Ports are interesting things as you rarely see developers add a lot of new features in the new version of the game. When we saw that Ubisoft was adding a bunch of new features to the HD version of Might and Magic Clash of Heroes we were intrigued and started poking around for answers. Here's what we found out.
Could you introduce yourself and talk about your role on the project?
I’m Nathan Vella, co-founder & president at Capy. I was the producer on Clash of Heroes HD, and spent most of my time working with our programmers, artists, designers and QA dude to keep the project pushing forward. Production is mainly a job of communication, so I talked a heck of a lot, wrote a lot of emails and tried to make sure our schedules were at least partially accurate :)
Do you think you have created a new genre that blends fantasy, puzzle, and RPG elements?
I think we created the next step in the genre that Puzzle Quest created. Rest assured, there’s no Clash of Heroes without the trail Puzzle Quest blazed. However, I do think we took Clash of Heroes in an entirely new direction by creating a battle system from scratch that develops meaningful play between puzzling and strategy.
We’re really proud of the game we made, especially considering how hard it was to get all the elements (puzzle, strategy, rpg… and jokes) working the way we thought it could. In the end it’s the game’s depth that I think was the freshest part of the puzzle-meets-strategy hybrid gameplay.
For those who haven’t picked up the game yet could you give us a quick overview of the game?
Might & Magic Clash is the love-child of the puzzle and TBS genres, sprinkled with some RPG elements for good measure. Battles in Clash of Heroes have players combining puzzle gameplay – matching same-colored units vertically to form attacks and horizontally to form defensive walls – with the depth of the turn-based strategy. Meanwhile, there’s a huge campaign mode that spreads across the world of Ashan, allowing players to take the lead of 5 different factions, recruiting units and gathering treasure. Beyond the main quests, there’s tons of side quests, bounty hunting and battle puzzles to solve.
Alongside the meaty campaign, there’s online/offline multiplayer in both 1 versus 1 and 2 versus 2 coop flavors.
Does the HD version ever get created without Xbox Live and the PlayStation Network? Any chance we’ll see the game headed to the PC in the future?
Xbox Live Arcade & PlayStation Network really were the catalyst for this game – the game would have stopped at DS without it. Each are amazing platforms for unique games.
When we were finishing up the DS version of Clash of Heroes, Capy released Critter Crunch on PSN. We had a great experience making Critter Crunch, and wanted to dive back into more downloadable games. Fortunately for us, Ubi believed Clash was a great project and we decided to do the XBLA/PSN version soon after.
As for PC, I can’t comment on that. If people want a PC version, they should say so via Twitter, on the Might & Magic facebook page, and anywhere else they can!
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