WEBVTT 00:00:00.040 --> 00:00:07.040 Linus Tech tips coverage of pxs 2013 is brought to you by Western Digital Intel 00:00:04.600 --> 00:00:11.280 and steel Series so we're here with Steven Baker the lead sound designer on 00:00:09.639 --> 00:00:15.759 strife and we're going to get into exactly what his unique contribution is 00:00:13.559 --> 00:00:19.680 to this game after we talk a little bit about the general stuff so you guys got 00:00:17.600 --> 00:00:25.840 to differentiate from other mobas how are you going to make it accessible for 00:00:23.119 --> 00:00:31.240 the noob and yet customizable enough for the experienced players well there's a 00:00:28.119 --> 00:00:33.800 lot of fresh Design Tech techniques that 00:00:31.240 --> 00:00:40.920 our designers did uh some of them include the gold sharing mechanic when 00:00:37.719 --> 00:00:43.440 you are in a lane with someone and you 00:00:40.920 --> 00:00:50.640 get a last hit you actually share that gold with your lane mate and that helps 00:00:47.120 --> 00:00:54.239 to really uh reduce player 00:00:50.640 --> 00:00:56.440 toxicity as well as uh allow you to 00:00:54.239 --> 00:01:01.840 collect gold even though you're not last hitting so tell me about the load out 00:00:58.920 --> 00:01:07.000 system well that's going to be basically pregame before you queue you're going to 00:01:04.360 --> 00:01:13.880 be able to select your hero select your pet and select items that you like to 00:01:11.000 --> 00:01:18.000 play with okay so I'm a new player my whole thing is okay I you know some Pro 00:01:16.000 --> 00:01:21.920 that I like to watch uses this particular kit usually so I just set 00:01:20.520 --> 00:01:27.400 everything up before the game I don't have to go to the store and Shop no not 00:01:25.320 --> 00:01:34.119 if you don't want to I mean it really depends on uh how the game is is going 00:01:31.000 --> 00:01:35.280 like you could have a load out and you 00:01:34.119 --> 00:01:39.399 know think that you're going to do really well but if it's not going your 00:01:37.439 --> 00:01:44.759 way you can actually go back into the shop and reconfigure your Loadout for 00:01:42.200 --> 00:01:48.640 maybe more armor magic armor stuff like that okay so if I'm a pro and I you know 00:01:46.840 --> 00:01:53.680 I feel like the whole loading out ahead of time is beneath me I can still go 00:01:50.640 --> 00:01:56.079 full custom oh totally yeah okay that's 00:01:53.680 --> 00:02:00.159 awesome now let's talk about you you talked about crafting in pets are pets a 00:01:57.840 --> 00:02:04.840 purely aesthetic thing absolutely Ely not they they actually serve a great 00:02:01.840 --> 00:02:08.319 purpose in the game when you first start 00:02:04.840 --> 00:02:11.319 the game you get to select a pet and 00:02:08.319 --> 00:02:14.800 it's very it's like a baby basically and 00:02:11.319 --> 00:02:17.040 it has only a small amount of abilities 00:02:14.800 --> 00:02:21.080 but as you play the game you get Commodities at the end of the game that 00:02:18.879 --> 00:02:26.480 include food you use the food to feed your pet and the pet evolves and 00:02:24.280 --> 00:02:32.840 actually develops its powers it grows stronger it unlocks new passives and and 00:02:30.519 --> 00:02:36.319 makes your active ability much stronger so basically you guys are trying to make 00:02:34.200 --> 00:02:39.599 anyone who bought a tamagachi 10 years ago feel really stupid about it because 00:02:38.360 --> 00:02:45.159 they could just have played this game had that experience and they get a game for their money absolutely speaking of 00:02:43.319 --> 00:02:49.800 money you guys are aiming for what 15 heroes six pets at launch now your 00:02:47.720 --> 00:02:54.239 monetization model we all know how League of Legends does it where you pay 00:02:52.159 --> 00:02:58.319 for the heroes if they're not on rotation uh how are you guys handling 00:02:56.319 --> 00:03:03.319 Heroes and and pay pay to play so to speak well first off off the game is 00:03:00.440 --> 00:03:09.840 free to play and the heroes are free to play so anytime that we design a hero it 00:03:06.319 --> 00:03:12.400 will be free to play uh the 15 Heroes 00:03:09.840 --> 00:03:19.560 that you'll be able to select from freeo play you know the the things that we 00:03:15.440 --> 00:03:22.480 monetize will include uh commodities for 00:03:19.560 --> 00:03:26.319 crafting and also your skins for your different Heroes so I promise stepen we 00:03:24.560 --> 00:03:29.519 wouldn't talk about gameplay mechanics the whole time lead sound designer he 00:03:27.879 --> 00:03:33.200 wants to talk about sound if you guys have been watching me for any amount of 00:03:31.080 --> 00:03:37.480 time you'll know I do believe that sound is incredibly important one of my 00:03:35.159 --> 00:03:42.280 mantras is go buy a bloody sound card get some decent headphones not gaming 00:03:39.840 --> 00:03:47.000 headphones good headphones enjoy your games more it's incredibly important and 00:03:44.560 --> 00:03:51.439 the conductor which is your baby is going to make what I'm saying right now 00:03:48.799 --> 00:03:56.560 even more true tell me about this well the conductor is an Adaptive music 00:03:53.480 --> 00:03:58.560 system that es and flows the music based 00:03:56.560 --> 00:04:04.120 on what's Happening to your hero in the game right so so you start the game 00:04:01.480 --> 00:04:07.519 you're in the laning phase not a lot of action is happening you're just worried 00:04:05.840 --> 00:04:12.720 about last hitting creeps and maybe harassing the hero a little bit so it's 00:04:09.760 --> 00:04:18.400 very lowkey very easy to listen to you know uh but but as the game progresses 00:04:15.360 --> 00:04:21.919 say maybe you go into the jungle it's a 00:04:18.400 --> 00:04:24.759 little more tense you know because uh no 00:04:21.919 --> 00:04:30.280 one can see where you are and the music really uh signifies that um and then 00:04:28.600 --> 00:04:36.400 maybe you're in a situation where there's a team fight happening which the 00:04:33.000 --> 00:04:37.960 music goes huge there there's a lot of 00:04:36.400 --> 00:04:44.440 different layers that are happening at that time to to to add excitement to the 00:04:41.600 --> 00:04:49.680 player's experience so your goal here then is to get the players heart pumping 00:04:47.479 --> 00:04:52.560 without them really necessarily knowing get the adrenaline flowing at the right 00:04:51.360 --> 00:04:58.800 times without them even really even having to think about it yeah it is a very unconscious subconscious kind of 00:04:56.880 --> 00:05:03.240 thing that's happening to music I think that's absolutely cool and I think that 00:05:00.800 --> 00:05:07.240 getting away from games being designed to be looked at while you have your 00:05:05.280 --> 00:05:11.039 music going in your ear in your ears and you're completely ignoring it I mean the 00:05:08.919 --> 00:05:14.520 immersiveness is incredibly exciting so thank you for taking the time to talk to 00:05:12.360 --> 00:05:19.600 us about this this is absolutely great and uh good luck my pleasure now we're 00:05:17.199 --> 00:05:23.680 here with P who is the director of monetization for strife and you do a 00:05:21.960 --> 00:05:26.880 bunch of other stuff as well right yeah I also worked as a lead system designer 00:05:25.479 --> 00:05:30.039 for strife and I work with a game design team as well making awesome Heroes 00:05:28.720 --> 00:05:36.919 hopefully all right so we're going to have some great conversation with you because it's a free to play and as as a 00:05:34.479 --> 00:05:41.199 monetization strategy free to play is anything but mature it it there's so 00:05:39.520 --> 00:05:46.319 much more to be experimented with what are you guys doing with Strife to make 00:05:44.319 --> 00:05:49.759 it work for you I think you're seeing hero uh free-to-play games popping up 00:05:48.199 --> 00:05:53.360 all over the place and a lot of them are going with a cookie cutter kind of dual 00:05:51.199 --> 00:05:56.840 currency one you earn and one you get for free right or sorry when you 00:05:55.319 --> 00:06:00.160 purchase and one what you get for free for playing and what we've done with 00:05:58.319 --> 00:06:03.120 Strife is rather than having having that we've developed Commodities and 00:06:01.919 --> 00:06:07.039 commodities are something that you earn still but each of them serves a specific 00:06:04.960 --> 00:06:10.759 function so this allows a lot of Dynamics as far as what trade-offs you 00:06:09.080 --> 00:06:14.720 have when you earn food you can feed your pets and when you get ore you can 00:06:12.599 --> 00:06:18.240 craft your items but when you get Essences you can either harmonize your 00:06:16.720 --> 00:06:22.720 items or it can make them better so there's a lot of trade-offs that don't really exist when you only have one 00:06:20.880 --> 00:06:27.560 earned currency that exists when you have this more higher level commodity 00:06:24.800 --> 00:06:31.599 currency okay now speaking of uh of crafting items and all that I want to 00:06:29.120 --> 00:06:35.319 talk about uh okay it's not related at all forget the segue but tell me about 00:06:33.440 --> 00:06:38.360 the orts strategy for stri what are you guys doing to differentiate yourself 00:06:36.840 --> 00:06:43.080 from the other stuff that's out there for orts we really want to uh respond to 00:06:40.880 --> 00:06:46.039 the demands of what our community wants so we're still prea people haven't 00:06:44.720 --> 00:06:51.160 gotten their hands on it the only people who played on played it are like our friends and our families and our 00:06:49.319 --> 00:06:54.400 co-workers so we want to see what our community wants if they want a topheavy 00:06:52.840 --> 00:06:58.360 system in which there's just one Invitational Tournament that's the you 00:06:56.080 --> 00:07:00.800 know the Hub of all that um then we'll respond to that or if they want 00:06:59.639 --> 00:07:06.759 something that's more Grassroots more regular automated tournaments that anyone can get access into and maybe the 00:07:04.560 --> 00:07:10.000 prizes aren't as high for each of them um but everyone can participate then 00:07:08.319 --> 00:07:12.639 we'll respond to that as well so we want to see what our player wants to do 00:07:11.479 --> 00:07:17.479 because at the end of the day we believe that Esports is a service for the community for everyone to gather around 00:07:15.840 --> 00:07:21.280 the game and to get really hyped up and really amped and excited now the word 00:07:19.120 --> 00:07:26.000 everyone is interesting because you guys don't want to abandon the hardcores of 00:07:23.039 --> 00:07:30.360 course because hardcore gamers are are going to be your biggest supporters but 00:07:28.720 --> 00:07:34.919 what have you done if you were to pick three things that have made this game 00:07:33.039 --> 00:07:39.759 more accessible and that are going to help to draw in new players well there 00:07:37.960 --> 00:07:43.360 there's um as the mobile genre is developed there's been a lot of issues 00:07:41.639 --> 00:07:48.680 brought forth so four years ago when we were developing heroes in new worth and R was developing League of Legends and 00:07:46.240 --> 00:07:51.080 whatnot they we were all focusing on scratching the surface making sure the 00:07:50.080 --> 00:07:55.720 genre is going to be fun it's going to be successful people are going to play our games now that we kind of have the 00:07:54.319 --> 00:08:00.280 luxury of sitting back and saying okay mobas are a good formula we we can talk 00:07:58.240 --> 00:08:04.120 about more of the in-depth issues the issue of toxicity and a lot of people 00:08:02.560 --> 00:08:09.039 have brought this up about the mobile Community people are kind of 00:08:05.879 --> 00:08:10.720 sometimes and um we it's we really come 00:08:09.039 --> 00:08:13.479 back and put our fingers on that people are to each other generally 00:08:12.080 --> 00:08:16.960 when they're on the same team and they disagree about how to win a game so int 00:08:15.360 --> 00:08:20.560 team conflict has been a huge thing for us and with Strife we've done several 00:08:18.639 --> 00:08:24.120 things to tackle that we've developed the game from the ground up from the 00:08:21.919 --> 00:08:27.560 game design to try to alleviate some of the tensions within your team as far as 00:08:25.919 --> 00:08:30.840 competing for last hits who's going to play the support role that no one wants 00:08:29.120 --> 00:08:34.959 to play who's going to devote all their goal to buying the awards so there's no 00:08:32.599 --> 00:08:38.560 purchasable vision there's no um supporting by sacrificing instead of 00:08:37.000 --> 00:08:42.399 sacrificing we allow our support players to still get items and enable their 00:08:40.039 --> 00:08:46.360 teammates and support that way instead so tell me about the way that gold gets 00:08:44.399 --> 00:08:49.880 split when you're either sharing a lane with someone or you're in your own lane 00:08:48.160 --> 00:08:55.200 and everyone else is all over the place in order to make people not be not 00:08:52.920 --> 00:08:58.399 behave selfishly yeah so every mobile veteran has probably gone through the 00:08:56.279 --> 00:09:01.399 argument of I need the last hits no I need the last hits and it comes down to 00:08:59.920 --> 00:09:04.480 this All or Nothing whoever gets the last hit gets all the gold and so you're 00:09:03.120 --> 00:09:08.000 competing with your Lan mate as to who gets the last hit in strip however you 00:09:06.160 --> 00:09:11.000 split the gold and how this works is if you're solo you get half of the gold 00:09:09.680 --> 00:09:14.560 Bounty of a creep so say a creep is worth 70 gold you get 35 and the other 00:09:13.160 --> 00:09:18.040 half is split across your team evenly including yourself so you end up with 42 00:09:16.399 --> 00:09:22.880 if you're with another Lane partner you each get half of the goal so you each get 35 so realistically if you're 00:09:21.279 --> 00:09:26.040 soloing you might get last of the last less of the last hits then when you have 00:09:24.480 --> 00:09:30.240 a partner helping you out as well so you actually want your teammate there but when they're there you're not fighting 00:09:28.600 --> 00:09:34.399 over it you're not taking something from them they're not taking something from you you're working together toward an 00:09:32.720 --> 00:09:39.480 end goal together I mean the way that I see this is this helps the Casual 00:09:36.120 --> 00:09:40.920 players as well as the as as the more 00:09:39.480 --> 00:09:45.680 competitive players because this does two things is number one is it makes it 00:09:43.160 --> 00:09:50.000 so that that uh that one player on a competitive team doesn't have to be the 00:09:47.120 --> 00:09:52.680 who has no who has no items by the end of the game and it was basically 00:09:51.440 --> 00:09:57.040 just kind of running around doing everyone else's Dirty Work and it also 00:09:54.640 --> 00:10:01.240 means that for someone who's a more a much more casual player they're not 00:09:58.720 --> 00:10:05.399 necessarily get left behind to the same extent I mean as someone who only ever 00:10:02.640 --> 00:10:08.360 really played DOTA one as as as far as the mobile genre goes I can tell you as 00:10:07.040 --> 00:10:13.519 someone who kind of played it casually and jumped in by you know 10 15 minutes 00:10:11.200 --> 00:10:16.440 into the game there was that one guy who was just going to completely dominate 00:10:14.880 --> 00:10:21.519 the match and then there was me and every time I saw him he was going to just totally kick my ass and what have 00:10:19.560 --> 00:10:24.920 you guys done to to to change that besides just the gold splitting so 00:10:23.560 --> 00:10:31.440 another thing we've done is that when you kill a player the gold you get rewarded with will be dependent on their 00:10:28.720 --> 00:10:35.320 relative Effectiveness and power to you so gold per minute is a really important 00:10:33.160 --> 00:10:38.120 metric for us that basically calculates how much gold have you been earning this 00:10:36.680 --> 00:10:42.920 game and if you kill someone with less gold per minute than you do you'll get less gold and and on the uh on the flip 00:10:41.880 --> 00:10:48.399 side if they kill you and you have higher than them they get bonus gold so this really really incentivizes our top 00:10:46.720 --> 00:10:52.279 players to go pick on someone their own size and leave the little guys alone a 00:10:50.040 --> 00:10:55.720 little bit and for for us Strife is a game that we don't want and we've all 00:10:54.279 --> 00:11:00.279 all had this experience where you play a game with your friend you're trying to introduce him to to a game you're not 00:10:59.000 --> 00:11:05.079 really playing with them you're playing the same game as them but you kind of shove them off in a corner it's like you 00:11:03.399 --> 00:11:07.880 learn the game while I go and Win It On My Own we really want stri toam an 00:11:06.760 --> 00:11:13.000 experience where you're playing with your friends with your girlfriend with your with your kid not just shoving off 00:11:11.720 --> 00:11:16.720 shoving them off in the corner buy you Awards whatnot well that is incredibly 00:11:15.480 --> 00:11:22.040 exciting is there anything else that you'd like to add for for the audience in terms of the Innovation that you guys 00:11:20.160 --> 00:11:25.399 have put into this game yeah I think the last really cool part is that you get to 00:11:23.560 --> 00:11:28.800 pick your hero before the game starts so what this allows us to do is not only 00:11:27.399 --> 00:11:32.120 take the stress off of it a little bit it's like I got 90 seconds I got to pick 00:11:30.440 --> 00:11:35.440 my hero everyone's going to yell at me um no you get you get to take your time 00:11:33.800 --> 00:11:39.560 pick your hero pick your gear set pick your crafted items um pick your pet do 00:11:38.040 --> 00:11:44.240 everything that you want to do to set up the experience that you have in mind and 00:11:41.800 --> 00:11:47.360 then the other thing that does is allows us to assign a hero specific ELO so if 00:11:46.399 --> 00:11:51.800 you have a hero that you're really good with CU you played it 150 times we know 00:11:49.959 --> 00:11:55.079 that we we'll know your record with that hero and we'll be able to sign you with 00:11:53.279 --> 00:11:58.760 teammates and opponents of an equ equitable level so that you have a good 00:11:56.920 --> 00:12:01.639 game whereas if you're a really high level player but you're trying a new 00:11:59.920 --> 00:12:05.800 hero you might not be rated as high so you're not punished for trying something 00:12:03.000 --> 00:12:12.279 completely new very cool thank you very much this has been absolutely fantastic 00:12:07.519 --> 00:12:12.279 and enjoy the rest of the show thank you