On a hopefully lighter note to whats happening as I had some positive feedback from my comment here I've decided to open my private Minecraft server to those in Perth, especially the kids who are affected by the lockdown. It's hosted at a local DC so should be up permanently and with low ping. Please be nice. It's called Cryptonia (no relation to crypto, I just wanted a short cheap domain). The server is geo-locked to Australia and is a pretty quiet server generally.
It's a bit of a unique server in that it is the worlds first server to support Minecraft Java, Minecraft Bedrock and Minecraft Education Edition, though there are a couple more springing up now. I'm the developer of the Minecraft Education translator and it builds upon the already amazing shoulders of GeyserMC which provides the Minecraft Bedrock translator. The server itself runs Java Minecraft so using a Java client will provide the best experience.
All details can be found at: https://cryptonia.in
You can also connect using a game console like an XBox, PS4, Switch by using BedrockConnect.
Edit:
Some useful info:

• It's a bungeecord server so it's actually a bunch of servers that you can hop around on, each with their own worlds and plugins. I have a plugin that starts and stops them on demand so joining a world with no online players may take about 30seconds as the server starts. It also means that if you want a specific world with specific rules let me know and I'm happy to add it on. Also if you know of any cool multiplayer vanilla maps.
  
• The season 3 world's include a close to vanilla survival, creative and flat land as well as SkyBlock, skygrid, caveblock, oneblock, acid island by Bentobox. It also had a "cryptonia world" that has a couple of different game changing plugins (elitemobs plugin for example) and some protected areas. I will tend to spin up a separate world when using game changing plugins as they have the potential to make things unfun. I also have a bunch of vanilla minigame maps like sprintracer, pixel party and a lot of frustrating parkour maps.
  
• Chat is localised to the server you are on. To "yell" out to players on other servers prefix your chat with "/g". (for global). Java players can hit tab to see who is online in what server. I will have to write an extension to do the same for bedrock players one of these days.
  
• Bedrock/Ed users will get an additonal prompt at login to optionally use another username. This is so you are not restricted to your Xbox username and more importantly for Ed users you don't leak your name which is often your username.
  

Famitsu Magazine's January 2021 issue had released the results of its Genshin Impact Fan Survey that they run on their 3 platforms: Famitsu website, Famitsu mobile app, and Dengeki Online. The survey ran between Nov. 6 to Nov. 15, 2020. There were (less or more than) 1850 people who responded to the survey.
Survey Demographics: 82% Male, 18% Female. Most responses are in their 20's, followed by 30's and 10's.
Take note that this survey is mostly influenced before the Patch 1.1 update.
Original article here: 『原神』ユーザー1850人が回答したファンアンケートの結果を公開！ 好きなキャラクターやいちばん苦戦した魔物は？ - ファミ通.com (famitsu.com)
Note: Take note that I use machine translations here, so these translations are kinda bumpy. Feel free to comment if you spot any mistakes or correct some translations.

Who's your favorite character?

​ There are some who liked them because of their cuteness or coolness, but more than that, they like them because of their strength and utility. There are also people who like them because of their mobile Elemental Skills, which can be useful for exploration.
10.) Jean (85 responses)
9.) Barbara (89 responses)
8.) Noelle (101 responses)
7.) Fischl (107 responses)
6.) Mona (121 responses)
5.) Lumine/Hotaru/Traveler (Female) (131 responses)

• Her idle animations are so cute! (30's / Male)
• She can conveniently change elements and at the top of that, she's cute! (40's / Female)
• Excellent elemental skills for both combat and exploration. It's very convenient and can be incorporated into any kind of team formation! (10's / Female)

4.) Qiqi/Nana (139 responses)

• I like the feeling of 'breaking the seal' on her compelling voice when I raise her friendship level. (20's / male) (Thanks Tsumaranchan)
• I like her cute appearance, her cute personality, Yukari Tamura's pretty voice, and her ability to use both as an attacker and as a healer. All in all, I love it. (30's / female)

3.) Diluc (156 responses)

• He's so cool and has a lot of firepower. (30's / female)
• I'm attracted to a "dark knight" who protects Mondstadt behind the scenes while running a winery. (10's / male)
• His elemental skills are easy to use, and can deal a lot of damage within its reach. (10's / female)

2.) FBI bait Jean bait Klee (207 responses)

• She's so powerful you'd want to pursue (her damage) to its limit! (40's / male)
• Lolis are the best! (10's / male)
• Cute is justice! (20's / male)
• Because she's both cute and strong! (20's / male)
• I like the piquant character and because she is cute. I thought the "Fleeing Sunlight" would appropriately describe her. (30's / male)

1.) Keqing/Kokusei (238 responses)

• Consistent DPS and good for exploration due to her mobility. No other character can replace her. (30's / male)
• She's strong; doesn't have any problems dealing in melee or ranged combat. ()20's / male)
• She's easy to cause Elemental Reactions and works well with other characters. Also, she's cute! (20's / male)
• Because she's my first 5-star I pulled (10's / male)
• The fact that I can move in any direction with her Elemental Skill, I can do plunging attacks to the ground. (20's / male)
• She's cute and strong! (10's / male)
• While her Elemental Skills are useful for exploration, her powerful Charged Attack is really appealing. (10's / male)

Which female character would you like to have as your girlfriend?

​ Jean, the Acting Grand Master of the Knights of Favonius/the West Wind (Zephyrus), takes the first place. Rather than citing her attractiveness, many people praised her perseverance.
1.) Jean (238 responses)

• I like the fact that she is rational and calm. (20's / female)
• She seems to care for the family and she would cook for me. (10's / male)
• She's sincere and honest. I would like to support on her side. (30's / male)
• She usually gives the impression of being serious, but when she "switch off," she seems to be surprisingly soft. (20's / male)

2.) Keqing/Kokusei (224 responses)

• I like the fact that she's very serious and works harder than anyone else. (20's / male)
• She seems to be able to point out on what's wrong. (30's / male)
• I want to see her embarrassed face! (10's / male)
• I like her dignified appearance (20's / male)

3.) Barbara (192 responses)

• Her looks and personality are just right (20's / male)
• She's kind and cute; and can cook too. (20's / male)
• She can heal me mentally as well. (20's / male)
• White pantyhose/tights are the best! (50's / male)
• I want to listen to her singing all the time (30's / male)

4.) Lumine/Hotaru/Traveler (Female) (176 responses)
5.) Noelle (157 responses)

Which male character would you like to have as your boyfriend?

​ Cool, strong, and wealthy, Diluc is an overwhelming favorite! Regardless of gender, many players like him.
1.) Diluc (612 responses)

• Tall, rich, strong, and handsome! (30's / male)
• After reading the official manga, I found out of his kindness, and I liked him even more! (20's / female)
• An ideal hero. I can trust him. (40's / male)
• I'd like to shoulder some justice that he bears. (20's / female)

2.) Kaeya/Gaia (173 responses)

• I'd like to be his drinking buddy and have a quiet conversation with him. (30's / female)
• I'll be having a good time with him. (30's / female)
• I would like to talk to him, because he seems to know a lot of things. (10's / male)

3.) Venti (150 responses)

• Whenever I feed sad, he'll cheer me up with his songs and ballads. It doesn't matter what troubles I have whenever I see his flippant attitude. (10's / female)
  
• He's cute, it's so unfair. (20's / female)
  

4.) Xingqiu/Yukuaki (139 responses)
5.) AetheSora/Traveler (Male) (88 responses)

Which characters do you use more often?

​ While the top three remained the same as in the favorite character ranking (but not in the same slots, sans the other one,) the fourth and fifth places are different.
​ Ones who made it in are Venti, with his powerful Elemental Burst, and Fischl, with Oz as her excellent support.
1.) Klee (225 responses)
2.) Keqing/Kokusei (217 responses)
3.) Diluc (202 responses)
4.) Venti (147 responses)
5.) Fischl (134 responses)
6.) Lumine/Hotaru/Traveler (Female) (110 responses)
7.) Noelle (107 responses)
8.) Qiqi/Nana (99 responses)
9.) Jean (87 responses)
10.) Razor (86 responses)

What's your favorite weapon type?

1.) Swords (One-handed sword) (692 responses)
2.) Claymores (Two-handed sword) (622 responses)
3.) Catalyst (TL note: Original Japanese word for catalysts are hurting my brain) (277 responses)
4.) Bow (173 responses)
5.) Polearms (86 responses)

Which weapon type do you often use?

1.) Swords (One-handed sword) (699 responses)
2.) Claymores (Two-handed sword) (546 responses)
3.) Catalyst (363 responses)
4.) Bow (222 responses)
5.) Polearms (20 responses)

Tell us which relic set you like the most in terms of design!

​ Gladiator's Finale, a relic with a gladiator motif, received more responses than second place's responses.
​ This relic is relatively easy to obtain with its excellent +18% Attack stat two-set effect. It's possible that many players voted not only by its aesthetics, but also the power it gives.
1.) Gladiator's Finale (407 responses)
2.) Berserker (176 responses)
3.) Crimson Witch of Flames (Witch of the Blazing Flames) (175 responses)
4.) Wanderer's Troupe (Wandering Troupe of the Earth) (173 responses)
5.) Maiden Beloved (155 responses)
6.) Bloodstained Chivalry (96 responses)
7.) The Exile (84 responses)
8.) Martial Artist (77 responses)
9.) Retracting Bolide (65 responses)
10.) Noblesse Oblige (56 responses)

Which enemies do you have the hardest time to deal with?

​ Oceanid (Pure Water Spirit) took the top, beating out Stormterror Dvalin and the Lupus Boreas!
​ It seems that many players had a hard time to deal with Oceanid with disappearing platforms and monsters of various forms.
1.) Oceanid (Pure Water Spirit) (497 responses)

• The disappearing platforms were hard to deal with (40's / male)
• Enemies are gradually becoming stronger and more troublesome. (10's / male)
• Simple yet fierce. The type of attack, range, and moveset are all far better than most elite monsters. (20's / male)
• It's hard to deal with those flying monsters. (40's / male)

2.) Lupus Boreas (King of the North Wind, Dominator of Wolves) (250 responses)

• Even if you're getting used to it, if you're not careful, you'll easily lose this fight because of its unpredictable attacks. (40's / male)
• Its attacks on its second phase are difficult to avoid (30's / male)

3.) Stormterror Dvalin (231 responses)

• Because its ranged attacks are so strong. (10's / male)
• I couldn't figure out the gimmick on moving between platforms. (20's / male)
• With a limited movement range, the battle's hard. (10's / male)

4.) Ruin Hunter (110 responses)
5.) Cryo Abyss Mage (Magician of the Abyss, Ice) (103 responses)
6.) Stonehide Lawachurl (Rock-Helmeted King Hilichurl) (88 responses)
7.) Geo Hypostasis (Formless Rock) (85 responses)
8.) Fatui Skirmishers (64 responses)
9.) Ruin Guards (59 responses)
10,) Electro Hypostasis (Formless Lightning/Thunder) (52 responses)

How far have you cleared the Spiral Abyss?

When they asked about Spiral Abyss clears, the most common answer was that they had already cleared up to the 3rd Floor.
As it is the end-game content, preparation is required to conquer the Abyss. For this reason, it seems not that many players have taken the challenge seriously yet.

• Abyssal Corridor Floors:
  • Uncleared 1st Floor : 174 responses
  • 1st Floor: 80 responses
  • 2nd Floor: 151 responses
  • 3rd Floor: 448 responses
  • 4th Floor: 274 responses
  • 5th Floor: 192 responses
  • 6th Floor: 206 responses
  • 7th Floor: 91 responses
  • 8th Floor: 106 responses
• Abyssal Moon Spire Floors:
  • 9th Floor: 43 responses
  • 10th Floor: 32 responses
  • 11th Floor: 25 responses
  • 12th Floor: 28 responses

What are some of the dishes in Genshin Impact that you would actually like to try?

​ There are so many delicious-looking dishes in this game that you can almost drool over them. One of the most popular dish is the Sticky Honey Roast (Honey Sautéed Carrots and Meat,) which can be created with beast meat, carrots, and sugar.
The thick meat of the beast and the generous amount of sweet sauce stimulated the appetite and won the hearts of many players.
1.) Sticky Honey Roast (Honey Sautéed Carrots and Meat): 204 responses
2.) Sweet Madame (Baked Chicken with Sweet Flower): 196 responses
3.) Jade Parcels (Jade Lucky Bag): 159 responses
4.) Mondstadt Hash Brown (Mondo-style hashed potatoes): 155 responses
5.) Adeptus' Temptation (Calypso Orchid/Fairy Slipper): 144 responses

How many characters did you train as your main?

​ Most of the players answered that they train 4 characters as their main characters.
In this game, there are a lot of materials required for training, and in some cases, you need to use Resin to obtain them, so it takes a lot of time to train them. This result reflects the reality of the scenario.

• 1: 3%
• 2: 12%
• 3: 14%
• 4: 28%
• 5: 18%
• 6: 14%
• 7: 4%
• 8: 4%
• More than 8: 3%

Do you do Co-op/Multiplayer on a daily basis?

Yes: 31%, No: 69%
What do you think of their survey? Do you agree or not? What do you think of their choices as well?
I left out some questions and results as I'm getting lazy.
Happy Holidays everyone!
EDIT: Formatting and minor edits.
EDIT 2: Edited one of Qiqi's comments with translation provided by Tsumaranchan.

Happy Friday, my fellow Android gamers, and welcome back to this weekly summary of the most interesting games I played this week :)
This episode includes an interesting action RPG that plays a lot like Diablo, a very unique multiplayer strategy card game, and a PvP fighting game from a franchise that has been downloaded more than 500 million times!
Disagree with my opinion? Let’s have a friendly discussion below.
New to these posts? Check out the first one from 159 weeks ago here.
The games are "ranked" somewhat subjectively from best to worst, so take the ranking for what it is.

Let's get to the games:

Creatures of Aether [Game Size: 189 MB] (free)

Genre: Card / Strategy / PvP / Indie - Requires Online Access
Orientation: Portrait
Required Attention: Full
tl;dr review:
Creatures of Aether is a unique strategy card game where our goal is to dominate the majority of a shared 4x4 gridded board by placing a creature card from our hand on each turn.
Every card has a power number on each of its four sides. Placing a card next to an opponent’s card allows us to take it over and turn it into one of ours if the power number on our card’s side is higher than that on the opponent card’s adjacent side. Once the board is full, the player with the most cards on the board wins.
To spice things up, board tiles can have elemental types that buff or debuff any card placed on them, and some cards even have strong special powers that trigger once played. While the mechanics are easy to understand, the game is incredibly difficult to master, and I often found I had made a mistake a few turns ago that now put me in a disadvantageous situation, just like in chess.
Decks consist of eight cards, with a total deck-cost limit and a value on each card that increases the more powerful it is. This adds a nice forced prioritization that prevents us from placing all the strongest cards in the same hand.
The high-quality modern pixel art style is well-executed, and the sound design is pleasing. The main PvP mode is supported by multiple arcade modes and single-player dungeon-crawls that provide new cards or extra copies so existing cards can be leveled up.
Creatures of Aether monetizes through a $4.99 battle pass and iAPs for card packs, which create a pay-to-progress-faster advantage for paying players. However, the core gameplay is both deep and fun, and free players can still enjoy the many game-modes and simply grind for cards.
Google Play: Here
MiniReview link: Here

Raziel: Dungeon Arena [Total Game Size: 5.1 GB] (free)

Genre: RPG / Action / Co-op / Diablo-like - Requires Online Access
Orientation: Landscape
Required Attention: Full
tl;dr review:
Raziel: Dungeon Arena is a fun Diablo-like action RPG with solo and co-op dungeons, an insane amount of unique loot, neat 3D graphics, cute pets, and well-calibrated controls.
The game features 3 classes; archer, melee knight, ice priest, and although there is no character customization, we can at least switch build later in the game. As we level up, we unlock more and more skills and can gradually customize our build through one of the largest talent trees I’ve ever seen in a mobile game.
From the main city, we can meet and chat with other players, craft potions, team up for co-op dungeons, or jump into the single-player missions to slay hordes of enemies and find new loot with unique stats and set bonuses.
Raziel is a modern mobile game, for better or worse, which means lots of daily and monthly login rewards, achievements, events etc. My biggest gripes with the game, however, are that finding a team at lower levels is almost impossible and that while combat is fun, everything is too easy in the beginning.
Monetization happens through a $4.99 battle pass, a premium currency used primarily for cosmetics, and various “packs” of crafting materials and potions that go up to $19.99. There is no need to spend money on the game to enjoy it though, and while paying players definitely have an advantage in PvP, the game is primarily PvE-focused.
Google Play: Here
MiniReview link: Here

Shadow Fight Arena [Game Size: 1.2 GB] (free)

Genre: Fightign / Action / PvP / High-quality - Requires Online Access
Orientation: Landscape
Required Attention: Full
tl;dr review:
Shadow Fight Arena is a visually impressive PvP-focused melee fighting game where we collect a team of three heroes and battle it out in real-time 1v1 multiplayer matches with one hero at a time.
At the beginning of every match, both we and our opponent select which hero to start with. If our hero dies, we get to switch it out with one of the two remaining heroes. We keep going like this until we run out of heroes or have defeated the opponent’s heroes.
Each of the 16 total heroes have unique weapons, abilities, and stats that increase over time as they’re leveled up. Sometimes, we even get to select between two different upgrades, allowing us to customize each hero. Using a hero with stats and abilities that optimally counters the opponent’s hero is key to winning, and it makes combat fun and engaging.
After every match, we progress in the Arena ladder and Battle Pass progression system, both of which provide gold and hero cards used to unlock new heroes and upgrade existing ones.
The touch controls that include a left-side joystick and multiple attack and ability buttons on the right side are well-calibrated, and the punches and weapon attacks feel heavy and powerful. And with ranked, unranked, friendly matches, and AI game modes, there is plenty to dive into.
Shadow Fight Arena monetizes through a $13.49 monthly Battle Pass and hero loot boxes that allow paying players to progress faster than free players. It is all around one of the most impressive fighting games on mobile, but just be aware that while everything can be grinded, the monetization might make it difficult to progress fast without buying the Battle Pass.
Google Play: Here
MiniReview link: Here
NEW REVIEW APP: You can search and filter reviews and games I've played (and more) in my app MiniReview: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=minireview.best.android.games.reviews
Outdated (replaced by MiniReview): Sheet of all games I've played so far: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1bf0OxtVxrboZqyEh01AxJYUUqHm8tEfh-Lx-SugcrzY/edit?usp=sharing
TL;DR Video Summary (with gameplay) of last week's 3 games: https://youtu.be/bazJkOqBWLQ
Episode 001 Episode 002 Episode 003 Episode 004 Episode 005 Episode 006 Episode 007 Episode 008 Episode 009 Episode 010 Episode 011 Episode 012 Episode 013 Episode 014 Episode 015 Episode 016 Episode 017 Episode 018 Episode 019 Episode 020 Episode 021 Episode 022 Episode 023 Episode 024 Episode 025 Episode 026 Episode 027 Episode 028 Episode 029 Episode 030 Episode 031 Episode 032 Episode 033 Episode 034 Episode 035 Episode 036 Episode 037 Episode 038 Episode 039 Episode 040 Episode 041 Episode 042 Episode 043 Episode 044 Episode 045 Episode 046 Episode 047 Episode 048 Episode 049 Episode 050 Episode 051 Episode 052 Episode 053 Episode 054 Episode 055 Episode 056 Episode 057 Episode 058 Episode 059 Episode 060 Episode 061 Episode 062 Episode 063 Episode 064 Episode 065 Episode 066 Episode 067 Episode 068 Episode 069 Episode 070 Episode 071 Episode 072 Episode 073 Episode 074 Episode 075 Episode 076 Episode 077 Episode 078 Episode 079 Episode 080 Episode 081 Episode 082 Episode 083 Episode 084 Episode 085 Episode 086 Episode 087 Episode 088 Episode 089 Episode 090 Episode 091 Episode 092 Episode 093 Episode 094 Episode 095 Episode 096 Episode 097 Episode 098 Episode 099 Episode 100 Episode 101 Episode 102 Episode 103 Episode 104 Episode 105 Episode 106 Episode 107 Episode 108 Episode 109 Episode 110 Episode 111 Episode 112 Episode 113 Episode 114 Episode 115 Episode 116 Episode 117 Episode 118 Episode 119 Episode 120 Episode 121 Episode 122 Episode 123 Episode 124 Episode 125 Episode 126 Episode 127 Episode 128 Episode 129 Episode 130 Episode 131 Episode 132 Episode 133 Episode 134 Episode 135 Episode 136 Episode 137 Episode 138 Episode 139 Episode 140 Episode 141 Episode 142 Episode 143 Episode 144 Episode 145 Episode 146 Episode 147 Episode 148 Episode 149 Episode 150 Episode 151 Episode 152 Episode 153 Episode 154 Episode 155 Episode 156 Episode 157 Episode 158 Episode 159

Firstly, just want to start off by saying a big thank you to everyone who submitted great questions, but most of all, the hugest thank you in the world to u/Darian_CoC (100% the best community manager ever) for sitting down and grinding through hundreds of your questions over about 3 hours.
Due to the sheer amount of questions, putting them all here exceeds reddit's character limit, so I have put the full compilation of questions in this document here. You'll probably find a few more of the fun, personal or quirky questions are in the document, with more Clash related stuff on this post.
A load of interesting stuff was discussed, including future updates and plans for Clash in the coming year, so lots of great stuff to have a read through! We have compiled all the questions and answers into this post here for your enjoyment, and we hope you come out of this post knowing a lot more than you did previously! So without further ado, here we go:
u/non-reddituser:

1. Is there plans to bring in a new recruitment system or is sc still trying to better it?
2. Any plans to reduce cost/upgrade time? For me at least 2-3 weeks for upgrades is getting slightly excessive and going further than that. I can’t imagine many players will be very excited to grind it out. Especially casual players.
3. Currently, Do you think the game is balanced ? I’ve heard quite a lot of complaints saying th13 is too easy.
4. Any plans to add family clans features ? Like a way to add other clans to chat, white list/ black list players etc.
5. Has a complete remake/ sequel to clash of clans ever been considered?
6. Is sc more focused on bringing more tasks, events and in general things to do during the game or are they more focused on bringing new content like troops ,spells ,defences etc?
7. Are you able to provide any details on what the priorities are/what is being worked on for 2021
8. How is the cost/ sell price of magic items determined?
9. Is there a reason as to why all the hammers cost 120 medals ,but the hero hammer is 165 and the opposite happens for books? All the books are 925 gems, but the hero book is set at 500 gems.

Answer:

1. Regarding the Recruitment Tool, I'll have to repeat something I said a while back .First, the tool isn't developed by the Clash team. I don't say that to try and wipe our hands of any obligation to it, but it genuinely is something the Clash team has little control over. However, with that said, regardless of who the tool is made by we have tried communicating with the community about its features, and even its shortcomings. But because of the nature of social media, online posts, etc. much of that gets lost hours after it's been posted. One of the things we've repeatedly stated is that the Recruitment Tool suffers not from a lack of functionality but from a lack of transparency. The Recruitment Tool actually does a lot of the things behind the scenes that players feel there is a lack of control over. And because they don't see how those work, it can feel like it doesn't work like they expect it to. I'm not saying it's perfect - far from it. We know it could use some improvement, but the biggest area it could be improved on is helping people understand exactly how it works so people are a bit more confident in the searches it pulls up, or at least understand why it gets those results.
2. As we add more content higher up (TH14, TH15, and beyond) we keep a very close watch on how long it takes for players to start from scratch and climb to max. We try to keep the ranges relatively similar so I would say it's a fair bet we'll adjust the upgrade times and costs in the future. In fact, that is a regular facet of the game that can be expected every so often. I can't say if it'll be once a year, or once every new TH level, but refactoring and rebalancing the costs and time are a regular part of that strategy.
3. The game will never be 100% perfectly balanced. It's just impossible. There are simply too many moving parts, too much randomness, and too many variables to consider. We try to balance the game the best we can, based on player data as well as feedback from the community. But adding more content will always shift the balance in one direction or another. Sometimes it may skew towards offense, and sometimes more towards defence. When we see the game shifting like that, we start looking at how we can balance the game to bring it back more towards the centre. With that said, we try to balance the game more towards being offense-friendly. Now, before you get out your pitchforks and protest we're making it too easy, what I mean by this is that we try to make the game as rewarding as possible while still keeping it challenging. If defence was always OP, then the win rates would plummet. If you're unable to win, this is incredibly frustrating as a player and would cause players to leave the game. That's not a good thing. Like any other asymmetrical multiplayer game, you almost always tend to win more often than you lose. We try to maintain a degree of balance slightly leaning towards offense.
4. A Clan Alliance/Family feature has been on our wish list for quite a few years. We simply haven't sat down to truly discuss what we want that feature to be. When we work on a new update, we have to prioritize what new features we're implementing and any additional content must thematically feel appropriate or can be fit in resource-wise (meaning time). Creating a Clan alliance feature should be more than just being able to cross chat and donate troops. That alone isn't worth reprogramming the multiplayer functionality of the game. An alliance system has to be meaningful in order to be something the players enjoy. But what that is, we still have yet to decide.
5. No. Why create a sequel when we can just keep adding new content to the current game without creating a brand new one? What would the goal of a sequel be? As long as Clash of Clans is live, creating a sequel would cannibalize players from one game to the other. That is not a viable way of game development. Additionally, let's say you've been playing Clash for 8 years now. Now let's say we release Clash of Clans 2. If all this game is is just a prettier version of Clash, you'll be less likely to invest the same amount of time as you did the first one. So you quit Clash 2 but the likelihood of you going back to Clash 1 will be reduced. Also, let's say not all of your friends are willing to play the new one. So now that your friends aren't playing, you're more likely to quit because of split loyalties between the games.The best thing we can do is keep improving Clash so you're not forced to choose between which ones you want to play,
6. I'd say it's all of the above, depending on the needs of the game. Content will always be the primary driver for Clash of Clans. It's where we see spikes in players returning, players being more active, etc. But in between content releases, it's good to give players more activities to do.
7. Lots and lots of new content for 2021. Lots. And it is badass.
8. I had an answer for this and I cannot for the life of me remember what it is. Unfortunately our Live Ops guy has left for the evening so I can't cross check with him. I'll try to ask him tomorrow and I'll post a reply here.
9. One big reason with the cost discrepancy is due to the resources you spend to upgrade those units. The cost to upgrade a Hero uses Dark Elixir which is a much more premium resource to farm/earn compared to Gold or Elixir. It's far easier to earn Gold and Elixir for upgrading Buildings/Troops. So the cost for the Book of Heroes is to help offset that. Whereas, because it's easier to earn Gold & Elixir, the other Books are more expensive. With the Hammers, the Hammer of Heroes is more expensive because you don't need to farm the DE for it.

u/ClashDotNinja:

• Are you able to share any details on ideas/concepts that were designed and/or tested within the team that were then scrapped?

Answer: The Elixir Monster was a troop concept we prototyped during the development of TH12. The Elixir Monster was a troop that gained strength and size as it destroyed things. Similar to the Lumberjack, it would drop a Rage Spell after it was killed. In the end, the mechanic was really cool but way too complex for the average player. Additionally, because the unit required to make the kill attack in order to earn it's level up, with so many other troops attacking it actually rarely made a kill so it didn't morph? Mutate? Evolve? as fast as we thought it would. So it's a troop we might save for a rainy day and tweak it a bit to see if we can get it to balance correctly.
u/Drin_CoC:

1. Is the maximum Experience level, which currently is level 500, gonna be increased any time soon?
2. If there'll be more than 100 buildings after TH14 update, how will % be calculated? What about bases that have the 6th builder compared to the bases that don't?

Answer:

1. We might address it in the future, but I wouldn't expect any changes to it in the next couple updates. Apart from vanity purposes it doesn't really do much else so it's not a major priority for us.
2. We won't hit the 100 building limit just yet so we still have some wiggle room left to go before we start needing to worry about it. But it is something we are worried about for when we finally do hit that limit. We haven't found a solution to how we want to address it, but it is something that comes up every time we start working on new content.

u/LordPeter212:

1. What is the status of World’s 2021? The entire competitive community has been eagerly waiting for news about this. We need time to plan and prepare, and if it’s not happening we deserve to know.
2. Are there any plans to include any in game e-sports tournaments other than ESL?

Answer:

1. We are still working on the Worlds stuff and we're inching closer to announcing the 2021 season. We've made a few changes so we're still putting the final polish on those details. But we will announce the 2021 Worlds when we're ready.
2. There are tons of community-run events around the globe. We simply can't add them all in-game.

u/LadyB_clash:

• Will we ever get a rewind button for replays? 😯 not sure if it’s possible but it would be a small but incredible QoL improvement for many. 😁

Answer: The challenge with this is that replays are not stored as videos. So you're not actually watching an actual "replay" of the match. The game stores your screen taps that you performed when you played your game. So when you watch a replay, you are actually watching a live version of the game where the AI is simply reproducing the same screen taps. Because the pathing algorithm and AI functions the exact same way, the system can recreate the same conclusion of the game every time.
So because you're watching the AI play the game using your screen taps, it can only go forward.
u/Soft-Decision5935:

• Hi Darian! I’ve started 3 mini accounts and I’ve made one big observation: the beginning is by far the worst, slowest section of the game. The rest of the game is fun and it’s a great grind, but those opening 3-or-so days would be very unappealing to newer players who don’t know much about the rest of the game yet. Even for me, I absolutely hate those first few days. While I understand CoC is a game meant for people to grind out, I think something needs to be done to attract newer players. Have you considered fixing this/ is there a reason you haven’t yet?

Answer: This is actually a topic of discussion we're looking at; how to make the lower TH's more engaging and less grindy to make the progression to higher levels more enticing. So we totally understand where you're coming from. It's something we hope we can address in an update this year.
u/OverSizedHamster:

• Hi Darian! Would you consider Clash of Clans a good representation of mobile gaming? Has its impact matched up to other notable titles on PC and console? Is it Smash Ultimate worthy?

Answer: Every so often, a game will become a cultural icon of the platform it's released on. For consoles that would be the Mario franchise. For MMORPG's, that would be World of Warcraft. For mobile, that's Clash of Clans. What I mean by cultural icon, is that it's a game that has lasted far longer than most others due to the sheer number of people that play it and the popular success it has had because of it.
Clash has been out for almost 9 years now. On any game platform that is almost unheard of apart from those other games that are cultural icons themselves.
I'm not sure what you mean by "good representation". But I will say this: The Clash community is possibly one of the best gaming communities. Period. It's one of the least toxic, most supportive, and fun communities I've ever had the privilege of working with.
u/301023459:

1. Would it be possible to have custom CC's for friendly challenges implemented into the game? To further explain what I mean, lets say I have my normal raid army set up with the cc troops I would usually take. However I want to practice new armies in friendly challenges but every time I do that, I have to dump old troops and request for new troops but those in my clan who have the troops I need for my friendly challenge army aren't always online. So a feature where I could customize my own cc troops for a friendly army is what I'm getting at.

Answer:

1. The Friendly Challenge is an interesting facet of the game that was introduced much later in the game's development history. So the functionality of it is wholly based on how the rest of the game functions with regards to troop donations, troop deployment, etc. Creating a unique set of functions for this feature is something the team sees as a priority at the moment. However, that priority could change when we start to look at what QoL changes we want to implement in future updates. Many of the changes implemented into the FC/FW features were based on QoL requests from the community so I wouldn't say it's a ruled out idea. Just not something on the production schedule at the moment.

u/purk8:

• When are we getting BH10. Lot of people who are more competitive on B-base, but aren’t playing much because it’s the same old thing every season. We’re all feeling kinda forgotten about ☹️

Answer: It's rather interesting that whenever we released new BH content, there was general disdain that we were allocating development resources to it. But now there is a lot of clamouring for when the next BH level will be. :-) We don't have any solid plans for BH10 yet, but we have discussed it on occasion. We're reluctant to simply just do a new level as we're still trying to decide where we want to take the Builder Base feature. We don't want to keep adding features that are already available to the Main Village; otherwise why not just keep developing the Main Village?
u/El3veN_:

• You said you had a meeting planned about the API, do we have any news regarding the API, your vision on it, whats your plans for it, etc?

Answer: I am not a programmer so I would hate to misrepresent something I know little about. You'll have to forgive my lack of correct vocabulary. There has been some API discussion recently to make certain data more accessible, though what those data are I can't say simply because I didn't understand how that process works. But I can say there has been some movement in the API discussion on the team.
u/Hellrazor:

1. Has an increase to the 30s scout time in legend league been considered along with viewable building radiuses? This was brought up partly last year in one of the TH hour videos where Eino admitted that as new TH levels were released the allotted 30s planning time becomes more & more restrictive the more there is to consider when planning an attack. IMO increasing the time to 45s / 1min in legend league would combat this whilst also separating it from lower leagues.
2. Are there any plans to restructure the Legend League system i.e rewards / ladder / ranks? The gems rewarded to the top 20 players in the top 3 clans is long outdated & legend trophies don’t have much use besides a visual standpoint. The day to day ladder system could also be taken further - something akin to a weekly system for example whereby your standings at the end of the week determine your placement for the next whilst still maintaining a monthly season would be less stale & more meaningful imo. Additionally ranks / badges could also be included within legend league to further develop the ranking system & possibly tie in to a rewards system somehow.
3. How does the Eagle Artilleries target prioritisation work? According to the wiki: The Eagle Artillery targets according to a "heat map" or "hitpoint map". In other words, it targets the area with the largest density of hitpoints. However this doesn’t seem to apply most noticeably during a queen charge / walk. 5 healers for example have a greater combined HP than a maxed queen yet 9/10 the eagle will target the queen so I suspect there’s more going on here. Whilst targeting the queen over your healers is far more favourable for the attacker it can be incredibly frustrating when the opposite occurs. As far as I can tell the logic currently appears to operate under RNG although I hope & suspect I’m wrong. Perhaps someone from the dev team could elaborate on this?

Answer:

1. While it had been discussed, at this time the team feels there's no need for it.
2. While the LL system could certainly use some new polishing and some shiny chrome, there hasn't been anything internally proposed that has made us say, "YES! That's what it needs!"
3. There is no RNG in how the AI targets units or paths towards a target. Every target is calculated based on the rules programmed into the algorithm. For the Eagle Artillery, yes population density does factor in. In your particular example, it could be that the Archer Queen had taken damage, where the collection of Healers now collectively had more HP resulting in a more desirable target before the AQ was fully healed again. I would need to see a specific replay of any instance before making a definitive call on what you're seeing.

u/non-reddituser:

1. In an interview with galadon around 11 months ago you said “ Part of it is as we see a lot of activity of a lot of players returning a lot of them are coming back to their old clans” In response to why sc hasn’t added a clan name change. Has this changed, Is there a still a high amount of players returning? If not is sc planning or at least considering adding it?
2. In the same interview with galadon he pitched you an separate section in the shop were you buy obstacles with legend league trophies. At the end of your answer you said” but, I think it’s an idea that does have some merit and all I can do is to present it to the team” did you present to the team and is there possibility we could see this any time soon?
3. As my final question I’d like to as you if you could explain the choice of sc censoring the whole clans chat when a kids account join?

Answer:

1. Clan name changes are still a ruled out idea for now, for the same reason. Additionally, changing your player name is one thing. That's personal to you. Changing a Clan name is something that affects the entire Clan. While sure, many Clans would be ok with the name change but what happens when members don't like the name that it's changed to? If that original Clan name had sentimental value, and someone changes it, that would feel really crappy for those who liked the original Clan name. So rather than try to come up with rules and edge cases for it, and introduce possibly more unnecessary complexity, it's simpler to prohibit for now.
2. Nothing has come out of that discussion apart from the idea being presented.
3. The rules for this only applies to new underage accounts created in the US. The reason for this is for compliance with new online regulations that are required for certain kinds of games. We have no control over those regulations.

u/thisisathrowawayCoC:

1. Does the barrel shaped building where you boost super troops have a name? If not, then what did the dev team call it?
2. Do you guys plan on adding more achievements?
3. Will there be more single player campaign levels as part of the next update or th14?
4. There has been an insane amount of rumours and ideas as to water based troops or gameplay. Is the dev team even considering something among those lines?

Answer:

1. It's called the Super Sauna. The image of the modern sauna is a Finnish invention, and since we're based out of Finland, it seemed like a nice cultural touch to the game.
2. Yes!
3. We really liked the Winter Challenge map and plan on doing more things like that in the future. However, we'd like players to remember that Clash is a multiplayer game and designed around that idea. Adding more single player content, while fun, minimizes that multiplayer aspect so it's not a primary focus of ours.
4. Water based troops? First time I've heard this rumour. Considering the map is based on land, a water troop would be a bit like...a fish out of water? In other words, I wouldn't listen to rumours.

u/HarrBathtub:

• What was the “big thing” that was meant to be released in the winter?

Answer: We have a super cool feature we're steadily working on. We're not ready to share what that is just yet, but we're hoping we can reveal and release it this year.
u/Quna_chan:

• Can we expect a goblin map maker where community can make goblin maps and clash team can check them and add it to the game.

Answer: This sounds like a good idea, but moderating all the entries that would come in would require it to be a full time job in itself. Checking to make sure the map isn't broken, or doesn't have inappropriate content, or doesn't cause any problems. It's not a matter of just pulling it up on the screen and say "ok there are no middle fingers hidden in the images so it's good to go." It would require playtesting, feedback, etc.
u/Pero_Plays:

1. Would you consider going to a 24-month instead of a proposed 18-month cycle of new TH levels to sync with World Championships better?
2. Could we get a double deployment bar on phones?

Answer:

1. 24 months of no new TH content is simply too long. We're really happy with the pace we've been releasing new TH levels. One of the things we have to look at when spacing out the content is how long before maxed players start to get bored and stop playing. New content is always the biggest driver of player activity, and the longer you draw out not having new content results in players becoming more likely to leave the game. The World Championship is an exciting and cool facet of Clash, but it's not the main one and only a very small number of players will ever compete in the Championships. That small percentage of players cannot dictate the pace of content progress.
2. We tried looking at this but the UI became so small that it was super inconvenient to use, even with a stylus.

u/feareddakota:

• Hey Darian, I’m not sure if this question was asked before but do you think it would pose a significant challenge for your team considering what a new a Town Hall would be due to the weaponization of Town Halls 12 and 13?

Answer: Coming up with new and unique content will always be the challenge as we create new features. It came up when we were working on TH13, and is in discussion as we work towards TH14. And it will likely come up again as we work on TH15 and beyond. Making sure something is cool and unique is always a fun challenge, but we shouldn't make something JUST because it's unique. It has to also be fun and exciting.
u/LowScrow_Tom:

1. Will we ever have a troop, or Super Troop, with the capability of switching from Ground to Air? (I think Ice Golem/ Ice Hound could've utilized this feature.)
2. Without the ability to add new buildings due to percent damages, could you have a "Gear Up" feature at TH14 which would combine all Builder Huts and /or Barracks to 1 main building, which must be upgraded FIRST before being able to purchase new TH14 Defences?. (Multiple problems solved)

Answer:

1. This is something that has been considered, like making a "Fallen Angel" Healer who is a ground troop but heals air units. This is just an idea and not something being worked on, before everyone starts saying it's confirmed. Changing a unit from air to ground or vice versa is actually pretty complicated because the pathing for ground units is different than air units as is the logic algorithm. So it's not just a matter of allowing it to swap places. But I wouldn't be surprised if we introduce a Super Troop that does do this.
2. We've contemplated the building fusion idea in the past and we're not convinced that is a good solution.

u/Alpii69:

• Hello Darian! Is there any Chance we can get second abilities for Heroes? You can either choose the first or the second for a attack? For example the Barbarian King gets stationary and is immune to all damage for 5 seconds. Queens shoots faster and her shots pierce through buildings for x amount of second. The Royal Champion deflects damage for x amount of seconds. Warden heals troops over time

Answer: We had considered this idea and while it's cool, it doesn't offer quite the flexibility and variability players are looking for in a feature like this. We would want a feature like this to feel like players are able to customize their experiences. A second ability doesn't really do that as players would just choose a favourite one, then set and forget. We think there is a better way to offer that kind of customization. Additionally, balancing new abilities would be super challenging compared to new troops or new spells.
u/Immabeloverof15june:

1. Any plans on player made maps as single player map?
2. Any plans on mega base type mode?
3. What are big features which aside from new troops, buildings, townhall levels?
4. What are your plans on bringing more social features to the game?

Answer:

1. Player made maps are never a good idea, though they sound neat on paper. We'd need some kind of moderation process to remove inappropriate submissions, and given there'd be thousands upon thousands of entries, it would require full time moderation.
2. We see this request a lot. Again, on paper it sounds really cool. But what would the overall goal be? What would the benefits be to the Clan? There are a ton of logistics you'd have to look at. Like who would be the caretaker of such a mega base? The leader? What if the leader left or stopped playing? Co-leaders? What if they disagree with how the mega base should be laid out? Would Elders and Members have access to editing the mega base?
3. We've got something pretty big planned this year (fingers crossed we can finish it in time). We'll announce it when it's ready. And it's a doozy.
4. It entirely depends on what social features players want (features that aren't Global Chat or similar function).

u/sportsguy3: Could you give us some examples of new charactetroops/heroes/ideas that were very close to making it into the game but eventually didn't make the cut?
Answer: When we work on new TH content, we try to prototype new troop ideas. When we were working on TH12, we had several troops we had tested out before we finally settled on the Yeti. One of the troop ideas was a Goblin Glider. It was basically Goblins that flew in on little gliders and dropped down to attack resource storages and collectors. If I remember correctly, the Goblin Glider eventually inspired the Builder Base Hog Glider unit since we liked the glider function. But the Goblin Glider felt a bit TOO spammy.
u/NikplaysgamesYT:

1. Do you guys have plans regarding banning accounts? I see so many times players are perma banned for “account sharing” or “account stealing” when nothing like that ever happened. Even someone in my clan was perma banned, and I see posts on Reddit all the time about this. Do you have plans to change the process of being banned or the criteria to avoid these situations?
2. What is your opinion regarding queen walks after indirectly nerfing them so hard? This year, you guys added headhunters and super minions, both of which destroy queen walks if your not careful. Did you guys think they were OP before this update, and do you think they’re still OP now?
3. Do you believe that the game has done a good job balancing progression? For townhall 10, IMO you guys did a perfect job, I finished my hero’s, walls, and defences at almost the same time (got screwed up since at that time there was the event where everything was half off. But for th11, I am currently almost max, just working on my last lab upgrades and walls, but I’ve been full on dark elixir for the past 3 months. Do you think progression overall is super balanced and any plans to change it?

Answer:

1. In the near-4 years I've been at Supercell, I've had hundreds of requests from players to investigate their account ban. Out of those hundreds, I can count on a single hand how many of them were incorrectly banned due to agent error. A single hand. Time and time again such threads rarely ever reveal any kind of loopholes or weaknesses in the support recovery process and more often than not highlight how players treat their account security by engaging in behaviour that violates our Terms of Service policies. Almost every single one of those players underestimate just how accurately we can investigate an account issue. Many of them start off with a friend who let another friend do their War attacks, but most of the banned accounts have shown very suspicious activity of account sharing, buying, etc.How do these accounts get phished? It's simply because most people don't realize just how manipulative scammers/phishers are. Also most people fail to realize exactly just how much identifiable information they put out for the public to be able to see.That's the thing about scammers/phishers. The good ones rarely make their intentions obvious until it's too late. There's a reason why scamming is a multi-billion dollar industry. Good scammers are charismatic, manipulative, and convincing. They are also relying on the fact you have no idea just how useful the information you gave them really is, especially when you think the information is banal or mundanely useless.The fact they leave you blaming a lax in security instead of blaming yourself shows A) just how manipulative they are and B) how willing you are to deflect blame in order to admit to falling for a scam.Admittedly, that second one is a tough pill to swallow. No one likes admitting they made a mistake, and that's especially so when you have to face severe consequences for those actions. But as I said before, we can tell the difference between someone's compromised account vs. someone who fell victim to a scam or gave/bought/sold their account. Usually if the account is compromised, Support is fairly quick at restoring access to those accounts. But because there's no reason to voice any complaints about it, you don't read about those thousands of success stories. What we do hear about on the forums are those examples where support was unable to restore the account because they can see suspicious or fraudulent activity on the account.
2. I still use Queen Walk at TH13 so you're asking the wrong person. I find the strategy still viable and very strong.
3. I do think we've done an overall good job of maintaining balance. It's not perfect, nor will it ever be perfect. This is especially true as we add more content in the future. There is no such thing as a perfectly balanced multiplayePVP game. All we can do is try to balance it to the best of our ability when we release a new troop or keep an eye on the data and balance it as we see the data coming in.

u/GroddTH12:

1. Do you intend to improve the time to update buildings and troop level TH11, TH12 and TH13?
2. Is there a possibility to create a new hero in a new update?

Answer:

1. Eventually, most likely.
2. We don't want to do a new Hero with each new TH level. The earliest we will likely add a new Hero would be TH15, but that's not a guarantee.

u/clashic94:

1. Clan War Leagues and Clan Games are monthly events that last a week. Are there any plans for introducing another monthly event that lasts a few days in between CWL and Clan Games? (Townhall Tournaments, etc.)
2. As the army camp size increases and the possibility for more troops in battle at any given time increases, will we be seeing troops with higher and higher housing space to avoid overcomplexity?
3. Will we be able to use two Siege Machines at the same time in the future? More than two Super Troops?

Answer:

1. Yes. Although what that is we're not ready to reveal yet.
2. It's unlikely we'll adjust the housing space for older troops like Barbs, however, how much housing space a troop takes up is actually an essential part of the design process as we design a new troop.
3. Two Siege Machines would be a bit weird since you only have a single Clan Castle. Being able to deploy two and divide up the CC troops between them would genuinely be way OP. As far as allowing more than 2 Super Troops at a time, I mean, we just started allowing 2 recently! We're keeping an eye on their usage to see if allowing 3 or more would be something positive for the game.

u/confipete:

1. Is it true that Supercell is going to remove builder base by June?
2. Why don't war donations account for donation count?
3. Why is builder base's attacking AI is different from Home village's?
4. Do you consider the ideas we post in this sub while adding new features to the game?

Answer:

1. Wait..what? Remove Builder Base? Where the heck do you guys find this stuff? We're not removing it.
2. Part of it is because you can remove and edit War donations, at least in the War Leagues. So it would be easy to abuse to edit/remove cc troops and keep redonating just to get your count up.
3. The AI isn't different, it uses the same logic engine as the main village. However, a big factor in what causes some issues is the Guard Post. The wandering units cause havoc with the pathing AI because the attacking units have to constantly recalculate their position and the targets it's tracking.
4. Absolutely.

u/EyalReddits:

1. Will we ever get a new gamemode like the builder base?
2. Why are super troops taking up so much space? This makes them almost unusable

Answer:

1. I'm sure there'll be new game features we'll introduce in the future. It won't be like Builder Base, but will be something completely new. In fact we're working on something that I think will be pretty enjoyable. No release dates yet, as it's a fairly complex system. But we're excited to announce it when it's ready.
2. The housing space for Super Troops is to balance out how much stronger they are than regular troops.

u/superman37891:

1. Can we donate super troops with gem donations, even if we don’t have them unlocked?
2. Can we have separate clans for home village and builder base (so I don’t get kicked out of my top clan for not having a good builder base)?
3. Add a clan search filter for CWL league (Champs 1, Champs 3, Master 2, etc.)
4. Can we cap the level of the CC troops donated to lower town halls / CC levels? (Ex: A level 9 loon donated to a TH3 caps at level 2)? I feel this will make it easier to balance lower THs and make it more fair for those who can’t get CCs

Answer:

1. No. Being able to donate them without spending the upgrade cost kinda defeats the purpose of spending the upgrade cost.
2. No. Programming the logistics behind this, having separate chat UI's, Clan logs, match logs, war logs, etc. would be an absolute data nightmare.
3. As a reflex response, my guess would be that it would lead to just those Clans at the top tiers being bombarded with invitation requests while lower clans would remain unfilled. And because they remain unfilled, it would make it harder for them to climb to those ranks, thus perpetuating a bit of a cycle.
4. No. The levels they are donated at is intentional.

u/Luke_theGreat:

• Hey Darian. Thanks for doing this. Right now, every month we have cwl in the first week and clan games towards the end. I personally feel like this is getting tedious. Are there any plans to mix this up more? Thanks. Luke

Answer: We planned out the calendar of events for a very specific reason and the timing is intentional. Having them set the same time allows players to more efficiently plan out how they upgrade and how they spend resources. Mixing up the schedule would make it more difficult for players to do so.
u/One-Decision-6110:

• Hello there, Darian, thanks for taking the time to answer my question if you do,one thing I'm recently annoyed about is botters, it seems like they are everywhere, is it possible if you could give me a percentage of how many players out of total players are botters?also, i use the same army, time and time again, I'm worried my account will get banned one day due to SuperCell suspecting me to bot, are there any other measures you take into account when banning botters?

Answer: We never publicly reveal numbers. With regards to bots, it's a constant game of cat and mouse. We improve our systems to detect them and they improve the botting software to avoid detection. So we then improve the system again to detect them and then they improve the botting software to avoid detection. You can see how this goes on. It's one of the reasons why we do mass bans of botters instead of just individual cases. If we banned players who bot on an individual basis, it allows the bot software creators to analyse what it was that allowed them to be detected and make changes even faster. So by banning in mass groups, it slows down their development a bit.
To answer your question about using the same attack, that's not how the detection system works so as long as you're not using a bot program we don't care how often you attack with the same army.
u/mystic_coc: Hi Darian, what do you think about a new game mode in clash. It can be solo or multi (like clan base or something). You could create multiples worlds with the clash universe like a goblin village etc were we can attack the king of goblin
Answer: I'm curious, but you don't really give any kind of idea what kind of feature you're suggesting. It's like saying "have you thought of a new multiplayer game?" Yes I have, but without knowing what kind of game you want, it's kind of an impossible question to answer.
If you've made it down here, well done! I hope everyone here has learnt something new, and after reading the sheer amount of answers I'm sure you can all thank Darian for the extraordinary effort he put in (he isn't being payed for this either, he's just that amazing).
If you don't see your question on the reddit post or the document it was most likely to avoid duplicates
Happy Clashing!

Happy Friday, my fellow mobile gamers, and welcome back to this weekly summary of the most interesting games I played this week :)
This episode includes an interesting action RPG that plays a lot like Diablo, a very unique multiplayer strategy card game, and a PvP fighting game from a franchise that has been downloaded more than 500 million times!
Disagree with my opinion? Let’s have a friendly discussion below.
New to these posts? Check out the first one from 72 weeks ago here.
The games are "ranked" somewhat subjectively from best to worst, so take the ranking for what it is.

Let's get to the games:

Creatures of Aether [Game Size: 189 MB] (free)

Genre: Card / Strategy / PvP / Indie - Requires Online Access
Orientation: Portrait
Required Attention: Full
tl;dr review:
Creatures of Aether is a unique strategy card game where our goal is to dominate the majority of a shared 4x4 gridded board by placing a creature card from our hand on each turn.
Every card has a power number on each of its four sides. Placing a card next to an opponent’s card allows us to take it over and turn it into one of ours if the power number on our card’s side is higher than that on the opponent card’s adjacent side. Once the board is full, the player with the most cards on the board wins.
To spice things up, board tiles can have elemental types that buff or debuff any card placed on them, and some cards even have strong special powers that trigger once played. While the mechanics are easy to understand, the game is incredibly difficult to master, and I often found I had made a mistake a few turns ago that now put me in a disadvantageous situation, just like in chess.
Decks consist of eight cards, with a total deck-cost limit and a value on each card that increases the more powerful it is. This adds a nice forced prioritization that prevents us from placing all the strongest cards in the same hand.
The high-quality modern pixel art style is well-executed, and the sound design is pleasing. The main PvP mode is supported by multiple arcade modes and single-player dungeon-crawls that provide new cards or extra copies so existing cards can be leveled up.
Creatures of Aether monetizes through a $4.99 battle pass and iAPs for card packs, which create a pay-to-progress-faster advantage for paying players. However, the core gameplay is both deep and fun, and free players can still enjoy the many game-modes and simply grind for cards.
App Store: Here

Raziel: Dungeon Arena [Total Game Size: 5.1 GB] (free)

Genre: RPG / Action / Co-op / Diablo-like - Requires Online Access
Orientation: Landscape
Required Attention: Full
tl;dr review:
Raziel: Dungeon Arena is a fun Diablo-like action RPG with solo and co-op dungeons, an insane amount of unique loot, neat 3D graphics, cute pets, and well-calibrated controls.
The game features 3 classes; archer, melee knight, ice priest, and although there is no character customization, we can at least switch build later in the game. As we level up, we unlock more and more skills and can gradually customize our build through one of the largest talent trees I’ve ever seen in a mobile game.
From the main city, we can meet and chat with other players, craft potions, team up for co-op dungeons, or jump into the single-player missions to slay hordes of enemies and find new loot with unique stats and set bonuses.
Raziel is a modern mobile game, for better or worse, which means lots of daily and monthly login rewards, achievements, events etc. My biggest gripes with the game, however, are that finding a team at lower levels is almost impossible and that while combat is fun, everything is too easy in the beginning.
Monetization happens through a $4.99 battle pass, a premium currency used primarily for cosmetics, and various “packs” of crafting materials and potions that go up to $19.99. There is no need to spend money on the game to enjoy it though, and while paying players definitely have an advantage in PvP, the game is primarily PvE-focused.
App Store: Here

Shadow Fight Arena [Game Size: 1.2 GB] (free)

Genre: Fightign / Action / PvP / High-quality - Requires Online Access
Orientation: Landscape
Required Attention: Full
tl;dr review:
Shadow Fight Arena is a visually impressive PvP-focused melee fighting game where we collect a team of three heroes and battle it out in real-time 1v1 multiplayer matches with one hero at a time.
At the beginning of every match, both we and our opponent select which hero to start with. If our hero dies, we get to switch it out with one of the two remaining heroes. We keep going like this until we run out of heroes or have defeated the opponent’s heroes.
Each of the 16 total heroes have unique weapons, abilities, and stats that increase over time as they’re leveled up. Sometimes, we even get to select between two different upgrades, allowing us to customize each hero. Using a hero with stats and abilities that optimally counters the opponent’s hero is key to winning, and it makes combat fun and engaging.
After every match, we progress in the Arena ladder and Battle Pass progression system, both of which provide gold and hero cards used to unlock new heroes and upgrade existing ones.
The touch controls that include a left-side joystick and multiple attack and ability buttons on the right side are well-calibrated, and the punches and weapon attacks feel heavy and powerful. And with ranked, unranked, friendly matches, and AI game modes, there is plenty to dive into.
Shadow Fight Arena monetizes through a $13.49 monthly Battle Pass and hero loot boxes that allow paying players to progress faster than free players. It is all around one of the most impressive fighting games on mobile, but just be aware that while everything can be grinded, the monetization might make it difficult to progress fast without buying the Battle Pass.
App Store: Here
Google Sheet of all games I've played so far (searchable and filter-able): https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1bf0OxtVxrboZqyEh01AxJYUUqHm8tEfh-Lx-SugcrzY/edit?usp=sharing
TL;DR Video Summary (with gameplay) of last week's 3 games: https://youtu.be/bazJkOqBWLQ
Episode 01 Episode 02 Episode 03 Episode 04 Episode 05 Episode 06 Episode 07 Episode 08 Episode 09 Episode 10 Episode 11 Episode 12 Episode 13 Episode 14 Episode 15 Episode 16 Episode 17 Episode 18 Episode 19 Episode 20 Episode 21 Episode 22 Episode 23 Episode 24 Episode 25 Episode 26 Episode 27 Episode 28 Episode 29 Episode 30 Episode 31 Episode 32 Episode 33 Episode 34 Episode 35 Episode 36 Episode 37 Episode 38 Episode 39 Episode 40 Episode 41 Episode 42 Episode 43 Episode 44 Episode 45 Episode 46 Episode 47 Episode 48 Episode 49 Episode 50 Episode 51 Episode 52 Episode 53 Episode 54 Episode 55 Episode 56 Episode 57 Episode 58 Episode 59 Episode 60 Episode 61 Episode 62 Episode 63 Episode 64 Episode 65 Episode 66 Episode 67 Episode 68 Episode 69 Episode 70 Episode 71 Episode 72

I am here with another year of reflection and prediction. I have done this for 2020, 2019 and 2018 as well: You can see those predictions here:
2020 mid-year: https://www.reddit.com/nintendo/comments/i3i7jm/state_of_nintendo_in_2020_7_month_retrospective/
2020: https://www.reddit.com/nintendo/comments/ee2xav/state_of_nintendo_in_2020/
2019: https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/boards/189706-nintendo-switch/77354321
E3 2018: https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/boards/189706-nintendo-switch/76268685
2018: https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/boards/189706-nintendo-switch/76150741
Keep in mind that this is meant to drive discussion, don’t be a hater. Predicting the future of company plans from a fan perspective is not a precise science and some may be correct and many may be wrong. State what you think will happen in the coming year and why to add to the discussion.

2020 Retrospective

What a year, this is definitely one that will go down in history if only for how the world was shut down economically. Not going into what should have been done, so with the global pandemic hitting many industries, programmers had work from home orders which in turn caused numerous delays to titles that were being prepared for release. Regardless we still saw a steady stream of high-quality titles and the completion of DLC for titles of previous years.
DLC releases
Fire Emblem: Cindered Shadows (February) final DLC with the season pass included new characters and a bonus story playable at any time focused on the catacombs below the school
Super Mario Maker 2: The final update included new snow mechanics and a world maker where you could create a full Mario game (April)
Luigi’s Mansion 3: saw the release of two multiplayer packs (April)
Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3: The final expansion “Fantastic 4: Shadow of Doom” (March)
Pokémon Sword/Shield: Two expansion packs in one pass “The Isle of Armor” (July) and “The Crown Tundra” (October) for the first time in a Pokémon game, bringing back many favorite Pokémon
Super Smash Bros. Ultimate: finished the first character pass with Byleth (January) and had previously announced a second waiver of character pass with 6 characters. Currently we have seen 3 – Min Min (June), Steve from Minecraft (October), and Sephiroth (December) and 3 more to go.
Major Releases
Super Mario time
Celebrating his 35th anniversary, Nintendo came out with a slew of products starring our favorite Italian Plumber. First was Paper Mario: The Origami King (July) which advanced past the previous two entries but was not quite back to its RPG routes like fans want. Next was Super Mario 3D All-stars (September) which included ports of Super Mario 64, Super Mario Sunshine and Super Mario Galaxy. Adjusting control schemes to account for the lack of analog triggers and pointing controls, the ports were solid but not the best way to play the games. Also missing was Super Mario Galaxy 2 from the package and any extras like documentaries making the games. An MMO-platformer Super Mario 35 (October) was also released free to NSO subscribers where you compete to complete levels in the original Super Mario Bros. Lastly was a Game & Watch version of the original Super Mario Bros.
Pokémon Battle
As stated before, we got the first DLC ever for a Pokémon game and it came in two packages “The Ilse of Armor” and “The Crown Tundra” which added extra Pokémon (both new and old) and new areas to the game. Some criticism on the way the DLC was handled as if you bought the expansion for the wrong version, it would not work despite being the same content. Pokémon Home (February) final arrived on the Switch. The spin off Mystery Dungeon series came in the form of Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Rescue Team DX (March) which was an updated port of the old Mystery Dungeon games. A free puzzle game Pokémon Café (June) to little fanfare. Also promises of a new Pokémon Snap which was delayed into 2021.
Other notable releases
· Tokyo Mirage Sessions #FE Encore (January): port of the Wii U game with a few added extras and English voice acting.
· Animal Crossing: New Horizons (March): hit at the start of the pandemic, added features and a promise of evergreen additions made this game Switch’s best-selling game that has not been a pack-in (ie only beat by Mario Kart 8 Deluxe). This game allowed gamers to escape reality and build their own island.
· Streets of Rage 4 (April): Return of the 2D brawler
· Xenoblade Chronicles Definitive Edition (May): a remake of one of Wii’s top RPGs with newer graphics, and a cleaner layout, it also included a bonus mission that connects the ending to the sequel.
· Bioshock Collection (May): A collection of all three critically acclaimed Bioshock games for the first time on an Nintendo console.
· Clubhouse Games: 51 Worldwide Classics (June): A collection of various minigames like Connect Four, various card games, Mahjong and more. Barebone options and quick online play for random or with friends.
· Jump Rope Challenge (June): A free exercise type game that makes use of the joycon to mimic jumping rope
· Burnout Paradise Remastered (June): An open world arcade racer that was critically acclaimed at its original release and updated for modern consoles. Also shows EA putting in more dedication to the Switch console.
· Kirby Fighters 2 (September): A fighting game starring Kirby and his power ups and nobody else.
· Hades (September): Rogue like game that tells the story as you die. Many different gameplay styles depending on which weapons you use.
· Ori and the Will of the Wisps (September): Metroidvania that is visually stunning and developed originally only for Xbox.
· Mario Kart Live: Home Circuit (October): Not wanting to give up on the AR experience, Nintendo released toy RC cars that you control with the Switch and a free software download.
· Pikmin 3 Deluxe (October): not done porting all their Wii U games to Switch, this includes all the added DLC at no extra charge
· No More Heroes/No More Heroes 2 (October): Ports of the Wii games with better graphics and framerate and alternate control style to prepare for the upcoming sequel.
· Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity (November): Based on the past events of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, this musou game changes up its formula but still plays like a musou game.
· Doom Eternal (December): competent port of the PS4/XB1 first person shooter by Bethesda.
· Among Us (December): Shadow dropped indie title that has taken mobile and Twitch by storm.
While not the best year, it was far from empty. Still lacking some key releases such as the sequel to Zelda: Breath of the Wild, Metroid Prime 4, Bayonetta 3 and Super Mario Odyssey 2. There are many Nintendo teams that we have yet to see titles. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic a lot of development has been postponed due to work at home directives set by government.

Current Release List for 2021

· Scott Pilgrim vs the World: The Game (Jan 14)
· Atelier Ryza 2: Lost Legends & the Secret Fairy (Jan 26)
· Cyber Shadow (Jan 26)
· Little Nightmares 2 (Feb 11)
· Romance of the Three Kingdoms 14 (Feb 11)
· Super Mario 3D World + Bowser’s Fury (Feb 12)
· Persona 5 Strikers (Feb 22)
· Ghosts ‘n Goblins Resurrection (Feb 25)
· Bravely Default 2 (Feb 26)
· Harvest Moon: One World (Mar 2)
· Balan Wonderworld (Mar 26)
· Monster Hunter Rise (Mar 26)

First Party Software

Nintendo Entertainment Planning and Development Tokyo
Kenta Motokura
In charge of the team that was previously under Yoshiaki Koizumi (whom was promoted to Deputy General Manager of the Tokyo office). This team was previously the lead development group of Super Mario Odyssey and developed Super Mario 3D All-stars for September 2020. Due to ports being easier to produce. Now that has wrapped up and they have created an update to allow for inverted camera controls, chances are they have been placed back on developing a sequel to Super Mario Odyssey which will likely be seen in 2022.
Koichi Hayashida
The other team that helped with Super Mario Odyssey also did the port of Captain Toad: Treasure Trackers. They have been busy working on a port of Super Mario 3D World + Bowser’s Fury for Switch due February 2021. They have been focused on implementing numerous changes to that title including: full 3D movement, online gameplay, and amiibo support with Cat Mario and Cat Peach. With all the extras being added, this game probably got pushed out of 2020 and into 2021 due to the pandemic changing the development lifestyle. Also, there is a highly likelihood was that they were working with Motokura’s group originally on Odyssey 2 but plans changed to get out more games for Mario’s 35th Anniversary. I expect them to fold back into Motokura’s group on Odyssey 2 when their port is completed.
Nintendo Entertainment Planning and Development Kyoto
Eiji Aonuma
Known as the “Zelda team”, there are two core teams. I believe both are working under Hidemaro Fujibayashi and Hiromasa Shikata to help develop the sequel to Breath of the Wild. Nintendo knows that Zelda sells consoles and what they have shown at e3 (2019) while stating the title is “in full development”. Nintendo know the popularity of the Breath of the Wild game and wants grow on that title. They have done so with the musou game Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity in which this team has assisted Tecmo Koei with development and the overall story. In September 2020 during an online presentation for Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity, Aonuma stated that gamers will have to “wait a bit longer before we can provide more updates” (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ifm8tpcO4vw). With the 35th Anniversary of the Legend of Zelda series coming in 2021, I do expect this title to be a highlight for the holiday season as long as the game is not pushed back due to unforeseen circumstances in development.
Hideki Konno
This team is the team behind the Mario Kart series. Their latest endeavor was with Augmented Reality (AR) and developing Mario Kart Live: Home Circuit which was released this past October. Not having a full game released since Mario Kart 8 Deluxe in 2017, they have been developing something over the past 3 and a half years. The problem though is MK8D still sells incredibly well and if they develop Mario Kart 9 that will cannibalize any additional sales of their previous title. While chances are they could have altered their development to change it from Mario Kart 9 to another kart racer such as Donkey Kong Racing, I think gamers will probably see something from them when Nintendo showcases a newer model Switch (either the rumored PRO or an actual Switch 2) so I would not expect a full game release until 2022 at the earliest.
Hiroyuki Kimura
Super Mario Maker 2 and New Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe were developed under Kimura with the help of Takashi Tezuka. In April 2020, Nintendo released the final major update for Super Mario Maker 2 which included a World creator, where you can make your own full fledged Mario game. They also released New Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe in January which is an updated port of the Wii U game. There have been rumors of a new Wario platformer being developed which this team has likely been developing. Chances are likely that we will hear about their new title this year.
Kosuke Yubuki
Previously worked on ARMS in 2017 and its DLC. This producer also worked with Konno so it is likely this team was folded back into the Mario Kart team to prepare something for this year or next. It is possible they are working on an ARMS follow up, but with the success of Smash and one of its main characters Min Min being the first of the second waive of Smash DLC, it is unlikely. Most likely working on something brand new which we may see in 2021 or the following year.
Hisashi Nogami
This is the young producer in charge of both Animal Crossing and Splatoon series. He worked with another young producer Aya Kyogoku on Animal Crossing: Happy Home Designer. With the release of Animal Crossing: New Horizons taking an evergreen approach with constant DLC content, especially when it comes to special occasions. A more seamless online experience and a lot more to do, I am sure this group is still working on Animal Crossing. Its next game will be a while away while they focus on Animal Crossing in the current future. Do not expect anything new from this team for a while.

2nd Party Studios

Camelot Software Planning
Their last title was Mario Tennis Aces (2018) and its respective DLC. Being a smaller studio, it takes some time for development. The team was hit harder due to the pandemic. Now, with all the DLC on Mario Tennis Aces completed early 2019, they have likely been busy in full development on Mario Golf. Most likely will see Mario Golf sometime in 2021. It is likely they were probably aiming for a 2020 title buy delayed the development into 2021 – so expect a release this year.
Game Freak
They just released the 2 DLC packages for Pokémon Sword and Shield for the Nintendo Switch this year to mixed review. They typically have something Pokémon related out each year and they also developed their own title Little Town Hero last year meaning they have been hard developing some titles. Current rumors suggest either a Let’s Go remake of Gold/Silver or a full remake of Diamond/Pearl since Ruby/Sapphire were the last full remakes. Personally, I think we will either see Sword/Shield 2 or a whole new Pokémon game due out this year since they have been incredibly busy, are a larger studio that works on many titles at once, and have not had a big release in 2020.
Grezzo
This team just release the port of The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening in 2019. Mostly known for their 3DS ports of Zelda titles and TriForce Heroes, chances are they are still working on the Zelda franchise. With 2021 being Zelda’s 35th Anniversary, there have been many rumors of a collection or ports of some of the older Zelda games to be released in 2021. Since 2018, there has also been rumor of a Zelda: Skyward Sword port (which was shot down by Aonuma) (https://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2018-11-26-nintendo-fans-excited-by-zelda-skyward-sword-nintendo-switch-port-reports)
Good Feel
They released Yoshi’s Crafted World in 2019 and has likely they have started on the next Yoshi game as it tends to sell well and it is what they know. It is also possible that Nintendo has given them another 2D IP to work with such as Wario Land, however; I think that series might be in development by the 2D Mario team under Kimura. It is highly likely that we will see something from them in 2021 and depending on how the pandemic hit their development cycle it may have either a 2021 or 2022 release.
HAL Laboratory
Developer of all things Kirby, we have seen some smaller Kirby titles lately. Their last games were Kirby Fighters 2 and Part-time UFO both digital only eShop games. They have teased something for early this year but on the smaller scale (https://www.nintendolife.com/news/2020/12/kirby_developer_hal_laboratory_teases_new_projects_for_20211) . I think they may also have a full-fledged Kirby game due this year as our last one was early 2018.
Intelligent Systems
This team was hard at work as it finished the DLC on Fire Emblem: 3 Houses and released Paper Mario: The Origami King in July of 2020. They also continue to work on Fire Emblem Heroes on mobile as that is Nintendo’s highest grossing mobile project. Growing the studio in 2019 to be able to handle numerous projects at a time, they likely have a few titles in development. The biggest rumor is that Nintendo is readying another Fire Emblem game but a remake of an older title. Current rumors are remakes of Geneology (next one in line for a remake) or Binding Blade (the game that introduced Roy). If it is a remake, then we will likely see the release in 2021. If it is not a remake, then creating the scenario will take some time so we will likely see the game this year with a release for 2022. Chances are they are likely working on another title as well but that probably won’t be seen until 2022.
Next Level Games
Last responsible for Luigi’s Mansion 3 and its DLC that was released in 2020. They have also worked on Metroid and Punch-out! With actual 3D Mario titles being handled internally by Nintendo’s Tokyo studio, they are likely working on something new. Possibly a sports title, new Punch Out, or even a 2D Metroid (though I doubt this despite rumors of development). We may see what they have developed this year, but I would expect a 2022 release to be more realistic for what they are working on.
NDCube
Responsible for Super Mario Party in 2018 and they did Clubhouse Games: 51 Worldwide Classics for 2020, which was a barebones release in the form of options. Considering the lack of DLC for Super Mario Party, chances are they are working on a sequel to the game that sold well. The single problem if they are working on Super Mario Party 2 is that the original is still selling incredibly well even 2 years after release with over 12 million units. Even if the game is ready this year, I think Nintendo will hold out on Super Mario Party 2 until 2022.
Monolith Soft
Responsible for help with Breath of the Wild and the Xenoblade franchise. We did not hear much from them in 2019 or 2020 with their only release being a remake of the original Xenoblade Chronicles in May. In 2017 they advertised jobs for a new fantasy action-RPG which likely was transferred to their help with the Zelda franchise. I believe we will see the sequel to Breath of the Wild this year and first glimpse of a new Xenoblade game for 2022.
Retro Studios
This year also marks the 35th Anniversary for the Metroid series. Unfortunately, the series is not as high priority as many other Nintendo franchises. With the sequel of Breath of the Wild likely coming out this year, it will be the focus for Nintendo in 2021; we probably will not see any development from Metroid Prime 4 until 2022. Nintendo knows that they need to make Metroid Prime a quality title so they will give Retro Studios as much time as they need for the title. As for the long-rumored port of the Metroid Prime Trilogy, I still have hopes that we will see some information on it this year, potentially in August to support the anniversary and prepare for Metroid Prime 4 the following year.

3rd Party collaborations

Bandai Namco
Collaborating with Nintendo on the Super Smash Bros. Ultimate and its DLC, there are still 3 character-packages to go before they are finished with that game. Additionally, they are the development team behind New Pokémon Snap, which was originally due 2020 but delayed into an unknown time 2021 – so expect that title. The Tales team is busy on Tales of Arise which is not bound for Switch, so outside the DLC and Pokémon game do not expect much.
Bethesda
The parent company Zenimax was recently purchased by Microsoft. The sale included Bethesda and all its partnering companies. The last release was Doom Eternal released in December 2020 and was a digital only release. The move from physical to digital only was due to the fact it came 9 months after the main PS4/XB1 release. With no Switch games scheduled on the horizon and its recent acquisition and focus on next generation, I think we have seen the last Switch game from Bethesda
Capcom
They have ported many of their older titles (REmake, RE0, RE4, RE5, RE6, Rev1, Rev2 DMC 1,2,3) to Switch and have brand new games: Monster Hunter Rise and Monster Hunter Stories due in 2021. With the Capcom leak, there is a game due Q4 of 2021 called Biohazard Outrage which is rumored to be Resident Evil Revelations 3 and featuring Rebecca Chambers. There was also a leak of a new Dragon’s Dogma and Ace Attorney 7 which are rumored to come to Switch.
Electronic Arts
They have pledged 14 games from April 2020 to March 2021 fiscal year. EA has kept the games closely guarded and it is unsure if the global pandemic has postponed any of the planned games. Still waiting on Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit 2 and some Plants vs Zombie games.
Koei Tecmo
Since Nintendo has invested heavily in this studio, they have worked increasing hard for Nintendo hardware. They finished the Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3 DLC, assisted with Breath of the Wild in 2017, assisted with Fire Emblem: 3 Houses and released Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity in 2020. They co-own the Fatal Frame franchise with Nintendo and it has a game that is rumored to be in development. There is also a possibility of a port of the Wii U game to come to Switch. It is likely they are helping with the sequel to Breath of the Wild as well. Lastly there has been a year long rumor on the return of Ninja Gaiden and it seems that Switch would be likely candidate for that game considering how well their games are selling on Switch
Platinum Games
They are working on Bayonetta 3 and have a good relationship with Nintendo. Being in development the over the past 3 years, I do expect to at least hear something about the title in 2021 if not a release but I have been wrong before.
Ubisoft
I went out on a limb last year and said Assassin Creed ports and they are working with Nintendo on a new Star Fox game. We have seen ports for Assassins Creed 3, Liberty, 4: Black Flag and Rebel. New Assassins Creed games are a bit too much for Ubisoft, but I still think we will see another Nintendo collaboration and I am positive it will be a new Star Fox game. Ubisoft will also continue to support Nintendo with Just Dance and look forward to a lot of their smaller titles to also come to the Switch.
Sega
Their biggest releases were games along the Sega Ages line (which they recently discontinued https://nintendoeverything.com/sega-confirms-the-end-of-sega-ages-but-teases-more-plans-for-switch-and-past-titles/), Puyo Puyo Tetris 2, and Football Manager 2021. They also released Mario & Sonic at the Tokyo Olympics late 2019. They are likely working on a new Sonic game for Switch and while the Sega Ages line is gone, they are still open to port older titles on the system.
Square Enix
Bravely Default 2 has a release date of February 2021 after being pushed out of 2020. They have also released in 2020 a few collections of older games, Trials of Mana, and Kingdom Hearts: Melody of Memory which is a music game spin off for the Kingdom Hearts series. Rumored to have The World Ends with You 2 in development for Switch. I would also expect some more collections to come out (or at least ports) and a rumored new entry in the SaGa or Mana series.
Take Two Games
Released 3 collections for Switch in May of 2020 with their 2K Games development studio. I think they likely will have some more games in development, especially with the way EA has provided lackluster support in the sports games field. There has also been a long rumor of Rockstar developing Grand Theft Auto V for Switch but that seems to be more of a dream than an actual rumor as Rockstar is working on development of GTAV for PS5 and XSX. Ports and complication packages being quick and easy turnover, I am certain they will delve into their back catalogue and find a release for the Switch in 2021.

[Updated 26/01/2021]
This FAQ consists of quotes taken from the FAQ channel on Discord and the Store Page!

- Release date and Pricing-

When will the game release?

Dyson Sphere Program has launched!
You can get it on Steam right here, right now: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1366540/Dyson_Sphere_Program/

How much will the game cost?

When the game first enters Early Access it will cost $19.99 / €16.79 / £15.49.
If you purchase the game in the first week of early access you will also get a 10% discount! (Live now, ends January 27th)
The price of the game will increase when it moves out of Early Access

​

- Early Access -

Why Early Access?

While the core mechanics of Dyson Sphere Program are ready, the game still can grow and evolve a lot – and Early Access is just the perfect place for it to reach its true potential. We believe that letting players experience the main content of Dyson Sphere Program and actively interacting with them to collect their feedback will allow us to improve the game and make it much better than it would be without this Early Access stage.

Approximately how long will this game be in Early Access?

Our plans are for this EA stage to be about 1 year long. But that is not written in stone: we will be open to our players’ feedback and ideas from the beginning, so that period can be expanded to meet their expectations until the game is ready for its full release.

How complete is the Early Access version?

A single playthrough takes between 50 and 100 hours to complete and that's if you focus on building the Dyson sphere.
If you sneak off to explore the universe, spend time optimizing the factory layout, etc., it may take you longer than that.

How is the full version planned to differ from the Early Access version?

Generally speaking, the full release version of Dyson Sphere Program will expand on the exploration mechanics, as well as polish and fine-tune the experience of designing and operating an automated factory, fleshing out the experience the current build can provide. To be more specific, these are some of the features we are planning to implement:
- More types of planets and celestial bodies for players to discover
- More exploration events, like being sucked into a black hole
- Mecha editing: players will be able to design their own mechas
- Monsters: alien enemies that can attack your factories and spaceships to bring more tension and excitement to the whole experience
- More construction types, like suspended platforms to extend constructions from planets to space
- Quality-of-life improvements and balancing
- More music tracks and sound scenes, cutscenes

What's your plan of Localization?

A: Of course we want to bring Dyson Sphere Program to more players! However we are a small team, currently we are focusing on bug fixing and gameplay improvement. We will plan for localization after this stage.

​

- Features -

Does the game have multiplayer or online features?

Dyson Sphere Program is singleplayer only right now.

Does the game support modding?

Official Modding support will be coming in the future! More details will be revealed later.

Are there enemies in the game?

Icarus does not have an enemy in the current version, but it's a feature we plan to implement in the future. We are also looking forward to it!

Can I customize my mecha?

You cannot currently change the appearance of your mecha but this feature will be added in the future! There is however a tech tree for upgrading your mecha.

What languages can the game be played in?

Dyson Sphere Program is fully playable in English and Simplified Chinese. If you do notice any localization issues, please let us know in the #game-feedback channel on Discord and we'll fix it as soon as we can.

How can I discard items in my inventory?

Select the item you want to discard and press Del on your keyboard.

Can a building of the same style be upgraded directly without dismantling and reinstalling?

That is not supported yet, but will be implemented further down the road.

Can the sorter be planned in advance (with a blueprint)?

That is not supported yet, but will be implemented further down the road.

I wish the direction of the conveyor belt and the sorter could be adjusted in a more convenient way.

We're planning for it!

Can I rebind shortcut keys/hotkeys?

We plan to implement that ASAP.

​

- Development -

How big is the development team for Dyson Sphere Program?

Dyson Sphere Program is made by a five-person team from Chongqing, China.

How frequently will the game be updated?

We will announce a development roadmap. Stay tuned!

How are you planning on involving the Community in your development process?

While the core mechanics of Dyson Sphere Program are ready, the game still can grow and evolve a lot – and Early Access is just the perfect place for it to reach its true potential.
We believe that letting players experience the main content of Dyson Sphere Program and actively interacting with them to collect their feedback will allow us to improve the game and make it much better than it would be without this Early Access stage.

I found a bug. Where can I report it?

You can either:
Fill in the form here
or
Post your report in the #bug-reports channel and we will keep track of it there.

- Technical -

Where can I find the saves folder and log file?

A: Savedata: %USERPROFILE%DocumentsDyson Sphere ProgramSaveLOG : %USERPROFILE%AppDataLocalLowYouthcat StudioDyson Sphere Program

What should I do if the download and installation process fail?

Please try the following ways:

1. Restart Steam
2. Change the direction of game file
3. Enter [Steam-Settings-Download-Library Folder-Right click to select the corresponding directory-Repair Library Folder]

Do my saves synch with the Steam cloud?

We met some tech difficulty on it, so the Steam cloud saves are not supported yet.

Does the game support Steam Workshop?

Right now, the focus is on fixing bugs and improving performance and stability. However, this is on the development roadmap, and it will be done when the most pressing issues have been ironed out.

Does the game have achievements?

Not yet, but they're on their way!

Why is my FPS low?

Please check out whether your computer meets the minimum configuration requirements first. If your computer has 2 graphic cards (integrated + dedicated GPUs), follow the steps below to set your dedicated GPU up as default:

1. Open the NVIDIA control panel
2. Click "Manage 3D Settings", and then switch to the "Program Settings" tab
3. Click the "Add" button in the first selection of custom programs, and select the application to use the discrete graphics card in the drop-down box
4. Select "High-performance NVIDIA processor" in the graphics processor in the second column, then click Apply at the bottom right corner

I can’t move the mouse after changing the graphic resolution.

Please restart the game to solve this problem. We will fix this as soon as possible.

Why does my UI keeping flash up and down?

It may be caused by a low resolution. You can enter [Settings-Game-UI Layout Reference Height] to adjust your resolution.

With a 3840*2160 resolution, my game screen doesn’t look correctly.

We’re aware of this issue and we will fix it as soon as possible.

I see a strange ring on the planet's surface.

You can turn off [Planet Surface Self-Shadow] in the settings to get rid of that 'strange ring'.

​

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• Here’s a link to the first post with the first set of 10 games.
  
• Here’s a link to the second post with the second set of 10 games.
  
• Here’s a link to the third post with the third set of 10 games.
  

There are also some links within the first link that discuss indie local multiplayer games and upcoming indie games as well.
Note that previous lists were not themed solely around platform games.
Introduction
We're all familiar with the Shovel Knight’s, A Hat in Time’s, and Celeste's of the world. These are some of the indie platform games that hit the big time. Of course, for every one of these games, there's 100 other indie games that have been glossed over, relegated to a spot in a digital store few people will ever find themselves in. I wanted to bring attention to some of these lesser known indie games once again.
Platformers from Previous Lists
I’m going to list the platformers that were in the previous three lists. None of them will reappear on this new list. 1-6 are from the first list, 7-11 are from the second list, and 12-14 are from the third list. They are as follows: (1.) Four Sided Fantasy, (2.) Daggerhood, (3.) Momodora: Reverie Under the Moonlight, (4.) Biolab Wars, (5.) Gravity Duck, (6.) Penarium, (7.) Cursed Castilla (Maldita Castilla EX), (8.) Hayfever, (9.) Duck Souls+, (10.) Cybarian: The Time-Traveling Warrior, (11.) Verlet Swing, (12.) Valfaris, (13.) Primal Light, and (14.) Tamashii. Note that both Biolab Wars and Valfaris are listed as run & guns, but they have platforming elements and are considered platformers by some people. Hayfever and Valfaris were my favorite games for their respective lists and are some of my favorite games in the genre. These 14 games listed range from puzzle platformers, precision platformers, action platformers, first person 3D platformers, Metroidvanias, run & guns, etc. There’s also Flat Heroes from my 10 local co-op recommendations list found as a link within the first post. Guacamelee is on there too, though it doesn’t qualify as an overlooked game.
Details About the List
All 9 games available on Steam are currently on sale. When this post is 17 hours old, the sales for these games will be over. Genre is going to be more like a short descriptor of the game for this list since these are all platformers. I’ve also included games with local co-op mixed in with solely single player games, including one built around the co-op experience for this list (before I did separate lists for single player only and games that included local co-op). I'm going to order them according to Metacritic Critic Ratings. One of the games towards the bottom has a pretty low rating (60%) that I personally disagree with, but it's only fair that you hear from more than just me. Since Steam has 9/10 of the games on the list (Switch has 8 of them, Xbox One has 6 of them, PlayStation 4 has 5 of them, and Wii U has 1 of them), I will be using the Steam Metacritic Critic Rating of each game, except for #9, where I will use the PlayStation 4 version, since that’s the only version of it available currently. I’m going to list 5 2D and 5 3D platformers for this list. For the purpose of this post, I’m just going to stick with saying “achievements” and “getting all achievements” instead of “trophies” and “platinum trophy” since Steam has 9 of the games on the list. You can basically substitute these with “trophies” and “platinum trophy” if you’re a PlayStation gamer. I will make mention of the two games on here that don’t include a platinum trophy however.
Platforms will include a link to the U.S. store page of the game for each platform. Price is in U.S. dollars.
1. Levelhead

• Platforms: Xbox One, Switch, Steam, iOS, Android
  
• Includes 4 Player Local Co-op
  
• Regular Price: $19.99
  
• Steam Sale Price: $13.99
  
• Picture: Link
  
• Trailer: Link
  
• Sample Music Track: Main Theme
  
• Genre: 2D Level Creation Platformer
  
• Metacritic: 80% from 1 Critic Review, 90% from 1 User Rating
  
• Description: Levelhead is a drag and drop maker game with a robust set of tools, cross functionality between all platforms, and cloud saves. The most obvious comparison is Super Mario Maker, and on consoles the UI and tools for creating levels are very similar (D-Pad to cycle through items, analog stick to place). However, Levelhead brings a number of elements to the table to make it way more than just a budget clone: near instant respawns upon death, a marketing department to advertise your levels, more advanced switches and logic systems, more mixing and matching between backgrounds and music, etc. Levelhead fixes a persistent problem found in nearly all maker games: many levels are simply dead in the water as soon as they’re pushed out. In Levelhead, the more levels you play, the more marketing currency you earn that can be in turn spent to push your levels to the top. It’s a kind of “play for play” scenario that cuts out the middle man, social media, and integrates it all into the game.
  
• Description Continued: Levelhead also has some unique items that make it standout – in particular, the powerups. There are seven of these and they can really transform the platforming. The Zipper, for example, will teleport your character four tiles ahead through everything but lead blocks. The local co-op allows for up to four players to both create and play levels, including the campaign (known as “Training” in the game) that helps introduce you to the items and tools of the game. There have been a number of updates since its initial release in April 2019 and Community Spotlights on the Steam page of the game.
  
• Completion Time: ~5 Hours
  
• Extra Content: There are over 75,000 community levels to play, with more being added every day. This game could potentially last you hundreds of hours. Achievements are very difficult and would likely require you to make high quality levels to get them all, as some are dependent on the number of people who have played your level.
  

2. Splasher

• Platforms: PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Switch, Steam
  
• Regular Price: $14.99
  
• Steam & PlayStation 4 Sale Price: $3.74 (Ends January 20th on PlayStation 4)
  
• Picture: Link
  
• Trailer: Link
  
• Sample Music Track: Capture
  
• Genre: 2D Precision Platformer
  
• Metacritic: 79% from 7 Critic Reviews, 68% from 18 User Ratings
  
• Description: It’s no surprise a group of ex-Rayman developers went on to create another fantastic platformer (not to be confused with Unruly Heroes). The main hook of Splasher are the three liquid abilities you find that influence how your character moves and jumps. Red paint will allow you to stick to surfaces and run on walls and ceilings, yellow paint will bounce you to new heights, and water can be used to undo the effects of either and rescue other splashers trapped by the paint. The game is fast paced, so knowing when to use which is as important as jumping at the right time. You’re eased into each new ability for a few stages before getting a new one so it’s never overwhelming.
  
• Description Continued: Each level has six other splashers to rescue that each spell a letter of the word “Splash.” These act as an expanded test of your platforming abilities. There are also one to three segregated zones per level – these are single screen areas you must survive or win to rescue one of the other splashers. Making these optional zones that exist outside the regular level is a great touch because it allows the game to keep its fast paced “always be moving” approach while still allowing for greater variety in gameplay. You’ll typically either need to defeat a certain number of enemies or platform around the room to release the splasher. There’s only one boss that comes at the end of the game – the rest of the time you’ll be running, jumping, and painting.
  
• Completion Time: ~5 Hours
  
• Extra Content: I only rescued 2/3 of the splashers my first time around, so it will likely take a couple hours to save the rest. In addition, there’s a time trial mode that rewards you three different medals based on your time, as well as online leaderboards that measure your time against the rest of the world.
  

3. Marble It Up!

• Platforms: Switch, Steam
  
• Regular Price: $19.99
  
• Steam Sale Price: $14.99
  
• Picture: Link
  
• Trailer: Link
  
• Sample Music Track: The Conqueror
  
• Genre: 3D Marble-based Platformer
  
• Metacritic: 76% from 2 Critic Reviews, 83% from 4 User Ratings
  
• Description: This comes from many of the same people who worked on the Marble Blast series from the early 2000s. The most mainstream comparison to this game would probably be Super Monkey Ball, though unlike that game you control the marble directly here rather than the stage. Your marble can jump and user powerups, and many times you’ll have to use the momentum to overcome the obstacles in front of you. Levels are usually linear, though there are many levels that tasks you with collecting gems in a more open area. There’s a great sense of speed to the levels, and with the proper timing of a good jump this allows you to forge your own path in many levels. Since each level is timed, you’ll see that many of the top players have found a way outside the expected path to the finish. This is great for speedrunning enthusiasts, though it’s still a fun time even if you’re not looking to climb the leaderboards.
  
• Description Continued: Medals are awarded based on your completion time of each level, and the fact that they’re pretty short makes them highly replayable. There are also trophies to find in each level that allow you to unlock more marbles. You can choose between 100+ different marbles to play as. The game leans on the easier side – frequent checkpoints, large platforms, no time-outs, etc., but you’ll likely still die a few times before finishing a level. There are a few nice quality of life features I also appreciate: you can switch music tracks on the pause screen, use either the shoulder buttons or face buttons to jump and use power-ups, hide the timer if fast moving numbers intimidate you, reset the stage with a push of a button, and rewind time in practice mode.
  
• Completion Time: ~4 Hours
  
• Extra Content: You can try for the platinum medal on each level, find the collectible trophy in each level, participate in the daily challenges, and try to top the leaderboards. There are also over 100 unique marbles to collect that are awarded for doing the aforementioned challenges. The Steam version also has Steam Workshop support, which allows you to create and play custom user created content.
  

4. Spark the Electric Jester 2

• Platforms: Xbox One, Steam
  
• Regular Price: $19.99
  
• Steam Sale Price: $8.99
  
• Picture: Link
  
• Trailer: Link
  
• Sample Music Track: Technoria City
  
• Genre: 3D Sonic-like Action Platformer
  
• Metacritic: 75% from 1 Critic Review, 76% from 5 User Ratings
  
• Description: This is the sequel to the original 2D PC exclusive from 2017, with another 3D sequel currently in production. If you care at all for the story, it’s recommended you play or at least read about what happened in the first game. Spark 2 actually follows Fark, another jester. Spark 2 emulates many of the high speed moments found in 3D Sonic games, but brings a few ideas of its own. In particular, action is a bigger focus in this game, though platforming is still the priority. Enemies are easy enough to run past with a few exceptions for mini bosses at the end of some levels and the nine main bosses. In addition, enemies can also add to your score.
  
• Description Continued: In addition to Fark’s expanded move-set in combat, he also has the ability to double jump, dash, and wall jump. The jumps give you a lot of air time, lending more leniency to the platforming, and the dash is great for building momentum. There’s quite a bit to explore in each level too – jumping off ramps in the middle of loopdeloops will sometimes result in you finding the game’s main collectible, floppy disks. Fark can also acquire four additional costumes found within the levels that offer some variation in abilities. The game offers five difficulties at the start, with it recommending the second easiest option, Normal, as the default way to play your first time through. Bosses on this difficulty are fairly easy provided you’re competent with timing when to use your shield, though I did lose once or two against a few of them.
  
• Completion Time: ~3 Hours
  
• Extra Content: The game measures both your time and score for each level and rewards you with a gold or platinum medal depending on your performance. Getting all the medals for each of the 14 levels and nine bosses add a few hours to the game. There’s also a Tour Mode that tests you with specific challenges, like beating the whole game with only five lives. In addition, there are 109 floppy disks to find that unlock art. I only found 18 on my first playthrough. You can also replay the game on one of the higher difficulties. The game requires you 100% complete all of this for 100% achievement attainment.
  

5. Never Alone - Arctic Collection

• Platforms: PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Wii U, Steam, Android
  
• Includes 2 Player Local Co-op
  
• Regular Price: $17.99 ($14.99 for just the base game)
  
• Steam Sale Price: $2.99
  
• Picture: Link
  
• Trailer: Link
  
• Sample Music Track: Hilltop
  
• Genre: 2D Co-op Focused/Narrative/Puzzle Platformer
  
• Metacritic: 72% from 30 Critic Reviews, 63% from 107 User Ratings
  
• Description: Never Alone centers around an Inupiat girl and a fox and tells a story based on Inupiat folktales. The Inupiat are an Alaskan Native people. The entire game takes place in this icy climate, with the story revolving around the girl finding the source of a blizzard sweeping away her village. This is a slower paced platformer and tends to lean on the easy side of things. The game is built around the co-op experience much like Untravel Two, Putty Pals, and Biped. However Never Alone assigns a unique role to each of the two characters. Only the fox can wall jump and bring visibility to spirits (who act as platforms), while the girl can push crates and throw magical beads.
  
• Description Continued: While the game is built around the cooperation of the two players, it can still be enjoyed in single player, with the player being able to switch between both characters when playing solo. There are a few set-piece moments I don’t see in a lot of 2D platformers that really adds to the feeling of being on a long journey far away from home. The music is also appropriately ambient and reflects the desolate wintery environments. When playing through the game you’ll come across collectibles called “cultural insights,” which are videos that tell you more about the Inupiat culture.
  
• Completion Time: ~4 Hours (including the 1 hour Foxtales DLC bundled with the Arctic Collection)
  
• Extra Content: You can try to collect all the cultural insights and find all the secrets. Getting all achievements will require you to do so. There is no platinum trophy for this game.
  

6. Shadow Blade: Reload

• Platforms: PlayStation 4, Switch, Steam, Android, iOS
  
• Regular Price: $9.99
  
• Steam Sale Price: $2.99
  
• Picture: Link
  
• Trailer: Link
  
• Sample Music Track: Jade City
  
• Genre: 2D Action Platformer
  
• Metacritic: 70% from 10 Critic Reviews, 82% from 21 User Ratings
  
• Description: Searching developer Dead Mage’s website for Children of Morta DLC updates exposed me to one of their earlier works – an action platformer reminiscent of Shinobi and Strider. Among a sea of pixel art 2D platformers, Shadow Blade stands out with its 3D characters and backgrounds. And the gameplay complements the modern work – your character has a number of moves at his disposable: wall jumps, wall slides, a downward jump attack, a dash, throw shuriken, etc. Getting in the flow of a level and being able to string all these moves together with the right timing feels really good.
  
• Description Continued: While there are boss fights and times where you’ll be locked in a room forced to dispatch enemies, the game leans much heavier on its platforming elements. Many enemies can simply be evaded, though dispatching them can also increase your score at the end of each level. In addition, there are collectibles and a constant timer that also weighs in on your performance at the end of each level. The game is a bit easier than most 2D platformers, but getting a perfect grade is a difficult thing to achieve. Cutscenes are presented in the style of a comic book. While the story itself isn’t particularly novel, the presentation lends it a more unique flavor.
  
• Completion Time: ~3 Hours
  
• Extra Content: You can try for a perfect grade on each level. There is also a separate Challenge Mode that has specially designed levels that are of a greater challenge than what’s found in the main campaign with leaderboard rankings. There are two higher difficulties that can be unlocked. In addition, the Steam version has Steam Workshop integration with a level editor and custom levels to play. Getting all achievements would be very difficult. There is no platinum trophy.
  

7. Pumpkin Jack

• Platforms: Xbox One, Switch, Steam, Android, [PlayStation 4 version planned for 2021]
  
• Regular Price: $29.99
  
• Steam Sale Price: $22.49
  
• Picture: Link
  
• Trailer: Link
  
• Sample Music Track: The Wizard
  
• Genre: 3D Action Platformer
  
• Metacritic: 70% from 2 Critic Reviews, 90% from 1 User Rating
  
• Description: This is a 3D platformer that reportedly takes inspiration from both MediEvil and Jak & Daxter: The Precursor Legacy. There’s about equal amounts of platforming and combat in this game. While the combat is relatively simple, you’re given a variety of weapons that all feel unique. The levels have a good amount of variety within them – you’ll jump between ships on a ferry ride, ride an undead horse through the sky, play a few mini games as a headless Jack, and fight a boss at the end of each of the six levels. Both the combat and platforming are relatively easy – platforms are typically large and Jack has an edge grab that helps tremendously, and smashing the many destructible objects around the levels increases your health.
  
• Description Continued: This game takes the linear adventure approach, with a number of collectibles sprinkled throughout the levels: crow skulls, presents, and gramophones. Some areas are more open and allow you to choose the order in which you do certain tasks. The game has a decent amount of dialogue in it, which does an effective job of giving some character to Jack, his two animal companions, and the rest of the cast. The visuals and soundtrack are particularly great, especially if you’re into Halloween themed media.
  
• Completion Time: ~4 Hours
  
• Extra Content: There’s collectibles to back for – I got about 2/3 of the collectibles on my first playthrough – skins to unlock – which are purchased with the collectibles you find in the levels – and you get to start a second playthrough with all the weapons already unlocked at the beginning. You’ll also be able to return to any level you want via the level select menu. Getting all achievements is contingent on collecting all the crow skulls, gramophones, and outfits (presents were added in a later update and so aren’t required for 100% achievement attainment).
  

8. Unbox: Newbie’s Adventure

• Platforms: PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Switch, Steam
  
• Includes a Separate 4 Player Local Competitive/Versus Multiplayer Mode
  
• Regular Price: $29.99
  
• Steam Sale Price: $3.99
  
• PlayStation 4 Sale Price: $5.99 (Ends January 20th)
  
• Picture: Link
  
• Trailer: Link
  
• Sample Music Track: Parcel Peaks
  
• Genre: 3D Collectathon Platformer
  
• Metacritic: 68% from 6 Critic Reviews, 81% from 7 User Ratings
  
• Description: Unbox takes heavy inspiration from Banjo Kazooie and other collectathons of the fifth generation but has levels far larger than any Nintendo 64 platformer. Fortunately your customizable character can cover huge amounts of ground very quickly via the unbox mechanic, which is basically a super jump you can use up to six times before you need replenishment via item pickups or checkpoints. Both the jump and unbox mechanic are tied to the shoulder buttons, which takes some getting used to but is ultimately one I’m in favor of, as it allows for camera control without removing your thumb from the jump or unbox buttons. The high speeds you can travel make for some great exploration, but the game is still able to disable your ability to unbox by giving you a “fragile” item, allowing for more carefully considered platforming sections.
  
• Description Continued: Each of the three major worlds have four major collectibles: 200 gold tape, 10 caged zippies, 18 stamps, and 1 super stamp rewarded upon defeating the boss of the world. There is also a hub world that has just 200 gold tape to collect. The 18 stamps are the jiggies or stars of the game, and they’re primarily what you’re after to advance the game. 9 of them are hidden across the world, while the other 9 are given by NPCs upon the completion of a task: Digi will ask you to take an item from point A to point B with some platforming in between, Dash will ask you to complete three races around different areas of the map, Superbox will ask you to destroy 20 enemies in X amount of time, etc. The other collectibles simply unlock more cosmetic options for your character.
  
• Completion Time: ~7 Hours
  
• Extra Content: The game only requires you collect 2/3 of the stamps to beat the game. If you want to collect all the stamps, zippies, and gold tape, this could more than double your playtime, as the worlds are massive and finding all the gold tape is a daunting task, though they do make a distinct noise when you are near them once you’ve collected half of them in a level. Your friendly companion Bounce will also give you visual clues on where to find whatever collectible you might be stuck on. I was able to find all the collectibles in the first world but three gold tape with next to no issues, though Bounce helped me with the remaining three. I really have to commend the developers for their inclusion of both audio cues and visual guides built within the game to guide you to collectibles – it makes collecting every last thing a lot less tedious. The high speeds of your character allow you great traversal of the world, which also helps with collecting everything. The achievements require you to collect everything. There is no platinum trophy. In addition to the single player campaign, there are quite a few local multiplayer modes for up to four players – these include Boxing, Collect, Thief, Oddbox, and Delivery. The developers go into more detail on each mode here.
  

9. A Tale of Paper

• Platforms: PlayStation 4, [Steam version planned for 2021]
  
• Regular Price: $14.99
  
• Picture: Link
  
• Trailer: Link
  
• Sample Music Track: Unfortunately there’s no soundtrack online.
  
• Genre: 3D Little Nightmares-like Atmospheric Platformer
  
• Metacritic: 60% from 4 Critic Reviews, 70% from 3 User Ratings
  
• Description: A Tale of Paper takes direct inspiration from Little Nightmares, sporting the same sideview camera angle and minimalist narrative. It’s a little less creepy, has a bit more platforming, and it has the interesting twist of transforming into a variety of different origamis on the fly: from a little alien creature, to a frog, to a ball, to a paper airplane, etc., all with the push of a button. You’ll use a combination of different origami shapes to overcome the obstacles in the area, and you’ll be accompanied by some gorgeous sceneries in the process.
  
• Description Continued: The gameplay is pretty easy in both its platforming and puzzles, making it an easygoing, movie-esque kind of game. While the story is minimalist, it results in a satisfying conclusion, and it really feels like you’ve been through quite a journey even with the short runtime. The game evokes the feeling of being a tiny specimen in a larger-than-life world – Toy Story 2 is probably the most apt comparison I can make. Outside of Little Nightmares, I haven’t played another game quite like this.
  
• Completion Time: ~1.5 Hours
  
• Extra Content: I got seven of the eight origami collectibles in my first run through the game. The trophies also only offer a few extra things to do, but I’d recommend reading the list of trophies before you play the game if you want to get the relatively easy platinum trophy.
  

10. Polyroll

• Platforms: Switch, Steam
  
• Regular Price: $9.99
  
• Steam Sale Price: $2.49
  
• Picture: Link
  
• Trailer: Link
  
• Sample Music Track: Marble Museum
  
• Genre: 2D Sonic-like Platformer
  
• Metacritic: N/A from 0 Critic Reviews, 80% from 1 User Rating
  
• Description: While this game is definitely inspired by Sonic the Hedgehog, the pace is a lot slower - no high speed loopdeloops or anything like that. You're never going at a speed where you can't anticipate the obstacles in front of you. That said, it has a similar visual design, the same kind of ball roll, and a similar level design philosophy, along with some new ideas: turning into a ball allows you to perform a ricochet wall jump, collecting 10 diamonds (the equivalent of rings) fills your hearts from 1 to 6 depending on how many you have, and the gems you collect allow you access to Three Heart Palaces that increase your number of heart containers from 3 to 6. The Heart Palaces also challenge you with a unique speedrun level before you get the heart container increase. Power-ups also have a little extra utility, in that some must be used to access certain hidden areas where gems lie. It also incorporates a smaller Super Mario World style overworld map that allows you to sometimes take different routes.
  
• Description Continued: There are 36 levels spread across 11 worlds, with a good amount of level variety and a sizable number of bosses. There are some cool ideas with the bosses too - like hitting a boss upwards to the top of the screen on a vertical level as he constantly tries to force himself downwards. Bosses generally can be attacked at any time, in contrast to many other pure platformers that require a boss to exhaust his moves before becoming vulnerable. This comes from the same developers as Clash Force – a Mega Man inspired action platformer – Spicy Gyro Games and Shiny Dolphin Games, but Polyroll is a significant improvement over their first game.
  
• Completion Time: ~5 Hours
  
• Extra Content: There are 96 gems to collect – three per 32/36 of the levels. Collecting all of them would add a few hours to the game.
  

Special shoutout to Levelhead which is my favorite game on the list and one of my favorite level creation games ever.
Have you played any of these games? What are some other overlooked platform indie games?