Valve is now paying attention to the Dota 2 Auto Chess craze. The company is talking with Auto Chess Drodo Games development team to be able to commercialize this mod.
This move is completely understandable for Valve. Auto Chess really fits the Valve family more than the company’s newly released title, Artifact.
Regarding the main value, Auto Chess owns many Valve identities:
1. Auto Chess comes from the community, and that’s what Valve is strongest at
Auto Chess was born from a great creative idea, making it efficient. Although it is not easy to describe what this game is, its basic gameplay is simple and clear. More importantly, Auto Chess is based on existing Dota 2 recipes, for Dota 2 fans to enjoy.
Valve’s game development model comes from developing successful mods and making them more scalable. Dota 2 used to be a Warcraft 3 custom map, similar to Auto Chess to Dota 2 gamers. In 2009, Valve hired Dota designer IceFrog and started developing Dota 2.
Counter-Strike was also a mod of Half-Life in 1999. A year later, CS creators Minh Le and Jess Cliffe were hired by Valve and CS became a separate game in 2000.
So does Team Fortress. It comes from Quake’s mod in 1996. A few years later, the TF Software Pty development team switched to Valve and Team Fortress Classic officially launched in 1999, as a mod for Half-Life.
The model continues to evolve: Left 4 Dead by Turtle Rock (hired by Valve in 2008) and the development team Alien Swarm (hired by Valve in 2010). Even Portal, the innovative puzzle game set in Half-Life, inherited an indie game developed by students – and they later worked for Valve and developed Portal as well.
As you can see, Valve’s history is a testament to that Dota Auto Chess welcome.
On the flip side, Artifact is Valve’s first attempt at developing a game from the ground up. However, the current state of Artifact is proof that they have fallen short of the expectations of the community.
From the start, Artifact was as secluded from the community as possible and didn’t care what they wanted. The closed beta phase of the game lasted for a year, only a few professional players and a few players could play. It is separate from the card game community.
Valve’s big games are all successful because they know how to appreciate the community element. Even the early struggling Dota 2 games give fans an incentive to play.
However, Artifact decided to isolate from that foundation.
2. Auto Chess fundamentals appeal to a wide range of players – just like Valve games
While Blizzard is famous for its “easy to learn, hard to grasp” approach to video games, Valve’s games follow that same formula. It’s very easy to play a Valve game. But once you’ve played, you’ll realize you still have a lot to learn.
Artifact succeeds in the latter part, but fails to make gamers want to learn to play. As a result, Artifact is only for the card game community, but community veterans aren’t afraid to dig deep and play it.
But Auto Chess finds a “golden” in the middle, and attracts many communities: from card game fans who love the deck building element; until Dota 2 gamers recognize their favorite heroes and skills in the game; or strategy game fans who simply want to beat other players.
Although Dota 2 is now considered a fairly closed community, it possesses the same values as when DotA was a mod of Warcraft 3. Want a strategy game but not as fast as Warcraft? Let’s play Dota. Love the RPG element but want a completely different character every time you play? Let’s play Dota. Want to play with your friends but don’t want to confront them? Dota.
Valve’s other titles also appeal to different audiences. Counter-Strike takes the rhythm of the game like Quake, while adding an element of strategy and teammates. Team Fortress 2 has a lighthearted style (attractive to casual shooters), and class play (attractive to MOBA fans) – elements that now appear in Overwatch.
Artifact has never been there, as we’ve seen it now, and doesn’t feel like a Valve game. If you want Artifact to be engaging, Valve needs to incorporate the following:
- more serious than Hearthstone, but easy to play
- have things that other card games don’t have
- feel familiar Dota 2
…maybe Artifact will have a brighter future. More or less, it also feels like this is a Valve game rather than the status quo.
3. Auto Chess is really more of a Dota 2 game than Artifact
Caster and analyst Robert “RobAJG” Gonzales put it this way:
“The community in Auto Chess is big because it appeals directly to Dota gamers. And Artifact is not, not at all. […] It becomes more obvious after playing and you realize Artifact is not a Dota game. It is a game with Dota graphics.”
How can the card game Dota 2 not understand the core values of Dota 2? How did Dota 2 gamers completely ignore it? And Artifact is not really aimed at these gamers, so who is the target of the game?
In every way, Artifact is completely different from other Valve games, except for the Dota 2-inspired visuals. Try ignoring the developer names of Dota Auto Chess and Artifact, and then ask any gamer: “Which game is more like Valve’s?”
That’s why Dota Auto Chess is so successful.
According to VPesports
Source link: Auto Chess really suits Valve more than Artifact
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