The second is the mantra that Odyssey Interactive was based upon: accessibility.
Odyssey Interactive’s debut title, the sports activities brawler “Omega Strikers,” is aiming to be essentially the most simply playable sport in the marketplace. The studio strongly believes in being platform agnostic, launching “Omega Strikers” as a free-to-play title on PC and cell with console variations presently in growth. This extends to the sport’s aggressive philosophy, too. Whereas best video games divide gamers into completely different ladders primarily based on platform, “Omega Strikers” gamers all compete in the identical ladder.
Henkel mentioned that one of many studio’s targets is to entice the rising generation of gamers who have been raised on touch screens and mobile devices by treating them as a “top quality citizen.”
“We might a lot moderately have gamers decide to play the sport primarily based on the sport’s deserves and never like, properly, is it obtainable on my platform?” Odyssey Interactive CEO Henkel instructed The Washington Publish. “Is it obtainable within the management scheme that I like?”
To that finish, “Omega Strikers” affords a beneficiant array of enter choices. PC gamers can select between utilizing a mouse and keyboard or joypad, each of which may be remapped. Mouse and keyboard customers can transfer their characters across the area utilizing both the keyboard (WASD configuration) or mouse (MOBA configuration). There are additionally a number of toggles akin to a capability indicator and strike indicator which give extra precision over assaults on the expense of pace.
One other window into the sport’s mission of accessibility is the presentation. The premise behind “Omega Strikers,” developer Odyssey Interactive’s first sport, is instantly apparent to anybody who’s been inside an arcade. A 3-on-3 sport with a various solid of anime characters on an enormous air hockey desk battle for management of an unlimited glowing puck. The elevator pitch of superpowered athletes taking part in gladiator hockey just about writes itself.
Odyssey Interactive president Andrus mentioned that “Omega Strikers” initially began off as a straight-up motion sport that went by a number of prototypes. However adopting the sports activities angle allowed the group to hit two seemingly contradictory targets: including the Core (the sport’s big hockey puck) made the sport simpler to grasp, and in addition launched an additional layer of mechanical complexity.
“The truth that you possibly can knock out different gamers means it’s important to be excited about a stability between taking part in a PVP preventing sport and a extra sports-oriented, rating the ball focus type of sport like FIFA,” mentioned Andrus, president of Odyssey Interactive.
That’s the place the Strikers, the sport’s playable characters, come into play. Every Striker has a singular moveset of particular skills which can be utilized to maneuver the Core or bash enemy Strikers. Taking harm will increase a Striker’s stagger bar, making it simpler to knock them off the sphere and quickly take away them from play. Strikers additionally develop stronger all through the course of a match as they accumulate expertise factors which is accelerated by performing playmaking actions akin to scoring targets, making saves, knocking out enemies and so forth.
The Strikers themselves are additionally designed to be visually distinguishable. For instance, you possibly can inform that Atlas is a defense-oriented Striker by his heavy armor and tall, broad-shouldered body. X, one other Striker who’s even larger than Atlas and eschews armor for a flashy leather-based vest that does little to cowl his quite a few battle scars, is clearly a divebombing brawler. Every group has two forwards and a goalie however each roles may be performed by any Striker.
The sport’s sports activities angle additionally lends to a clean viewing expertise, which has been a rising design consideration for builders in search of to create titles with esports viability. Traditionally, aggressive video video games have been notoriously tough to observe as a result of the most well-liked titles had been by no means supposed to be watched by followers. In video games akin to “Counter-Strike: World Offensive” or “League of Legends,” the digicam continually tracks completely different gamers as they transfer throughout disparate elements of a big map doing a variety of distinct actions. This could make for a complicated and irritating viewing expertise for anybody who doesn’t play the video games in query.
In “Omega Strikers,” the target is instantly recognizable and straightforward to observe: hit the Core into the opposite group’s objective and take down anybody who will get in your approach. Furthermore, the digicam doesn’t want to leap round as a result of all the sport takes place in a single shot. That makes it straightforward to observe and ensures that spectators by no means miss a giant play as a result of the digicam was elsewhere.
All in all, Odyssey has laid out a strong plan to spend money on a future demographic of avid gamers whereas nonetheless courting those that are turned off by cell video games. However “Omega Strikers” can be a basis for a lot larger targets. Odyssey has already began growth on its second sport, which can function the identical characters as “Omega Strikers.” Just like how Riot used its “League of Legends” characters for “Teamfight Techniques” and its upcoming preventing sport code-named Project L, Odyssey intends for its Strikers to reappear in all types of recent video games and media.
“They are often the star of their very own online game, they are often the star of their very own anime if we select to make it someday,” Andrus mentioned, laughing. “Fingers crossed, fingers crossed.”