Developer Update for the Week of April 6, 2024: Red Hulk Edition (35+ Questions)!

Hello all! Welcome back to this week’s breakdown of what’s happening over on the Marvel Snap official Discord! This week, we get answers to questions such as: what’s going to happen with Thanos, why don’t devs talk about economy improvements, why do we have hot locations, and more! If you want to stay up to date with what’s coming and what answers developers have for the community, make sure to check back here each week!

This week’s edition comes after the launch new card Red Hulk! If you don’t know if this card is worth a Spotlight Cache, make sure to check out our weekly Spotlight guide, as well as our Baron Zemo and Red Hulk Bonus Challenge guide!

Answers and questions may be slightly rephrased for more clarity and ease of reading. This week’s topics will be divided into Card Specific Questions, Other Questions, and Questions From You!

Remember, you can check out our new Marvel Snap Developer Tracker to see all questions and answers in real time! Topics can also be searched, filtered, and sorted.

Card Specific Questions

Q: Is Zabu a design constraint on the game? Like could Adam Warlock have been a 4-Cost if Zabu weren’t a card?
A: Glenn “It’s not really quantifiable, but it’s certainly meaningful. Adam Warlock was definitely costed around Zabu; I suspect his best statline would’ve probably been [4/3], but that’s too risky in Zabu curves.”

Q: Why hasn’t Thanos recieved a big nerf yet instead of these small changes that don’t change the meta?
A: Glenn “We’re forecasting on fairly tight timelines. Both the Time Stone and Mind Stone adjustments were much less impactful than we expected, in part because the decks started getting built and played differently.”

Q: Are Tribunal decks a gameplay pattern you want in the game? You just play cards into a single lane and win all 3 locations.
A: Glenn “We want to reward tons of different gameplay at a variety of frequencies, including this one. It’s an exciting element of play to offer, the same way other games might have difficult early turn kills or game-winning combos.”

Q: Have you considered any buffs to Doc Ock?
A: Glenn “We’ve mostly debated making him [5/9], so that he ducks Shang-Chi.”

Q: With nobody playing Grand Master, could he see a buff? Or does his [2/0] stats like old Adam Warlock mean you are weary of his ability being equally too strong to get Power at low costs?
A: Glenn “No, they aren’t equally strong—and those cards are very different [2/0]s. Adam Warlock (previously) was at his best played on Turn 2, while Grand Master is fairly clearly not. That kind of opportunity cost difference can change the rate as much as the effect itself.

As for Grand Master, sure—he might be in line for a buff one day.”

Q: Does Daredevil intentionally remove the option to Undo Turn on Turn 5?
A: Addison “Hey, thanks for the question! Yep, while there was some initial exploration of different solutions during development, this was the direction we rolled with to reduce weird edge case behavior, keep everything pretty easily understood, and keep the flow of the game moving. There are similar decisions around Undo End Turn made for things like Agatha Harkness and Ego just to streamline the experience. Going forward, Undo End Turn is something we’ll (especially us in QA) likely keep in mind for future card development so I would not be surprised if we had to make similar one-off decisions down the road 🙂”

Q: Baron Zemo‘s card says he “Recruits” the card to his location. For purposes of cards like Bishop, Elsa Bloodstone, or Hit Monkey, does that “Recruited” card count as a played card?
A: Glenn “Recruit is just a more illustrative word to simplify the text. Baron Zemo doesn’t play a card, he adds it. This is similar to Ghost Rider, Hela, Wolverine, Ultron, etc.

We don’t replace the word ‘play’ this way specifically because so many cards key off it. Even on Krakoa and Daredevil, which have non-standard templating, the word “play” remains for clarity.”

Q: Why does Red Hulk show your opponent that he is in your hand when he grows in Power?
A: Glenn “For Red Hulk specifically, the ongoing nature of his effect, its dependency on your opponent’s choices, and the impact on who wins the game led us to implement him uniquely. We don’t expect to do this often—for example, cards like Evolved Hulk and She-Hulk don’t merit informing the opponent of anything.”

Q: Does Baron Zemo pay attention to changes in a card’s cost, like She-Hulk or Death?
A: Glenn “Baron Zemo observes modified Costs, but reductions on Death and She-Hulk are both only active while in a player’s hand.”

Q: Can Valentina pull Agatha?
A: Glenn “She can pull Agatha.”

Q: In the past, when there has been discussion about some of the design philosophies of Marvel Snap, the team has talked about how Snap should be played like two people building sandcastles and seeing which one is better. According to public tracking information, Shang-Chi is currently the most played card in post-Infinite ranks and in Infinite Conquest. He is notably a card that is not about building up your side of the board, but about stopping the opponent’s game plan. Are there any considerations of a nerf to Shang-Chi due to Snap’s design philosophy?
A: Glenn “Being ‘about building sand castles’ doesn’t mean we want to totally avoid cards that kick a bit. American football is about scoring touchdowns, but that doesn’t mean it should ban tackling, as a hyperbolic example.

The existence of Shang-Chi (and Enchantress, Luke Cage, Mobius M. Mobius, etc.) is an important part of the ‘sand castle ecosystem’. If one powerful thing lacks meaningful opposition, all of the powerful things that are opposed become much less viable. By being very good against simple big cards—a fundamentally strong thing to rely on in SNAP—Shang-Chi creates space for more decks to win without big cards, or even just to deploy them in a larger variety of ways.”

Q: Is the Time Stone‘s change to reduce the cost of Thanos next turn supposed to permanently reduce his cost for the match?
A: Glenn “No, it applies for the next turn.”

Q: Are you watching how effective these mill decks are with Baron Zemo, Yondu, Cable, Gladiator, and Absorbing Man?
A: Glenn “Yes, these were among our best-performing Zemo decks. We think the number is certainly high now, and it’s another way to play, but there are many archetypes it is not effective against.”

Q: Will the new direction of Thanos still give him flexibility outside of being a [6/20] stat stick?
A: Glenn “Thanos gets 7 cards’ worth of gameplay hooks, I think he’ll be fine relative to the competition on this axis.”

Q: With Thanos always first in hand now, he always gets targeted by Spider-Ham. Any thoughts about this?
A: Glenn “If that becomes an issue, we’ll look at it.”

Q: Was costing Sabretooth at 2 considered for his buff?
A: Glenn “There are already several cards at 1- and 2-Cost to fuel Destroy; we’d rather he have a more distinct identity, even if it takes longer to find it.”

Q: Does Red Guardian require a card to have an ability to give the negative Power?
A: Glenn “No, he will afflict the card that has the lowest Power and remove text if it has any.”

Q: Are you moving in a direction to make all the Infinity Stones focused on Thanos? If so, what will happen to the Sanctuary II location?
A: Glenn “We expect to move towards caring about Thanos more, and if we do that we’ll need to change Sanctuary II in some way.”

Q: Do you have the changes to Thanos already planned, or are they still in the works?
A: Glenn “We have some directions we like, but because there are multiple moving pieces we’re not committing to more of them until we have a full set of adjustments ready.”

Other Questions

Q: Why allow Snapping on Turn 6 when Mount Vesuvius prevents you from retreating?
A: Glenn “For Mount Vesuvius, the gamble exists in choosing to stay. It is a different decision and tension than normal Snapping offers, but that’s the purpose of locations generally: to create novel gameplay. Vesuvius is one of our rarer locations because its impact can be large and unusual, but locations like it widen our gameplay experience.”

Q: You have mentioned before that you want to preserve the Series 1/2 experience, but how long do players actually spend in this space before entering Series 3?
A: Glenn “The length of the stay can vary, but it’s always important because it’s the gateway to the entire game for new players. So we want it to be fun for as many variations of the new player experience as possible, including longer stints.”

Q: Why do you make hot locations if the majority of players dislike them?
A: Glenn “If we had data indicating the majority of players disliked them, or even a substantial minority, we wouldn’t be doing them. While individual locations’ popularity can vary, forcing players to evaluate cards and decks in different contexts for a small window creates more variation in the game experience and thus more fun in the long-term.

However, it’s certainly possible that as we introduce other game elements in this space, such as Power Couples and AvX, that our approach to H/F locations changes.”

Q: What music does the team listen to while designing or playing Snap?
A: Daniela “I’m usually listening to lo-fi or jazz playlists on Spotify. I alternate between their playlists to keep it fresh. Or maybe some Marvel lo-fi! Also I wish I had more answers to y’alls questions but they’re not questions I can answer sorry!”

Addison “The nature of my job means I have the client up all the time and am often on the main menu, so while working on the game I tend to just be listening to the seasonal music on loop (it’s a good thing it’s so good!)

Outside of that, there are a few Youtube channels that I listen to that have DJs playing music typically themed around some region of the world or some particular niche genre. A lot of it tends to be older or more instrumental in nature and the long-form nature of the sets make them perfect to have in the background to groove to as each song flows well into the next. That being said, my kid has a favorite so if she’s around I end up having to listen to the same 40 minute set every time.”

Q: In the past, we’ve gone through iterations on rewards (and failure) such as opening collection track rewards, winning (and losing) Conquest. How does the user experience team determine which events warrant drawing attention to a reward versus direct distribution, such as turning in a weekly or daily quest, respectively?
A: Daniela “Oh this is a cool question! One thing we consider is rate of reward acquisition. A player will likely claim daily rewards very often, or even multiple at once, so having those be quick and snappy is great! It means the player can get back into games faster.

Another thing we consider is the value of the reward. Opening a Spotlight Cache is a HUGE deal for example! Which is why we added that special chest animation for it. It’s also not something the average players are doing every day, so making it feel cool is important.

Reward hierarchy then gets interesting when you start mixing and matching those 2 considerations along with other factors like amounts. I know SNAP still has room to grow on making our rewards feel cooler on claim though, it’s something I’ve taken interest in lately ☺️”

Q: It’s understood that the QA team tests cards for seasons in advance. My question is when a card finally releases, does the team just view the performance of the card just from a data perspective (the cards stats for Win Rate, Cube Rate, etc..) or does the team also watch live streams to see how the card is actually being used in the hands of players as well?
A: Addison “Hello! Thanks for the question!

I think you touch on something that the community tends to misunderstand a lot, and that I wanted to respond to, which is that the QA team doesn’t actually evaluate card performance or feel generally.

We’re certainly involved in playtesting and can offer feedback from our perspective, but ultimately our role in a card’s development is to ensure that it is functioning as design, art, and engineering have intended.

This would be things like does the ability function as written, are the VFX/SFX hooked up, whether or not the card is setup appropriately for release (dates, spotlight cache, etc…), how the card’s ability interacts with other card abilities, whether or not the card is causing errors in the client (even if the card is otherwise working), does the card have an initial recommendation for use with Smart Deck Builder (before player data can help inform), and a whole lot more!

Things like balance or general card feel are more of a communal responsibility from everyone within the studio (quality is everyone’s concern after all!). At the end of playtests we’ll all generally fill out a form that details which new cards we played with or against and how they all generally felt or how they felt in conjunction with other cards in different decks. QA does our part in offering our thoughts, but ultimately it’s a small overall portion of our day-to-day responsibilities and involvement with the game.

Once it’s out in the wild, evaluating how its performing or if it’s satisfying the design goals is all in the design team’s hands. I don’t generally try to speak for them, but I feel confident in saying that they do indeed check videos, streams, discord comments, and other channels for feedback to see if a card is fulfilling its intended purpose 🙂”

Q: Both Valentina and Thunderbolts Tower state that they “give” cards negative power despite almost every current instance of permanent negative Power using the verb “afflict” instead (i.e. Evolved Cyclops, Scorpion, Spider-Woman). What was the reasoning for this inconsistency? Will these two be changed to use “afflict” or will everything else change to use “give” instead?
A: Glenn “Valentina modifies two values, so we simplified the text with one verb. It’s similarly just for brevity on Thunderbolts Tower.

We prefer to use ‘afflict’ in general because giving/gaining negative values isn’t an intuitive concept, and it makes the cards’ negative impact more clear. There is no functional difference, however—afflict is no more a keyword than regenerate.”

Q: Is there a place where you can listen to previous season theme music?
A: TheChrisAlan “Yes, we have been consistently releasing the music as albums on all streaming platforms! The OG music can be heard in Volume 1, and Volume 2 follows all the new seasonal music. We will do a Volume 3 soon (as soon as there’s enough for a new album)!”

Volume 1:
https://open.spotify.com/album/7KXKBf4FtIfNB88RNhuJNX?si=SszrPuyqSxS1blv-Cy7few

Volume 2:
https://open.spotify.com/album/1TjTZ9rIRGMnF68DM4UK7t?si=VaBRwLvBSmmYltKS-kDvPA

Q: Will we see the “Recruit” mechanic on future cards?
A: Glenn “Recruit isn’t a mechanic; it’s just a word for shorthanding the game action of moving a card from one zone to another. We used it in this case because we noticed some playtesters assuming the card copied its target, or put it in hand, and this word felt clearer.”

Q: Why won’t you answer questions about improving card acquisition or the game economy?
A: Stephen “We are actively trying to design ways to make card acquisition feel better, but I have no updates or details worth sharing right now.  We are not going to rush a change.  Previous answers about card acquisition and the economy remain true.  I try to avoid answering repeat questions and the mods do a great job of trying to link to previous answers.

There will also always be tension with the game economy and card acquisition.  It is the nature of the beast with a free to play game.  We do our best to make the free player experience amazing while making sure paid players feel value for their spend.

Philosophically our thoughts have always and continue to be that we want to enable free players to stay competitive by targeting deck types they want to focus on while enabling paid players to pay for additional optionality.  Players are able to reach the highest levels of competition free to play and that will remain true.  Our focus on cosmetics means that we need cards old and new to be and stay relevant so players want to deeply invest in how those cards look when played.

In the future, we will add ways to help newer players catch up and hopefully ways to make card acquisition feel better than the sentiment around Spotlight Caches, but I have no details or timing to share for that right now and won’t in the short term as we are focused on building clans and game modes/events coupled with quality of life / tech improvements in the medium term.”

Q: Could we see a card that blocks your cards from getting discarded from Moon Knight, Silver Samurai, or Black Bolt?
A: Glenn “Those effects aren’t common enough to justify spending a slot on exclusively that effect, which means it’s not (alone) enough to become a card unless that changes.”

Questions From You!

Each week, I ask readers of the weekly dev update to leave their questions down in the comment section. That way we can ask those questions on your behalf, or let you know the answers if those questions have been asked before! I read each comment you leave, so I will be adding this section at the end of each week’s edition to highlight your questions that you asked last week!

Q: Are there any plans to add a trivia section in the cards’ details with a random fun fact, some comics history of the character, or something similar to give more info/flavour to the characters?
A: Daniela “Yes! This is something we’ve talked about, no timeline as of yet though”

Q:If I have Gold / Rainbow tone split and Foil / Krackle split, can I customize Gold / Krackle in future？
A: No, unlocking specific split combos is something you have to earn. In the future you will be able to transfer unlocked split variations between variants of the same card though!

Q: Have you given Hela more weight on being discarded by Corvus Glaive to restrict the strength of Hela decks?
A: I can’t find the exact quote where they answered this within the last few weeks, but the devs have made it very clear there is no weighting towards discarding. There are only random or targeted discards.

Q: I have a bug!
A: Glenn “I don’t know whether you submitted this bug or not, so if you did thank you! But I’m going to use this question as an opportunity to communicate to the community how important it is that bugs get reported in-game. Those reports give us the ability to backtrace the game state for all the details of the error. The diagnosis may seem obvious—maybe these locations matter—but the backtrace is how we figure it out for sure.

For example, one reason Kitty Pryde previously crashed games was if the opponent was playing Mysterio. No social media reports could get that information to us, because each player only knows their side of the game.

The in-client bug report system I’m referring to doesn’t use a customer support page or need many details:

1. From the home screen, click the gear icon in the top left.
2. Scroll down, click ‘Report a Bug’ which pops up an in-client text field.
3. Type a short summary of what happened—’I couldn’t end my turn’—click Submit, then click past the confirmation.

That’s it!”

Keep Your Questions and Feedback Coming!

That’s all for this week’s update! Be sure to check back here at Marvel Snap Zone for next week’s update! If you enjoyed the amount of content in this edition, make sure to keep asking your questions to the developers by submitting it in their official Discord in the “#ask-the-team” channel. If you have questions and don’t use Discord, leave your questions for the developers in the comment section here, and I will make sure your question has been answered by the devs!

If you have feedback or changes you would like to see with these weekly updates, also let us know in the comment section!