It was a wild couple of months of preparations to release Minion Masters and bring it to Xbox One. That means we can sit back and relax, right? Nope, that’s not the BetaDwarf way. We have too much stuff we want to show you.
We wanted to add something very special to the game after it’s full release, and what is more special than a brand new Master? Nothing, that’s what.
The twisted sister of the Crystal Elf Milloween, Morellia goes by many names – Ruler of the Cursed Lands, Queen of Souls, Dragon Binder – but her personal favourite is Lich Queen.
For Morellia, we had two main goals: To create a master that felt completely different from any existing Master, and one that was also steeped in flavor. Right from the start, we wanted to put emphasis on her talents as a powerful spellcaster with a roster of varied spells to choose from.
Presenting choices was difficult, as Minion Masters is a fast-paced game where you are already make a lot of decisions and where the game changes constantly throughout the course of a match. Also, having a Master with variable perks is something we had never done before.
We went through a lot of trial and error in the following weeks. We tried adding spells to her deck in response to which cards you played, or depending on which minion was in play. But it didn’t quite feel like Morellia was in charge. We wanted her to feel like she was commanding the situation like the queen she is, and not just reacting to the situation.
Finally, we decided to try something crazy: replacing your entire hand with a new set of options, giving the player full control of Morellia’s abilities, allowing for an impressive amount of adaptability. Morellia finally felt like she was in charge.
We used her Book of the Dead as a way to present these choices. Having Morellia open her book to select a spell felt intuitive and plays well into her fantasy.
Did we mention the book is sentient? The trapped soul within provides running commentary to annoy the oh so serious Lich Queen at every turn.
I hope you enjoyed this little look into Morellia’s design. We are extremely excited to show off Morellia, and we hope you think she is as awesome as we do!
Finally, we would like to formally welcome all Xbox One players who have joined the Minion Masters family over the past month. We have much more in store for you going forward, so we hope you stick around! Our engineers are working tirelessly to improve your play experience and getting rid of bugs, so keep that feedback coming!