Legion Arena Wrap Report

Lessons Learned

We learned a lot of lessons from Legion Arena. The single biggest thing was that we needed to be more ambitious. Our goals were not set high enough initially. We achieved what we set out to do, but we realized that what we had could be so much better if we went that step further. With our limited manpower, this is not something we can afford to do. Next time round, we'll be more ambitious initially, and if we have to, we can rein that ambition back to something that is realistic.

In single-player, my favourite scenarios are the ones where you have famous leaders from history and battles that you've heard of. Fighting against Julius Caesar or Hannibal is always a challenge!

We also learned that looks count for a huge amount. We've always put the appearance in a secondary role. Gameplay first, but the look and feel used to come second. The problem is that it doesn't matter how good your game is if people take one look at it and don't want to play it. On top of that, before gamers even get the chance to play a game, we have to sell it to publishers and they have to sell it to buyers. These presentations last a few minutes, and if the game doesn't catch their eye in that time, then the gamers will never even get the chance to play it as it won't be on the shop shelves.

That's not to say we've given up on gameplay! We know that once you've got people to look at the game, you need to have something well thought out and fun underneath to hold their attention. We just realize now that we need to balance this with the presentation. Everyone judges a game from the box cover and screenshots - you can't help it. We plan to make sure that in future people look at our games and want to give them a try, then we plan to hook them with our addictive gameplay and mind control tricks. ;)

Audience Response

In the past, we've always had a hard time with the print media because our games were seen as too hardcore. This time round, we've found a completely different response. Everyone is far more receptive to us, and the feedback is very positive. We were hoping for this reaction, but we were still a bit surprised when the feedback was so good. As our previous games were turn-based strategy, we're still having a few problems getting the idea across that Legion Arena is nothing like that, but some people just don't listen!

Now that the game has been out a few weeks, we're in a better position to judge the feedback. Professional reviews are only just starting to come out, and the first was Gamezone, which gave us 80%. We're pretty happy with this, but if you look at user reviews, they are over 90%, and this is exactly what we wanted. :) The professional reviews tend to break things down too much and look at each individual aspect of the game, whereas the players just look at the game as a whole and whether they enjoyed it. We thought Legion Arena would be a great fun game that anyone could play, and so far, the public agrees with us!

Personal Thoughts

Probably the best thing about Legion Arena is the progression. You start with a few inexperienced peasants, and as you go, these guys gain skills and equipment, and you end up with a lethal fighting force. Every time your guys gain a level, you get a little buzz as you select the next skill you want them to learn. Then, you can't wait to see how they perform in combat with it. In multiplayer, we also allow you to design armies offline with a limited budget and experience (for skills). You then take the army online and go head to head with another players army design. Designing these multiplayer armies is really interesting, and some people have spent many hours coming up with great combinations. The battles are great fun, but many people enjoy just designing the army. Each time you fight someone, you'll learn some new tricks and tweak your army design to better deal with your opponent. There are some very extreme army designs out there, which are very strong against specific opponents, but nothing beats a well-balanced force!

In single-player, my favourite scenarios are the ones where you have famous leaders from history and battles that you've heard of. Fighting against Julius Caesar or Hannibal is always a challenge! I like to play on the hardest difficulty setting because knowing the game so well makes it too easy on the others. When you do this, the first few scenarios are still easy to complete, but it gets tougher pretty quickly! One of the big advantages to Legion Arena is that you can adjust the difficulty level any time during the game. If you find you get stuck at a battle, you can drop down to an easier setting and get past it. Alternatively, if you find it too easy, you can just jump up a setting to get a new challenge, without having to restart the game.

There were some real high points about Legion Arena, such as being involved in the motion capture, getting the deals in place and seeing the game come together. I'm really proud of what we've achieved. Having said that, I am so, so happy that it is finished! I can't wait for a break and to start on something new. Now, I'm off on holiday, and when I get back, we'll start work on the new game. It's actually my honeymoon, which we had to postpone two years so we could save up for it and I could get some time off. I just hope we don't get hit by one of those hurricanes as we're going to the Caribbean!

We hope you enjoy the game. Why not try the demo when it's out - then you can tell your friends how Legion Arena is not at all like Rome Total War. ;)

Iain McNeil

Designer, Legion Arena

Slitherine Software

[Since introducing them in November of 2003 to offer post-release viewpoints from the respective teams, it has been our pleasure to publish Wrap Reports on a good number of other titles, primarily within the RPG, online world, action and strategy categories. A complete list of the previous ones may be found on the next page. - Ed.]