Designers: don't sleep on Marvel Snap's simultaneous turns
I previously mentioned my struggles with looking for a new mobile game, and it appears the team at Second Dinner heard my prayers. Marvel Snap, which launched this week on iOS, Android, and Steam, is a fun and "snappy" collectible card game that's scratched the "play on the bus" itch I was looking for.
Developers who've played Blizzard Entertainment's Hearthstone will recognize many of that game's design principles in this Marvel-themed free-to-play game. Cards smash into the board with a satisfying "crunch," there's a tiered energy system that raises the tension as the game progresses, and there's a healthy amount of CCG synergy that encourages players to experiment with niche heroes and villains from Marvel history.
After assembling a deck, players go head-to-head in match-ups where they aren't trying to destroy each other's heroes, but rather controlling at least two out of three lanes (called "Locations" in Marvel Snap). Locations also contain game-twisting bonus powers that can either benefit both players or reward the player controlling the Location.
That design gives the game a nice bit of narrative framework (the player isn't a superhero themselves, but rather a superhero team leader sending their favorite characters into battle), but there's a more subtle mechanic at play that brings the whole experience together: players take their turns simultaneously, rather than one at a time.
Why is that so thrilling? It's time for some game theory.
Okay, actually we need to put a button in the game theory. First, let's do some math.
Second Dinner was founded by ex-Hearthstone developers like Ben Browder, and in their previous game, matches could last a lengthy amount of time.
Turns in Hearthstone max out in 75 seconds, and
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