Silent_Buddha
Legend
Holy crap is DOTA 2 Autochess incredibly addictive even if the controls are utterly wonky.
For those that don't know DOTA 2 Autochess is a mod for DOTA 2. It doesn't really have anything to do with chess other than the game being played on a chess like board. Autochess itself was inspired by a Warcraft 3 mod (which was Pokémon inspired).
Even though it started as just a mod for DOTA 2, people were paying the developers to get more in game currency (which is earned in game) just to get different couriers (basically a cosmetic that doesn't affect gameplay).
I'm just throwing a new thread instead of putting into an existing one because this appears to potentially be the next big thing. It's so popular that it has spawned a Mobile client and multiple companies are now making their versions of it. I'm just going to list the main 3.
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First off we have the DOTA 2 Autochess mod. The mod was so popular (100k-300k players at any given time day or night with over 8 million downloads in DOTA 2) that earlier in the year Valve went to China to try to hire the team and buy the rights to Autochess.
Epic at the urging of Tencent, however, pulled a Valve (when Valve acquired the DOTA team which was making the mod in Warcraft III) and paid them more money to make a client for the game and make it exclusive to the Epic store on PC. The mobile client is published by Tencent in China and I believe Epic outside of China.
There are questions on how this will be handled as AutoChess being a DOTA 2 mod contains a lot of IP owned by Valve. It's possible that they've made some licensing agreements to continue to use the characters and their likenesses at least for the short term.
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Next up DOTA Underlands. Unlike Blizzard when Valve acquired the developers of DOTA 2, they aren't just standing around twiddling their thumbs and filing lawsuits against the developers. As soon as they couldn't aquire the developers of Autochess, they made their own version of the game. It lacks some of the features of Autochess (no courier) and simplifies loot, but is otherwise very similar with a larger roster of character pieces from the DOTA 2 game.
This is still in closed BETA although it is supposed to go into open BETA tomorrow. They just added a ranking system in today, but it's unclear how they plan to monetize the game. Autochess monetization was in the form of being able to buy more currency to be able to get the different couriers. Speculation is that Valve will instead monetize cosmetics for each character piece.
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Then we have the 800 lb gorilla that is a new player to this. Teamfight Tactics based on League of Legends (Riot Games). Their massive userbase instantly gives them massive pull in this fledgling game type. It's also the one I know the least about as I don't play or watch League of Legends.
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I believe some other companies have also announced plans for DOTA 2 Autochess like games as well. All good to me. I really dig the mix of tactics + RNG + sense of progression (or frustration) as each game evolves differently due to item drops, what pieces are offered to you, etc.
Regards,
SB
For those that don't know DOTA 2 Autochess is a mod for DOTA 2. It doesn't really have anything to do with chess other than the game being played on a chess like board. Autochess itself was inspired by a Warcraft 3 mod (which was Pokémon inspired).
Even though it started as just a mod for DOTA 2, people were paying the developers to get more in game currency (which is earned in game) just to get different couriers (basically a cosmetic that doesn't affect gameplay).
I'm just throwing a new thread instead of putting into an existing one because this appears to potentially be the next big thing. It's so popular that it has spawned a Mobile client and multiple companies are now making their versions of it. I'm just going to list the main 3.
______
First off we have the DOTA 2 Autochess mod. The mod was so popular (100k-300k players at any given time day or night with over 8 million downloads in DOTA 2) that earlier in the year Valve went to China to try to hire the team and buy the rights to Autochess.
Epic at the urging of Tencent, however, pulled a Valve (when Valve acquired the DOTA team which was making the mod in Warcraft III) and paid them more money to make a client for the game and make it exclusive to the Epic store on PC. The mobile client is published by Tencent in China and I believe Epic outside of China.
There are questions on how this will be handled as AutoChess being a DOTA 2 mod contains a lot of IP owned by Valve. It's possible that they've made some licensing agreements to continue to use the characters and their likenesses at least for the short term.
______
Next up DOTA Underlands. Unlike Blizzard when Valve acquired the developers of DOTA 2, they aren't just standing around twiddling their thumbs and filing lawsuits against the developers. As soon as they couldn't aquire the developers of Autochess, they made their own version of the game. It lacks some of the features of Autochess (no courier) and simplifies loot, but is otherwise very similar with a larger roster of character pieces from the DOTA 2 game.
This is still in closed BETA although it is supposed to go into open BETA tomorrow. They just added a ranking system in today, but it's unclear how they plan to monetize the game. Autochess monetization was in the form of being able to buy more currency to be able to get the different couriers. Speculation is that Valve will instead monetize cosmetics for each character piece.
______
Then we have the 800 lb gorilla that is a new player to this. Teamfight Tactics based on League of Legends (Riot Games). Their massive userbase instantly gives them massive pull in this fledgling game type. It's also the one I know the least about as I don't play or watch League of Legends.
______
I believe some other companies have also announced plans for DOTA 2 Autochess like games as well. All good to me. I really dig the mix of tactics + RNG + sense of progression (or frustration) as each game evolves differently due to item drops, what pieces are offered to you, etc.
Regards,
SB
