbies, matchmaking, and gameplay. It’s a pretty huge undertaking and is not feasible without a scalable revenue stream tied to it.

If you really enjoy the game and want to engage deeply, you can do exactly that. We expect some portion of players will be willing to pay a fair price for something they really enjoy. And by doing so, those deep players can accelerate their progress in the game by earning more credits and leveling up faster than someone who is not engaging as deeply. That’s okay. The deep players are helping support the game for everyone, making online practice mode possible. And the deep players are given priority in the event the servers are slammed by tons of simultaneous players. It seems like a pretty fair solution—to offer the core online competitive FPS experience with credit-earning and upgrades at a fair price to everyone who wants to give it a try—while also offering deeper engagement with additional benefits to those players willing to invest more into the game. You can still progress and level up even if you’re not buying extra power cells, but eventually you’ll run out of energy and will need to replenish before earning more credits and leveling farther.

You may be wondering if players willing to throw piles of money at the game will simply rocket to the top of the leader boards overnight. The answer is NO. Most items and upgrades are level bound, meaning you have to earn the prerequisite level through combat experience in order to qualify for the armor or upgrade or whatever. So just because you pay more doesn’t mean you don’t have to play like everyone else. That’s the whole point of the game – to play and win! You’ll level up faster when you’re earning credits, so energy is a factor, but you definitely have to play and earn those credits.

We recently wrapped up a pretty big session of hands-on play tests with real fps players who are not game developers. The whole process was a great source of insightful feedback. We had 65 gamers blasting the shit out of each other, earning credits, buying new gear, using energy… the whole nine yards. The complete cycle felt very natural. We’re definitely fine-tuning some things as a result of those playtests and the game is already better as a result. The reason I bring this up is that it gave me a lot of confidence that players do understand this new ecosystem and the game will ultimately be better as a result. Eliminate’s release is not going to be a fire-and-forget launch. We’re in this for keeps.  We want people to bring it anytime, anywhere. And extend their FPS lifestyle beyond the desktop or livingroom – into wherever their lives take them.

-chris