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MMObility: Legacy of a Thousand Suns goes mobile
Legacy of a Thousand Suns by developer 5th Planet Games is a relatively simple game that is very similar to Dawn of the Dragons, its sister title. I found Dawn of the Dragons to be strangely appealing even though it's not much more than an interactive story with very basic combat. It helped that I was given a massive pile of in-game currency and so was able to play at a non-stop rate, but even a small investment into either title buys a pretty good chunk of in-game cash and energy to spend on actions. Legacy of a Thousand Suns is essentially a sci-fi themed Dawn of the Dragons. Gameplay is so similar that a player could jump between the two instantly and a new player could be gaining levels literally within minutes. I'm not sure how to describe the appeal of a game that consists mainly of pressing a button several times, taking a break, and coming back after the energy pool fills back up to do it again. Let me attempt to describe its appeal anyway and to figure out whether the mobile version is really a good thing or not.
Rise and Shiny: Dawn of the Dragons
There's no way for me to describe Dawn of the Dragons without it sounding a bit like the old Mafia Wars-style games that were so massively popular on Facebook years ago. The truth is that, yes, games designed around clicking a button a few times or even several hundred times (depending on your tolerance) sound like they cast some sort of spell on the playerbase. Surely these people cannot behaving any sort of fun and instead are trained animals, responding only to the bit of food that drops out of the chute. I'm the first one to admit that much of the gameplay in a game like Dawn of the Dragons by 5th Planet Games pays out the most to those who hit the buttons the most. But I'm also the first to defend the design and to say that it can be a lot of fun. Let's not pretend that even the most immersive, realistic, epic MMO in the world cannot be turned into a series of button-smashings. We've all known a player in almost any game who has reduced her electronic adventures down to an efficient science. Does a game like Dawn of the Dragons just do away with all of the mumbo-jumbo to get to the meat of the gameplay: the button mashing?
Rise and Shiny: Star Sonata
I first intended to use this article as a list of things to avoid if you are an indie dev, and I was going to use Star Sonata, an indie, twitch-based space MMO, as the prime example on that list. The game works, sure, and it obviously has a playerbase that seems to enjoy itself, but I am not sure how long it might take a normal, new player to achieve the same level of happiness. I literally had to re-do this visit to the game because the first attempt was hijacked by a glitchy livestream and other issues. Luckily, the first attempt had primed this second one a bit more, but I have still spent most of the week confused. The worst part about being so lost in a game like Star Sonata is that it's very easy to see just how much potential the game has. Hopefully, this article -- combined with input from the players -- might just help the developers fix some of the very basic issues that are hurting this game.
