Thanks, that you have waited patiently, and we have it here for you. This is the second round of our Q&A with Creature Quest Team. On your questions answer John Van Caneghem, Heather Poon as CQ Art Director and Tracy Iwata as VFX Artist. This is the final round and you can find the previous part here. My thanks to whole CQ Team for their help, as for the great answers.
1. Avonu: IIRC JVC created MM1 alone. He said that he created King's Bounty with one additional code writer and one graphic artist and it took one year. Heroes 3 was created within 18 months with 30+ people. How long it took to create CQ and how many people were working on it?
JVC: "From start to beta 18 months and averaged 10 people, but we also used a lot of outsourcing especially for art."
2. Avonu: Are there any plans to make Battle Tower great again? Rewards are fine but climbing 50 floors over and over each week is opposite of fun.
(Please note, that this question was asked before you allowed to jump only on the Boss floors. But for sure there still must remain something to enhance.^^)
JVC: "Yes, and we’re continuing to improve it."
3. Avonu: Reference codes have nice rewards for people to use it but on the other hand it blocks players from "get x friends" achievement. Previous system allowed to exchange players codes but it's not possible anymore (at least without social media involved).
JVC: "The current system encourages getting new players involved, but i would like to add another friend system. For now the guild system has been our focus in that regard."
4. Avonu: How is the game doing overall?
JVC: "We’ve been very happy with the response from players and amazed at how many hours people are playing, Our only disappointment has been the cost of advertising and subsequently getting to the scale of our competitors."
5. CH: Were you inspired by arcade games when creating CQ?
JVC: "Not really arcade games, but mobile games in general, yes. I wanted to create a Heroes like experience with shorter play sessions that mobile games require."
6. CH: What about “Quest Editor”, to let members of the community create their own quests?
JVC: "That has always been on the list of features we would love to add."
7. CH: What you would personally recommend as a perfect setup for any new/mid range player?
JVC: "I personally like a Healer / Cleanser, one Resser, one Buffer and two Damage Dealers that can combo with at least 3 unique color dots. However the most fun for me has always been the challenge of making a team with whatever you have in your collection, then adjusting or making new teams as you get more creatures."
8. CH: The effects are really beautifully done, hats off! How long it took to fully animate one unit? Approximately how much did you spend on them in total?
Tracy: "Thank you. The time to do effects on 1 creature averages a bit over an hour, so approximately 3-5 hours for 3 creature levels with idle and attacks."
9. CH: There are some pretty crafted creatures. How did you come to idea of creating Mothman? And that he has poison powder attack, such a vengeance from such a small creature.
Heather: "Thank you. The process of creating a Creature from scratch is often times a group effort. In the case of the Mothman, design came up with the idea, then we did some research on moths in real life and in stories. Poison seemed to be an appropriate attack, so we made sure to enhance it with VFX. Never underestimate a smaller Creature!"
10. CH: Why do we have a Clurichaun instead of a Leprechaun in CQ?
JVC: The designers just liked it.
11. CH: Now a bit of classic. What are the odds of a dragons and titans clashing this time? With drakes and dragonlings being counted in, they should definitively be... not in favour of Titans. Aren’t there too many dragons?
JVC: "CQ was never meant to mirror the Titan / Dragon clash of Heroes, but people do like dragons, so we keep adding more."
12. CH: Why is “Wild Boar” bearing a broken sword? Upgraded version have it fixed, having full quenching blade.
Heather: "As all of our Creatures evolve, their weapons and gears always get better. And even though Wild Boar has a broken blade, he can still do some serious damage!"
13. CH: Why are Angels being born with burning whips?
Heather: "Everything is possible in the land of Creature Quest. Plus in some cases we opted not go with how things are traditionally represented, to give our Creatures their own characters."
14. CH: Who’s writing creature’s attack cries? Such as “Talong Tango..”
JVC: "It’s Rob King I believe, the master of creature sounds!"
15. CH: Can we expect an option to build our own music band? I’m missing drums and violin the most. - Sirena is having harp, Muse also but smaller one, Cyclop rocks, then there’s Troubadour Bird and Butterfly with a horn.
JVC: "I’ll leave it to the fans to make that happen"
16. CH: And one final question about dinosaurus, nowaday is know that they have also feathers, probably not case of legendary Kongamoto, is there a chance?
JVC: "Always looking for new creatures to add..."
17. Galaad: Does JVC plan to buy the rights of Might and Magic IP back to make a new REAL Might and Magic PC game in the foreseeable future? #OnlyJVCforMightandMagic
JVC: "You will have to convince Ubi for that to happen."
Addendum after patch 1.5.3
There were some questions added recently, as arrival of Kingdom mode changed game deeply, adding more bonuses and also demanding more resources. As a new there are finaly "Enchants" & Dungeon Challenge 2.0, with a new element - shield. So, we sent out some more questons, and there you have them answered.
1. CH: Shields up! Do you consider idea to obtain them also as a rewards? You win shield, get it by mail and use whenever you wish.
JVC: "Sure , that would be fine."
2. CH: Did updates moved things up, are you now getting more new players? Or seeing old ones returning?
JVC: "Both, as every update brings back some old players, but also helps attract new players."
3. CH: How works competitive balance between players, payers and not payers. Do you feel that it's balanced right?
JVC: "We have many non-payers that are quite competitive, it's mostly a time issue for payers."
4. CH: Are you planning to add some more fun in fun, ie minigame? I hate repetitive actions, there's enough of them in our lives, have feeling this is good for computers and bad for a man.
JVC: "Yes."
5. CH: Are you planning appearance of Spells/SpellBook for Bosses or special creatures? To add the choice, which one will be right right now?
JVC: "Multiple boss abilities has always been on the list, we just haven't gotten to it yet."
6. CH: I see that mana feeders are coming on scene, will there be more? Now there are appearing only the bosses, epic and ticket creatures should come too, theirs diversity can be bigger though power lower.
JVC: "Yes."
7. CH: Have you received some fan art?
JVC: "Yes."
8. CH: What about to getting more rewards for famous battle events? Like all creatures were burning for five rounds or everyone been stunned for two rounds etc.
JVC: "The bonus EXP you get at the end of each battle was going to have many criteria for extra bonuses and rewards, we just haven't implemented it yet."
9. CH: Thanks to dots hiring creatures is pretty random, do you plan to implement some balance keeping mechanism that player on level XX must have at least XX 4d creatures? To keep it competitive, when you are really not lucky.
JVC: "Combo Dot Fusion has been a great update for that problem and we’re working on a few more."
10. CH: The game then and now feels very different, mainly thanks to Kingdoms mode. Do you plan to have here exclusive upgrades? Example - either you will build Mage Tower to support Wizards and Witches or Fire Well to Support Efreets and Phoenixes or Wishing Well to support Genies?
JVC: "Great idea!, We have many new buildings in the works for kingdoms."
11. CH: Any chance to return Gold & Experience bonuses to the Shop?
JVC: "Yes, its back and combined into one!"
12. CH: What is your favourite creature and why?
JVC: "The Phoenix and Paladin have always been great, but I’ve really been enjoying my maxed out Kirin (allowed me to make it through emperor levels)."
Tracy: "I like the multi-hitters like the fire giant which has a great stun ability."
Heather: "It's really hard for me to pick a favorite since I created all of them and have special feelings for each of them. And what I like about certain ones visually are not the same as the ones I like gameplay wise. Gameplay wise though, lately the Occultist, Titan,and the Troglodyte are some of my favs."
Thanks for that CQ Team and we wish you ...unlimited power to smite the strongest foes...
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