Hello and greetings from Antihero Studios. This is our first post as the new stewards of the game and we hope this news finds you well and in good spirits.
Our development team has been busy digging into the game code and current feature set for the last month and now, we would like to walk you through our future development plans for the game, as well as answer any follow up questions you might have. So, without further ado, here is our development road map for late 2020 through early 2021.
Q2 (Before today...)
This was the behind-the-scenes working with Asmodee Digital to transfer the project from FFI over to Antihero Studios and work out all the specifics. This is now complete and we have been given the green light to get rolling.
Q3 2020 (Today through September)
Community Recovery
The once active community channels have fallen dark in the months since the FFI studio closure, and now we are working to relight those beacons. We want to see players sharing and engaging within a vibrant community again, so starting next week, our community manager, Sarah, will be taking the reins of the rebuilding efforts, starting with live streams twice a week. She will be working to rebuild, demoing the game for new players, answering questions, doing developer interviews, and providing the latest updates on new feature and content developments.
Development Begins
Development of new content, refactors, and bug fixes started Monday (7/21) at full speed.
Revising Store Pages
We have plans to refresh the product store pages with updated images, cleaner branding, and a clear message that LotR:ACG is a tactical strategy game.
New Game Mode (Adventures)
We will be bringing a new game mode to the game called Adventure mode. Adventure mode is a new single player, story-based experience that aims to fill a hole in the game’s current play mode line up...the ability to play through key story events from the books. This mode will feature all new gameplay elements such as unique story-based hero cards and abilities, Adventure-only card decks, in-game drafting, and persistence mechanics that extend attachments and stat damage/buffs between quests. Each will be a stand-alone experience and will play out over three quests (10-15 locations).
Adventures will be offered as purchasable downloadable content similar to the previous DLC content releases, and we will be announcing more details on game features and pricing as we approach release.
DLC#1 and DLC#2 Announce
We are happy to announce our first two content releases for the game will be the following Adventures:
Q4 2020 (October to December)
Bug Fix Release
Any past bug reports/Helpshift reports that were submitted have been transferred into our bug tracker and we will try to get as many as possible corrected in the Q4 release. You can submit suggestions or bugs via the Asmodee Digital Helpshift system here.
DLC#1 and #2 Release
Our first two Adventures go live. (see “Adventure Mode” above for more details).
Mirror of Galadriel : Draft Mode (TBD)
We are working on improving the Mirror of Galadriel (MoG) gameplay. MoG is our quick-play/random-generation mode, and this week we added card drafting. It is early, but we will keep you updated on how it’s going and if it turns out to be good enough to ship with the refactor release.
UI Refresh
A clean redesign of the menu will be coming as well, with the goal of improving access to all of the content within the game and provide some extra polish. Below are several screen caps of the new in-progress menu redesign:
Offline Single Player Client
Originally the game was designed to be F2P (free-to-play), and thus, currently has an always-on network requirement. We will be releasing a fully offline version of the single-player client which will no longer require a constant connection. You will be able to maintain your current unlocks while also retaining the ability to play online cooperatively.
DLC #3 Announce
We will be announcing our plans for our third content release. Currently this is slated to be Campaign 4, with a release target of Jan/Feb.
Q1/Q2 2021 (January to June)
DLC #3 Release
Our third content release will go live.
Reward Progress Tracking
Unlocking extra content in the game is an important secondary challenge the game offers, and we want to provide more visibility into your progress towards those unlocks. The elements providing this feedback will have already been included in the Q4 UI redesign, but they likely won’t be ready to go live until 1Q/2Q.
Debulking of Card frames and Cameos
We are planning on redesigning the card frames and cameos to further separate LotR:ACG from other digital card games currently on the market. As with many of our other changes, these changes will move the visuals in a more lore-focused direction. Below are some early explorations that, though just early wireframe sketches, get the debulking idea across.
But what about….
Many of you that have been reaching out to us with ideas, tweaks (difficulty curves, achievements, deck sizes), and new feature requests (mobile platforms, deck codes, etc) might be disheartened that your requested item is not on the list above. Give us time. We are listening. Please keep posting and discussing on the forums/discussion boards/discord and we will do our best to listen/consider/scope/fix those which are both realistically achievable and improve the game experience.
Risks
This is an ambitious road map, and we would be remiss if we didn’t acknowledge that we are developing this game during a global pandemic. Our biggest concerns revolve around having everything ready to roll across all six platforms in time for the holiday console submission deadline. Normally, you want to time your console submissions to be into cert by the end of September/early October to avoid the holiday game rush that floods console cert teams each year in November. Now with Covid-19, understandably, they may not be operating at their usual tempo and there may be delays. However, we will do our best to hit our timelines, wrap up early, and keep you updated the whole way.
That’s it! Our 2020 feature road map. Please post any questions/comments/thoughts in the comment section below and we will try to answer them as best we can.
Talk again soon,
Greg
Antihero Studios/LotR:ACG Development Lead