Marvel Snap is a "fledgling" studio's first game and getting the chance to work for Marvel is a huge opportunity, with one developer speaking to those benefits. At Disney & Marvel Games Showcase, Disney shared a new trailer of Marvel Snap that showed off its gameplay and introduced some of its features. The trailer had a big emphasis on portability and the simplicity of Marvel Snap, and it also featured some eye-catching artwork on the cards.
Marvel Snap is a collectible card game made by Second Dinner, a studio consisting of former Hearthstone developers, with Nuverse as its publisher. It was officially announced back in May for mobile devices and PC. Marvel had teased Marvel Snap a day before the announcement via a short video on its Twitter account featuring Ironheart, America Chavez, Venom, and More. Now, fans following the game have gotten to learn more, and at D23, Game ZXC had the chance to speak with Second Dinner's Chief Development Officer Ben Brode about working with Disney on its first studio game.
Brode mentioned that Second Dinner is fortunate to get to work with Marvel on its first game, as that's obviously a huge "get" for a studio of any level. According to Brode, Marvel helps with the development of Marvel Snap across all departments by making sure everything is kept accurate. Brode then talks about specific details, such as a keeping a particular shade of pink on Gambit's cards character accurate, as an example of Marvel’s collaborative efforts. However, he also mentions that Second Dinner is free to do anything it wants and how Marvel is not breathing down its neck.
Specifically, Brode cited Disney's loose approach as,
It's a Multiverse. You can do anything you want. You can create a new character, change the ethnicity or gender of a character, or paint a character in 8-bit. You can imagine what if this character is infested by the Venom symbiote.
Judging by the answer, it looks like Marvel is giving Second Dinner a lot of freedom in terms of how the development team can approach iconic Marvel characters. Marvel is particular about details, as given in the Gambit example, but Second Dinner is seemingly allowed to do anything it wants. This feeling is probably extremely encouraging to any developer, let alone a new one. Plus, given the vast experience the team has with Hearthstone, it’ll be interesting to see how Second Dinner implements its ideas in Marvel Snap.
Marvel had previously given an overview of Marvel Snap alongside the original announcement. Marvel Snap is a fast-paced card game, with each match lasting about three minutes. Additionally, it’s scheduled to have over 150 base cards on day one, with more coming as post-launch content.
The Disney & Marvel Games Showcase also featured other new announcements, especially for fans who play games on mobile devices. However, probably the biggest news was the announcement of a new game featuring Captain America and Black Panther by a studio called Skydance New Media. Amy Hennig, the creator of the Uncharted series, is overseeing the development of this currently untitled project, but it's clear that the showcase had plenty for Marvel fans from all walks of life.
Marvel Snap releases on October 18 on iOS, Android, and PC.