Ten Ton Hammer - Taking MMO Gamers to the Next Level!

Ten Ton Hammer: Is it going to be an inherently one versus one experience or are you going to have some scenarios where you have four players against one uber boss?

Randy: Since it’s designed to be played PvP. we've crafted it specifically to be a one versus one experience. We will contemplate expanding that to multiplayer, but the experience that we’re going to focus on first, getting it right is a one to one, human vs human strategy game.

The next piece, the thing we know we also need, is some PvE modes. Our vision of it is a campaign mode where I can go through and play a series of computer AIs, but they’re essentially simulating another player.

Ten Ton Hammer: Time is really the big resource that all hobbies and video games seem to be running up against these days, because there are so many games out there and so many different hobbies that take up so much of a person’s time. Why would a person play Mind Twist over these other games? Do I even have time to devote to Mind Twist or any card game?”

Randy: The simple answer is that you can play a complete game in five to ten minutes. We’re talking about short session gameplay, snack sized games. I think that there are a lot of really good MMOs out there that ask you to devote all of your time if you’re grinding, if you’re leveling up. Those games are fun, but the thing that I don’t see enough of other company’s trying to do is smaller game experiences, where instead of a four hour raid you’re looking at a five minute match.

Now, I may choose to play fifty matches in a row, I mean you certainly can play and spend all of your time on a game like Mind Twist if you want to, but the game doesn’t require that of you. If you only have ten minutes, then hop on, play one game and try out a new strategy. Maybe it worked, maybe it didn’t, but you can get a complete gameplay experience in about five or ten minutes. That’s definitely in contrast to the four hour raid style of gameplay, and that’s what we think that our game has. I think there are people out there that want games like this that are not getting them. I know that this is the kind of game that I want to play and it’s hard to find it right now.

Ten Ton Hammer: Is Richard the guy behind this game building or is it Richard and his team? What’s the creative team look like right now?

Randy: Richard [Garfield] is the Lead Designer on the project. He’s working closely with Skaff Elias, another one of the original Magic designers, but Richard is driving. Skaff is his usual partner on these sorts of games, and they’re driving the design. Mind Control is doing the development and all the production on the game, but it’s pretty much Richard’s vision and Mind Control’s role is to bring that vision to life.

I essentially am the matchmaker. I was thinking about spinning up my own company. I was talking with Richard about possibly working with him as a Game Designer and then I ran into Andrew Leker [Ed. - Creator of SkyRealms of Jorune] at GDC this year and pretty quickly realized that we had exactly the same business plan in our minds and it just seemed a lot easier to join forces. Essentially I became the matchmaker that put Mind Control together with Richard, and now I’m sort of helping bring this project to life.

Ten Ton Hammer: I wish you could talk a little bit more about the game because I’m a huge CCG nerd. I want to see something that’s really immersive in the digital space but isn’t necessarily going to: A. Break the bank or B. Take up huge, huge amounts of my time.

Let's focus on breaking the bank. What kind of models are you looking at as far as how players get into this game? Is it going to be free-to-play?

Randy: It’s free-to-play with microtransactions. We will give you enough units to be able to play the game for free to try it out and see if you like it. We do not want to make this game as expensive as a typical CCG. We’re definitely aiming at a smaller number of objects and an easier way to acquire them so that if you want to try out a different piece, yeah buy it. We want to make that as easy and as cheap as we can. I’m hesitant to give out the details because it's really early, I don’t want to say anything that may turn out not to be true, but we’re not trying to break your bank like many trading card games.