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Infinite Crisis’ superhero origins
Is it a bird? Is it a plane? No, it’s the story behind the amazing DC MOBA.
Written by Ben Sillis
9 min readPublished on
Infinite Crisis
Infinite Crisis© Turbine
MOBAs are a dime a dozen right now. Off the back of games like Dota 2, League of Legends and Smite, contenders are popping up left, right and centre with their own teams of champions looking to take on the big guns: Heroes of the Storm, Arena of Fate, Games of Glory, Nosgoth. The list goes on. But there's something all of these titles are missing, despite the hundreds of gods and champions you can play as. None of them let you play as a bona fide superhero. None of them that is, except Infinite Crisis, the up and coming MOBA set in the world of DC Comics.
"We're a superhero MOBA. Want to hit people with cars? We do that. Want to destroy large areas of a city, and crush your opponent? We do that."
That's Cardell Kerr, creative director for Infinite Crisis at Turbine, the Massachusetts development studio best known for its massively multiplayer online game, Asheron's Call. That's his response when we ask him why gamers should care about yet another MOBA, and it's a pretty solid argument. Everyone wants to play as Batman, and now you can, taking on the likes of the Green Lantern, Flash, Harley Quinn and Superman, crushing them into the concrete until continuity conveniently restores them to full health for the next round. So just like the comics, then.
It's not the only unique aspect of the game, however, Kerr is quick to point out. Infinite Crisis is a five-on-five game, but it's one where everyone needs to feel part of a team. Nobody wants to be a "support" hero, letting Superman quarterback the game and hog all the glory. That wouldn't be very super. "We're much more focused on every role getting credits, and contributing," he says. "You need to feel like a superhero, or else we really haven’t done our job."
Infinite Crisis has been in closed and open beta for little over a year and a half now, but its origins actually stretch back much further, Kerr reveals: his love of comics started decades ago. One formative story in particular stood out.
"Infinite Crisis started way back when I was a kid, actually. I read the first Crisis on Infinite Earths, and had my young mind blown by the concept that there were near infinite amounts of Supermen, Batmen, and all the heroes and villains I loved. So, when I got a chance to make a game using DC characters, I was like… 'Multiverse!' and folks were confused at first, but they eventually saw my madness for what it was – the opportunity to make 80 Batmen."
Kerr's chance came when Warner Bros acquired Turbine in 2010, and the chance to use the license came up. Kerr and his team were already big fans of the original Dota mod that eventually spawned both League of Legends and Dota 2, and could see both games were going to be huge. Most of the team at Turbine are now working on the online multiplayer game, along with two other studios in Seattle and Burbank.
"We all had played Dota back when it was a Warcraft 3 mod, so it was definitely inspired by our love of the MOBA genre. We started working on the game before eSports really exploded to the level that we see today."
Turbine staff are still all hooked on Infinite Crisis' rivals, Kerr readily admits. "We're playing all sorts of MOBAs right now. Strife, Smite, and Awesomenauts are still going very strong in the office, alongside League of Legends. Each of them does something excellent, that I want to call out. Strife is a very vibrant game whose approach to regen is very approachable. Smite is doing stuff no one else is, and they almost reinvent their game each time they release another character. Awesomenauts is just good arcade fun. And League is still a great game, and their recent sprinkling of game modes, like Doombots, was excellent. I think we all need to work on our approachability, however."
That's a surprising admission, but an accurate one. MOBAs aren't always beginner friendly, and it's no secret that Riot, the developer of League of Legends, has to deal with a lot of toxic and abusive players. Interestingly, Kerr says that the studio's background in massively multiplayer online RPGs put it in good stead in this regard. They know how to moderate miscreants online already.
"We have a deep repertoire of games as a service, and designing for online play. Both of those things are super helpful when making the transition to MOBA games and gameplay," he says. "It's not the entire kit for what it takes to make a MOBA though, so there’s been a lot of learning as we go. But as a MMO studio we have had a lot of experience interacting with opinionated, and very vocal people. We’ve adopted a policy of rapidly following up on reports, and actually speaking with and educating reported folks. It's been good so far, because people tend to really respond when they realise that someone is watching, and that they actually care."
Infinite Crisis
Infinite Crisis© Turbine
Turbine may have expertise, but they aren't ready to talk about a launch date for Infinite Crisis, when it finally leaves the testing grounds of beta. We push Kerr on this, but he's not saying. "I always fall back on the ‘when it's actually done’ answer. I really want us to have about 40-plus characters first."
One of the biggest challenges for MOBA developers isn't creating new characters, however, it's balancing the existing ones. Imagine a game of violent, realtime chess with not just two sides, but 40, each with different powers (this month’s new update introduces yet another, the demented Atomic Joker head-in-a-jar-on-a-unicycle). How do you make that even?
It's a challenge, Kerr admits, especially when you're having to nerf the Man of Steel as a result. "Yes, we redid Superman three times, because, and I know this is going to be a surprise, he was super overpowered. Fortunately, we’ve been able to really focus in on what makes each character feel authentic to their concept, and balance around that. Joker is one of my favourites for that, but we’ve also honed in on that for characters like the Flash, and Green Lantern as well. Each of those characters has had some specific skills we’ve had to remove or completely retune because they were just too powerful. This is something we try to keep in mind, but we still do it with some of the characters we are working on for the future." Such as? Kerr won't get specific but he will tell us which DC heroes he'd love to see debut. "John Stewart Green Lantern. He’s been my favourite lantern since shortly after he was introduced, so I know he’s getting made one day. I’m also looking forward to trying to capture the essence of characters like Deathstroke, and John Constantine." New characters are of course a key part of most MOBAs' financial strategies. A studio's got to make a living right? Still, even after the beta finished, Infinite Crisis will be free to play at its core, Kerr insists.
Infinite Crisis
Infinite Crisis© Turbine
"We are a free-to-play game, so it’s really important for us that you don’t have to spend any money to experience any area of our game. I believe we’re currently very generous with our pricing in comparison with our competitors and we give away six champions when you complete the tutorial. We really want anyone to be able to play our game and be able to field a competitive pick in any position. And then if you want to expand your roster of characters, or collection of mods and augments you’ll hopefully find value in that. And of course, we want to sell you cool skins." Cool, superhero spandex skins. Infinite Crisis' eSports potential
Any MOBA worth its salt quickly develops a competitive scene around it, with teams and tournaments springing up around them. After all, with one map and slots of action, they make for great spectator sports. Especially ones where Batman can punch entire cities down. "Our destruction system is great. The combination of the sheer amount of damage fighting deals to the city, combined with the utility of players using stolen powers and tactical skills leads to good gameplay and very cool visuals."
Turbine's all too aware of this, as well as how crowded the MOBA space is right now, and has been working hard to develop Infinite Crisis as a top flight game and eSports, hosting its own tournaments for it. As well as featuring in Major League Gaming events, Turbine held its own invitational at the huge PAX East gaming expo in Boston in April this year; Kelevra Gaming walked away with the $25,000 top prize. That's still small fry compared to the huge sums behind official Dota and League of Legends tournaments however: does Kerr think Infinite Crisis too can support a professional scene?
"Absolutely. We’ve been building for eSports since the beginning, and although our recent focus has been working on our on-boarding, the changes to responsiveness in our recent update make the game easier to play and to watch. I think the first step is to build a rock solid game. So, that’s what I’m really focused on right now. But I sincerely believe we’ll reach that stage, where our players can quit their job, it’s just a matter of time."
It doesn't hurt that there are already a Justice League worth of top players and caster on the scene already, of course. "At the moment teams like BrawL, Curse, Dignitas, and Na'Vi hold the top spots," says Kerr of the crews to watch, "but as the scene grows things could change very quickly."
"We've also been privileged to have known caster personalities such as Alex 'Goldenboy' Mendez, Joshua 'Clutch' Gray, David 'Zaccubus' Treacy, Alex 'Axeltoss' Rodriguez and Jason Kaplan in addition to our great community casters Sue 'OMGImSue' Lavasani and Calvin 'bladelordcal' Chang."
Say you're given the superpower to see into the future, we ask Kerr as the interview comes to a close. What does Infinite Crisis look like? A serious competitive game on the scene to rival the giants like Dota 2 and League, he predicts. "Our eSports scene will continue to grow and we’ll see more teams enter the fray. I would love for us to get to a place where teams can choose between participating in our own internal tournament series or from, say, ESL’s excellent tournaments, and either are viable sources of income for a pro gamer."
Sounds good to us.
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