Created by Ben Brode, former lead designer and game director of Hearthstone, Marvel SNAP is a card game where players build decks of Marvel heroes and villains to battle for the control of three locations, all within a snappy six turns.
We spoke to Brode about the vast Marvel universe, the art of a successful Snap and more.
Multiverse of radness
“We came up with the idea of a card game that really celebrates the heroes of the Marvel universe,” says Brode. The game’s wealth of content would do the Collector proud. You can find household names such as Captain America and Professor X, alongside unexpected appearances from the likes of Cosmo the Spacedog and Lockjaw.
Just as there are radically different versions of Marvel characters across the multiverse, there are multiple variants of the same card. “There’s pixel Spider-Man, Black Suit Spider-Man and Scarlet Spider,” Brode says, “all painted by today’s top artists.”
Each variant can be upgraded with striking visual effects including animations, frame-break and 3D parallax. The more cards you upgrade, the more you’ll get to unlock.
With great powers come great adaptability
Just as Marvel characters often form unlikely alliances and unexpected bonds, in Marvel SNAP their powers can interact with each other’s to create powerful combos.
Iron Man and Ironheart have no powers of their own, for example, but will give massive boosts to their teammates. As a nod to the comics, Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur work well together — Moon Girl can duplicate the cards in your hand, while Devil Dinosaur gets stronger the more cards you have.
The pacing is designed with these combos in mind. “Six turns is about the amount of time where you get to have a nice crescendo, where you’ve some really cool combos without being so long that it gets unmanageable.”
The three locations in each match have game-changing effects; such as adding an extra round or swapping players’ hands. This keeps players on their toes: “It creates novel scenarios, and the players who are better at adapting on the fly are going to be better players.”
The trick of the Snap
A Snap is a pivotal moment in a match where you double the game’s wager of precious Cosmic Cubes. Players can Snap back and forth, raising the stakes of a single match from a single Cosmic Cube all the way to eight.
But there’s a catch – a Snap takes effect on the next turn, allowing you to resign early and avoid huge losses. “If you want to bail out of the game before it ends, it’s not going to be worth as much should you stay until the very end. Or you can use it to bluff your opponents and make them think that you’re winning when you’re not,” Brode explains.
“It creates this super-fun mind-game moment where you try to make a play that will make your rival think you’re going to do one thing, but you’re actually doing another thing,” Brode enthuses.