We heard some resistance early on regarding Outwitters‘ lack of a single player campaign, and our reply at the time was that matchmaking would be there to keep people engaged. It was vague because we hadn’t hammered out the details yet. Our goal for this game is to create something more like a competitive sport (for lazy people), and the way we hope to realize that goal is with a nifty League System.
Sure, Outwitters will support pass n’ play games, or unranked online matches between you and your friends, but the meat of the action is in the leagues, where a whole world of blood-thirsty strangers will be clawing their way to fortune and glory. Mostly just glory.
When you first start your league career, you’ll play a few games as an unranked wildcard, hopping between some “best guess” matches to determine which of the 5 tiers fits your skill level. Once your fate is decided, you’ll be placed in a division of (roughly) 100 similar players.
Winning your league matches nets you points, allowing you to climb the ranks toward a possible tier promotion. Losing matches subtracts points, pushing you toward the bottom of the stack (and possibly into the dark depths of the Fluffy League). You’ll hold a separate rank for your 1v1 league matches and each of your 2v2 partners. You can even tackle the 2v2 Leagues with random partners, if you’re looking to scout for free agents.
Progress Report
This week we’re working on implementing the League system into the alpha version of the game. It’s been a lot of work for two people, but we’ve always been a little more ambitious than we probably should be. The 2011 release date we were shooting for is looking a little shaky at the moment, so I hate to say it, but Outwitters will likely drop closer to the end of this year if we make it at all. Rest assured that if we have to delay, it’ll just mean more more features & better gameplay.
14 responses to “A League of Your Own”
Oh yeah! I forgot. Do single player campaign mode at some point!!!
I think this is a great way to handle multiplayer matching. Looking forward to the release! (Whenever it will be) I’d rather you guys release something more polished later then rush the code out the door. Keep up the quality work!
i think do a best a job as you can and publish this year, then with the extra content you have produced in that time sell as in-app-purchases(I’m happy to pay another $1 every few months to keep the tournaments and updates coming)
each league should have a slight perk that stacks(so if a single player campaign you strive to be higher league).
@Brayton Thanks for the feedback. We’re going to be trying our hardest to have Outwitters hit 2011. It’s not really a matter of lacking content for release, it’s just the complexity of the game “under the hood” is rather big and getting all the moving parts working together to get just the core game running smoothly and polished is taking a lot of effort.
Love the Starcraft-style league system. As for the release date, sure, keep aiming for 2011, but don’t release in December. The last thing you want is to be crushed by the EA Christmas sales and all that.
@MattRix Thanks for the heads up Matt. Yea, December is a brutal month for a small developer to release anything against EA’s race to flood the holiday charts with sales, we’ll definitely keep that in mind.
Sounds good so far! I’ve been coyly following this game since it was announced and everything looks great so far, except those nasty bugs.
Hopefully enough people buy it so that matchmaking won’t take too long. Is this a problem you guys see and have a plan for?
Also if you need help testing…holla at me :p
Sound awesome… But the release date almost brings me to tears!
I’ll be ditching my iPod and getting an Android by the end of the year. If Outwitters even came out in November, I would buy it for a month or so of play…
But now I’ll have to wait around for an Android port!
This is going to be amazing, I just know it. This looks like the sort of game that can just keep being updated all the time, which I love. Even if you do go into 2012, I can’t wait. Keep working hard!
Keep working hard guys! Im ok with it taking longer, I just want it to have the same level of polish as Tilt to Live (although I don’t expect that from a 1.0).
Also, is there any sort of indication as to whether the game will be leaning more toward the size of Tilt to Live, or a much larger file, because I’m running low on storage.
Good luck!
I don’t know about you guys but I think the FLUFFY LEAGUE IS AMAZING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Love the picture for it. Floating pink clouds surrounded by rays of light, what more can you smash into that tiny little picture?!?!?!?! I’m outta breath….
Anyway, can you guys think about changing the super Titan league to the outwitter league? Or just add it after the Super Titan league. Just an idea.
need dinosaur league
im lazy, so this sport should be perfect for me 😀