Ex-Blizzard Game Director David Kim talks matchmaking, inspirations, and development of Battle Aces (Exclusive)
Battle Aces takes the idea of the average RTS, and cuts it down to the meat of the action. Something of a cross between a fast-paced MOBA and an RTS, its snappy matches are all about building up and commandeering an army of nanobots to victory. Moreover, resource-management aspects have been minimized to the sidelines.
The debutant title for Uncapped Games, Battle Aces has recently finished its latest closed beta wave, testing the waters for its new 2v2 mode. Before it concluded, we had the opportunity to interview David Kim, the Senior Game Director at Uncapped Games.
In his decade-long career as a game designer and developer, David has been a part of numerous Blizzard classics across different genres - from StarCraft 2 to Heroes of The Storm. Here's what he said.
StarCraft 2 Lead Multiplayer Designer answers 13 questions about his new game, Battle Aces
Q. Before I get to the questions, I should add on a personal note that I found Battle Aces quite intriguing in the very brief time I had with it. I haven't played proper RTS in years - the last one was a Stronghold Crusader map I played in a LAN netcafe in 2012. So I'm not sure I'm the right audience for this. Which brings us to the first question: what do you think is indeed the right audience for this?
David: Everyone! Our vision with Battle Aces was to bring the core fantasy of RTS to the widest audience possible, by distilling the game down to some core tenets – commanding large armies, strategic decision-making, and counter-play, and then removing or reducing mechanical or interface barriers that keep players from being able to execute their strategy.
Q. Battle Aces falls neatly into the ‘why didn’t anyone think of this before?’ bucket of games. I found it pulled off the no-downtime fast-paced RTS side it’s going for... but there’s also the deck-building side of things. How did you come to the idea of combining the two?
David: We’re big fans of all types of strategy games from RTS to turn-based deck games like Hearthstone or other deck-based games like Clash Royale. We liked the idea of letting players create their own army compositions because it adds variety to the matchups you’d play as opposed to traditional faction or race-based strategy games where matchups eventually get solved and there are only one or two correct ways to play a certain matchup.
Q. Are there any major inspirations behind Battle Aces?
The real-time action inspiration mainly came from traditional RTS games such as StarCraft 2. Removing the tedious parts that get in the way of experiencing the core fun of RTS was inspired by many games that have used this type of strategy such as World of Warcraft. Adding more strategic depth through unit decks was inspired by various card games such as Clash Royale. In-game decisions such as Intelligence Bar showing enemy decks, enemy tech progress, and specific unit counter relationships were inspired by building Battle Aces and iterating upon amplifying the core fun of making the most strategy-focused Real Time Strategy game.
Q. There’s a free weekly rotation system of cards to keep things fresh for all players. Does this system give the same cards (units) to all players during a rotation?
David: Yes, everyone gets the same set of free units during a given rotation.
Q. It’s not always possible to form a cohesive deck by combining your starters and what you get from the rotation system. Let's say a player wants to demo cards to test deck synergies, just to see what’s what. Do you have plans for implementing a demo system like this?
David: This is definitely one of many feedback points we’ve heard from players and is definitely one of the topics up for discussion internally. We’ll need to come to a decision on this as with many other things requested by our players, prioritize which systems to work on in what order, and go from there.
For now, we do have a robust unit encyclopedia on the website that notes key traits and shows a sample video of how each unit can be used in battle.
Q. The deck-builder part of Battle Aces is also its main long-term player progression part. How are you going to factor this into matchmaking? Do you only get matched with players who have unlocked an equivalent amount of new robots, or can your deck sometimes just get outclassed?
David: We have developed our skill-based match-making system that takes the overall players’ skills into account. There are many factors such as decks, execution skill, in-game strategizing, countering skill, etc., that help define a fair match. The end goal here is to give players fair matches and we have and will continue to tune our match-making system.
Q. One of the things that ward off people from the RTS genre as a whole is the apparent complexity. Battle Aces basically does away with the early-game resource-management fatigue, but are you going to do anything to manage visual confusion for newer players - particularly those who are not used to microing units?
David: Visual clarity is something that’s at the forefront of our artists’ minds as they design not only the units but the weapons effects and other visual elements in the game. RTS games, particularly ones that are fast-paced with many units on screen, can get chaotic. To that end, we try to make sure our units have distinct silhouettes, size variation, and clear movement animation so players can at-a-glance understand what’s happening in the battle and give an opportunity to react and command accordingly.
I would also like to point out that, unlike traditional RTS games where the game eventually settles to being about who executes micro better, our goal is to create a game where the strategizing and unit countering continue to matter at all times through new unit adds and unit changes every season.
Q. Doing a full 180 from my last question - because 2v2s may get chaotic enough already. 2v2s present a cool evolution of the Archon mode blueprint. What are your thoughts on the idea of 2v2v2s, or even 3v3s?
David: We’re very open to the idea of different game modes; once Battle Aces is in a released state and we’re cycling through different seasons, those seasonal updates are a good opportunity for us to not only introduce new units and reset ladder ranks but potentially try out fun new game modes.
Q. Assuming you have plans for Battle Aces’ Esports scene (if not, hypothetically), would you host your first tournament with 1v1s or 2v2s? Or, to frame the same question a bit differently, which mode do you think Battle Aces shines more in?
David: With regard to esports, we’re going to let the community take the lead in determining what formats and modes make the most sense. At the outset we see ourselves taking more of a supporting role in how players want to participate in a competitive scene, as opposed to dictating what that might look like. So far we’ve seen a few fun community tournaments during our beta tests including King of the Hill-type events, as well as traditional 1v1 series where players adjust their unit decks between each game.
Q. Battle Aces matches take place on just one symmetrical map from my experience so far. Do you have plans to implement other maps, or potentially a system for custom maps?
David: For now we’re showcasing the 1v1 map set on Earth and the 2v2 map set on Mars. Our belief is that the most effective gameplay variety comes from the many different unit deck combinations and synergies as opposed to different map configurations. That said, there are things we can do with lighting, and time of day to give visual variety to the existing maps. Stay tuned!
Q. A big point of Battle Aces is its in-your-face simplicity. I also noticed that there’s no elaborate lore build-up or anything. Is that intentional?
David: There is actually a backstory and lore behind the design of the units and corporate factions that have created them. For now, you can get a glimpse of some of that story on the website here World - Battle Aces (playbattleaces.com), and also on each unit page. We’re going to explore some ways in and out of the game to showcase more of the world and the setting of Battle Aces as we get closer to launch.
Q. Also following up on the simplicity: how do you plan to evolve the game in the future? Battle Aces feels somewhat similar to a MOBA, and those tend to sometimes evolve with new features, which can essentially soft reset the competitive meta when it starts to settle. But would feature bloat such as secondary objectives be counterintuitive to the design of this game?
David: We talked earlier about seasonal updates to the game. This will be a primary vehicle behind how we keep the gameplay fresh and new in Battle Aces. New units and adjusted balance every season can vary up to how the game is played. Post-launch, we will be exploring other ideas like event modes that can change up fundamental rules to provide a new playing experience.
Q. Battle Aces is a f2p game with monetization, which implies a sort of internal conflict: how do you strike a balance between a fair f2p competitive environment and the incentive to buy cards with premium?
David: We’ve talked about this in a very recent dev blog here. We’re still exploring a number of different ideas on this topic, but our goal is to create the most fun and most widely-played strategy game we can make.
While Battle Aces does not have a specific release date yet, it is well on the way. You can currently wishlist it on Steam, or learn more about its exciting features on the official website.