Your rule is limited to iOS, Android in King's Bounty: Legions for mobile

The reach of your mobile armies has just been cut a bit short. Speaking to Pocket Gamer at the Gamescom conference in Cologne, Germany, Nival Interactive said that the Facebook and mobile versions of King's Bounty: Legions will not enjoy cross-platform gameplay. Basically, those who play on iOS and Android will not be able to dominate those on Facebook, and vise versa.

King's Bounty fans will have to download the app and start all over again with a mobile squad of peasants in the first town. Eventually, they'll be able to duke it out hexagonal-like with their fancy smartphone-having friends. This will likely limit the pool of opponents you'll have upon launching the game. Though, we're sure the fact that King's Bounty: Legions for iOS and Android devices will be free-to-play, just like its social cousin, will pique your interest.

The game, a social revival of a classic fantasy strategy franchise, launched on Facebook just this month, and has seen limited growth with just over 33,000 players. Hopefully King's Bounty: Legion for mobile devices will breathe some life into this project later this year, as it's more than deserving of a spot with the top strategy games on Facebook.

Do you think King's Bounty will find its audience on Facebook? Could the mobile version be where more of those closet King's Bounty fans are hiding? Sound off in the comments. Add Comment.

Bookmark this site!

View the original article here

King's Bounty: Legions trailer asks, 'Will you be a king or pawn' [Video]

We hope you'll go with the former, or this will be one terribly boring game for you. Nival, the Russian developer of the hit strategy franchise King's Bounty, has released the first trailer for King's Bounty: Legions, its Facebook adaptation of the series.

The company has started the invite-only beta test of the game through Gamesradar. Members of the video game news website will have instant access to the King's Bounty beta on Facebook, and can invite anyone they please. So, at least everyone will get a crack at the hexagonal madness eventually.

The trailer poses an important if rhetorical question to players: "Will you be a king or a pawn?" Then, it dives right into some flashy gameplay footage filled with spells, swords and spiders--you know, what you expect from a fantasy game these days. We first got a look at the game at this year's E3, but now we know a bit more about King's Bounty: Legions. Namely, it uses the Unity Player to display its arguably beautiful 3D graphics and sparkly spells, which means an extra download.

The turn-based strategy game is being developed by KranX Productions, another Russian developer. King's Bounty on Facebook is most definitely going after the hardcore crowd, which is more familiar with tools like the Unity Player and likely has more of an affinity for the franchise. Players will be able to manage their armies through a card system across the Kingdom (humans and general good guys), Chaos (orcs, beasts with several eyes, you name it), Beasts (wild animals) and The Ancients (unicorns and other mythical creatures) factions. Covering all of these factions is the class system: Archer - This range class offers players the chance to deal damage while keeping a safe distance from the fray.Defender - The best offense is a good defense, as demonstrated with their ability to withstand heavy attacks from enemies.Mage - Unleash magical powers to conquer foes from afar with these masters of the mystic arts.Support - Everybody needs somebody to watch their back and this class is the go-to back-up in battle.Warrior - Whether it's swinging a big sword, showing off some big fangs or just being a frontline trooper, this class will get up close and personal with foes.
The game will also have an asynchronous feature that allows players to do battle even when away, according to King's Bounty: Legions North American producer David D. Christensen. If you want an invite into the beta, you'll either have to sign up for a Gamesradar account or wait for a friend to invite you. And after watching that explosive trailer, we're sure you're patience for an invite will be tested.

Are you excited to see this seasoned strategy franchise come to Facebook? How do you think the Facebook game audience will receive the game? Sound off in the comments. Add Comment.

Bookmark this site!

View the original article here

Nival North America to Bring Russian Strategy PC Series King’s Bounty to Facebook

Russia has a long history with PC strategy games that includes the King’s Bounty series, a forerunner to the long-lived Heroes of Might & Magic PC strategy saga. Russian developer Nival hopes to bring the King’s Bounty franchise to Facebook both in Russia and in the United States by finding hardcore gamers on the site.

The ideal of the untapped “hardcore” gamer on Facebook is not new, with developer Kabam specifically targeting this demographic of dedicated male gamers as far back as 2008. With King’s Bounty and additional social game strategies for other intellectual properties, however, Nival is in a unique position to tap an emerging market for social games in a region Facebook hasn’t be able to penetrate well. The key, Nival North America General Manger David D Christensen tells us, is making chess appeal to checkers players with King’s Bounty: Legions for Facebook (pictured below).

“The [typical]  way you monetize on Facebook is by having a lot of users,” Christensen says. “I think a lot of these 150 million gamers that other companies have attracted on Facebook are checkers players. King’s Bounty is more like chess. You can’t do something else while you’re playing chess and [still] be good at chess.”

The King’s Bounty series puts players in the role of a leader with a class restriction such as mage, paladin, etc. and allows them to recruit squadrons of troops to order into battle as the player explores the world. The series has never before featured a competitive multiplayer component, and this is where Nival knows it can innovate with King’s Bounty on Facebook in a way that’s consistent with the platform features. The idea is that players can participate in traditional turn-based combat in live matches with other players’ armies in sessions that last up to 15 minutes.

“[A game isn’t] innovative just because it’s on a new platform,” Christensen says. “If you’re going to bring a game [franchise] to a platform, you have to use the features of that platform otherwise it’s not a new game. King’s Bounty is a fairly deep and fun game when you play on PC and we’re going to build that into the game, but the core of it is going to be [player versus player combat]. Because what we think King’s Bounty players really want is the chance to kick each others’ asses, which they’ve never been able to do before.”

King’s Bounty will be Nival’s first experiment with a purely social game that exists only on a social network, however, Facebook fits into the developer’s long-term strategy of developing “social strategy games” that build on multiple levels of skill and genre preferences of players into team-based multiplayer games. Christensen illustrates the concept of the game type with Nival’s other game in development, Prime World, for which Nival reportedly raised $5 million in funding.

Prime World is for the most part a browser-based multiplayer game where teams of five players battle in an arena. Christensen says that game will straddle multiple platforms such as Android and iOS by building components with the Unity 3D engine, which features a plugin for a possible Facebook component. The game will also use Facebook Connect to identify players’ friends as potential team members, and to determine which gender the player takes within the game, which will contribute to the skill set the player has available.

“The question is how do we make the social games more social,” Christensen explains. He says that people in real life experience much of their social interaction in how they relate to the opposite sex, which is what Nival wants to tap into with Prime World’s game system. “So this is still being tweaked, but [the concept is] there are advantages in-game from having mixed gender teams. So like male characters in the party can only heal female characters. Your gender defaults to what you have on Facebook profile.”

Nival may also break out components of the game onto Facebook. For example, Prime World’s arena combat is supplemented by a castle-building meta-game and by an in-combat puzzle mini-game, both of which generate consumables that give players of the browser game advantages in combat. By straddling the different platforms and the different game types, Nival hopes to create a game experience that’s truly social in the way players create these dependent relationships to harvest and use resources.

The danger with attempting to incorporate so many different genres and platforms into a single game experience is becoming “nothing to no one,” as Christensen says he once experienced when working on a game that tried to be both a massively multiplayer game and a first-person shooter. But with Prime World and also with King’s Bounty: Legions, he says that Nival is mindful of creating a strong core game around which all other components — including social network elements like gifting and invites — fall into place to create a cohesive experience.

Again, the key is finding both the hardcore players and potential new players from the existing casual Facebook gamer audience.

“Finding King’s Bounty players [is easy],” Christensen says. “There are a bunch of King’s Bounty pages [for the various PC games]. We can find those gamers. Figuring out what it was [they] liked and bringing that Facebook — we’ve got a blueprint, so that’s not hard. The challenge is making that appealing to more than just hardcore gamers. It’s taking chess and making it appeal to checkers players.”

Nival hopes to have King’s Bounty: Legions live in beta on Facebook this summer. Prime World is slated to enter beta before the end of the year. North American players will have the chance to experience both games at the Electronics Entertainment Expo in Los Angeles early next month.

[Editor's Note: Nival is the result of a merger between Nival Interactive and Nival Network, which runs Russian social games network Zzima.com. It is not to be confused with Nival Online, which Nival CEO and founder Sergey Orlovskiy previously sold to Mail.ru.]

View the original article here

Nival to bring social strategy game King's Bounty: Legions to Facebook this summer

by Brandy Shaul, Posted May 25th 2011 8:23PM

Russian PC game developer Nival has announced today that they will be bringing the first ever social installment in the King's Bounty series - King's Bounty: Legions - to Facebook sometime this summer. Widely considered to be the predecessor of the Heroes of Might and Magic series, Nival hopes to capitalize on the franchise's existing fan base, along with introducing the brand to the unfamiliar. Taking the turn-based strategy gameplay that the series is known for and adding a social twist, King's Bounty: Legions will present players with an in-depth storyline spread across 40 initial gameplay levels.

Gameplay sees users primarily taking part in strategic, turn-based battles on a honeycomb grid, while completing quests along the way. You'll be able to manage your armies by hiring additional troops, and will be able to choose from multiple forms of combat based on your tastes. You can enter into PvP combat, taking the fight to your Facebook friends, or PvE battles, which see you fighting against intelligent AI armies. Regardless of the battle you enter, you'll need to use strategy to win, so I'd expect a fairly in-depth user interface and tons of gameplay customization options to accompany the game's release.

For the first time in the series' history, this installment will see additional gameplay and content added on what appears to be a regular basis, to fit in with (what are now) social gaming standards. While the 40 initial levels will keep players busy in the short term, Nival already has plans to release regular game updates that will include access to new troop types, creatures, maps and quests. It's unknown right now as to whether or not those updates will be for free, or will require the use of premium currency, but we do know that King's Bounty: Legions will support the purchase of in-game items.

Beta testing for the game will begin this summer, with the game then being released on the iOS and Android platforms at a later date. With more and more developers hoping to reel in the "hardcore" gamer, while still catering to the predominantly casual Facebook audience, we'll make sure to let you know how this one stacks up upon release.

Are you a King's Bounty fan, or do you prefer the Heroes of Might and Magic series? If you're new to both games, what do you think about the idea of turn-based combat against your Facebook friends? Do you think there's room on Facebook for hardcore game experiences normally only found on consoles, or can every genre coexist on the platform? Sound off in the comments.

Bookmark this site!

Tags: android, facebook, facebook games, heroes of might and magic, ios, kings bounty, nival

View the original article here