TinyCo Reddit AMA 2

    Senior Product Manager Eric, /u/TinyEric
    Lead Narrative Designer Allen, /u/AllenWarner
    Lead Community Manager Kate, /u/TinyKate
    Community Manager Rocio, /u/TinyRocio
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*	My preposition; given how Cho has his special body type alteration and we now have a giant dino available for our campus. Are there any characters that have already been previously added that you guys would like to go back and revamp or improve upon? Be it design or actions
				/u/TinyEric:	Hi there,
				From a quality improvement perspective, I would love to fix up Venom. He has body image issues to be sure.
				/u/AllenWarner:	Bruce Banner Hulk will be in Legends Assemble!


*	When are the hangouts coming out? you guys announced it a while ago with Ares being the prize, now it seems we migth be getting other faculty members before even getting Ares.
				/u/TinyEric:	Hangouts are coming, promise. I don't have a specific date for you, but it's sooner than the usual Tinyco Soon(TM)


*	Will anything be done to address increasing rank up difficulties? It's getting more difficult to complete characters in events, tokens are completely cluttering the mission board after events and drop slowly, and coins are incredibly slow to rank premium characters. Will any of these be improved?
				/u/TinyEric:	I addressed the increasing rank up difficulties earlier. I agree that both the token system and the credit 	system 	are imperfect ways of handling rankups post event, but we have yet to devise a solution that balances player gameplay and our internal needs. It's definitely a topic that comes up in our discussions


*	Any chance we can get some non story related new areas for more space? maybe buy them with ingame currency, its a shame that we can't use the stuff we get from events due to lack of space.
				/u/TinyEric:	So I'm going to be very upfront about this. We do have new progression zone releases planned, but we have other issues to handle before we can release them. My biggest concern is that for players with older mobile devices, more land causes them severe performance issues. Once we address those, we'll put in more concrete steps to get zones out. I don't believe, however, that we'll ever release campus space without accompanying it with story.


*	What's your opinion on the way events are slowly changing? Earlier events allowed F2P players to unlock all characters and almost fully rank everyone. Recent events seem to be moving away from this, making rank ups a more P2P goal.
				/u/TinyEric:	Our philosophy on rankups are continually changing. I don't think we've gotten it right as of yet, so I wouldn't say that this trend is a permanent one. But you're right, we've tried this approach and been evolving our position as we look at the data.


*	I love the yearbook/character search feature, but with the increasing number of heroes it's becoming quite difficult to use. Can we maybe add a feature to separate heroes to tabs based on event? Or maybe some filter & search feature? (Filter by rank, event, gender, active/inactive, etc) Same feature would be great for campus decors too :) It would be great to have some sort of temporary storage or tray to put my stuff while I'm redecorating so that I don't have to store all my decors, search for them (not easy to do, believe me) and then place it again.
				/u/TinyRocio:	Absolutely love this suggestion! More filters will definitely be more useful as more characters get added to the Academy. Duly noted for future reference. :)

*	In the last AMA, you mentioned your wife kept complaining about Venom being too difficult. How has she been doing with the events since then?
				/u/TinyEric:	She missed out on M.O.D.O.K. during the A.I.M. Attacks mini-event and I slept on the couch for like a week.


*	The Halloween event seems to be pretty well received (at least here on the subreddit), and is a personal favorite of mine. Can we expect this to become a yearly tradition, or do you have plans for any other holiday based events?
				/u/AllenWarner:	It seems like a good idea to me. So many costumes.


*	Can we have some free costumes to heroes like Ms. Marvel and Hulk? Make Club Galaxy a popular building again!!! (Tips for GotG2 event)
				/u/TinyEric:	1)Ms. Marvel is certainly an option for a free outfit that we can consider. Hulk is a more difficult one, since so many players haven't unlocked him due to his place in progression (or being a paid option through early access). The discussion can definitely be had, so I'm not saying no here. But I'm also kind of not saying yes, either. 2)It shall be done. /u/Allenwarner let's make sure Groot grows some keyboard playing branches.

*	So we know you guys can't confirm characters to appear ingame, but you did say if the character is named there is a pretty good chance it will eventually get in, without confirming anything is it possible for the X-men and Fantastic Four to be ingame(I'm not asking for specific characters, just asking if they can be used).
				/u/Allenwarner:	I'll answer, but you might not like the answer. Even if we were able to use any of those characters, I wouldn't be able to say right now. Things happen and change all the time, so nothing is ever impossible


*	Who will be the new characters in the upcoming Legends Assemble event?
				/u/Allenwarner:	Odin, Frigga, Leader, J.A.R.V.I.S., Hank Pym, Nick Fury

*	I'm excited to see Frigga joining our campus. Will we get plenty of Loki interaction with her? Because it seems like out of his family Frigga is the only one Loki loves, and Frigga seems to love Loki the most too. Will the rest of the warriors three be joining as well? What is the thought/reason behind ranking premium heroes using coins? It just seems kind of punitive for heroes that we paid money for to become a bigger burden than heroes who are free. Having premium heroes so far has become a hassle rather than a reward, like paying money to have a pebble in your shoe. (Looking at you Captain Marvel & Green Goblin >_>)
				/u/Allenwarner:	Yes, it will immediately be clear how much Loki loves Frigga, and that the feeling is mutual. I love their dynamic, and how Loki deals with these emotions, and seeing Frigga in danger.

*	12 months on, its becoming clear that new players can reach lvl 32+ relatively quickly. Event characters however continue to be released that have actions locked to low level buildings or now event specific buildings. The mission board update bought some respite to the clashes, but its clear that the Power Gym, Bifrost, Gauntlet, Arena and Maverick Dorm are woefully under utilised when compared to the Club, Archives or the Park, which severely limits daily play. I asked at the last AMA if there were plans to address this and the answer was inconclusive, can we finally expect a future game update that will allow a more balanced spread of actions for lvl 37+ players with 80+ otherwise useless characters?
				/u/TinyEric:	Good point. We'll do our best to try and get these elder game buildings up and running within the next event for your non-event heroes on the regular mission board.


*	Can all characters that are able to rank up be placed in the shop? The premium characters at least display with the rest of the quests, but other characters you have to page through your yearbook and see who still needs to be ranked up. A minor change, but I think it would be more convenient than having the rest of the roster that aren't currently upgradable in the shop as "Coming Soon!"
				/u/TinyEric:	This is a good suggestion, we'll followup and see if it's doable.
				/u/TinyRocio:	Absolutely a great suggestion! We're always looking for ways to improve the shop layout, so please feel free to write in to support with suggestions. :)

*	Is Howard the duck famous enough to be considered a legend for this event or will we have to wait until Guardians Vol 2 or later to recruit him?
				/u/TinyEric:	Howard the Duck is definitely famous but not legendary. He will not be assembling in the coming event.
				/u/Allenwarner:	He's a legend to me, but he's not in this event.

*	Can we expect another Infinity Statue soon, or has that been scrapped?
				/u/TinyEric:	An Infinity Statue will be on its way in the near future. Soon. >.>

*	You guys think Gwenpool might happen sometime in the near future? I think her concept (no superpowers, being from the real world and knowing everything about everyone etc.) would have a lot of potential in the setting of this game! Also I'd love to see her interact with this version of MODOK.
				/u/Allenwarner:	We all know M.O.D.O.K. needs more friends.

*	Hi there! Wiccan and Hulkling have been a great addition to my campus, but I can't help but wonder if Billy is feeling lonely on campus without family around...Is there any chance we'll see Speed/Tommy Shepherd make an appearance sometime in the future?
				/u/Allenwarner: Yes.

*	When will Chase, Karolina, and the other runaways join? Runaway event perhaps?
				/u/Allenwarner:	You might just get a Runaways event.

*	Will we be getting some form of character storage, like the hotel in the Family Guy game, anytime soon? (seems like that would be the perfect use for the helicarrier to me).
				/u/TinyRocio:	We are definitely looking into a way to implement this! We know that as more characters get added, it becomes harder to load, and harder to play.

*	In your Family Guy game players were able to visit the USS Enterprise and go to the North Pole during a Christmas event. Is there plans for us to go to another area for a future event or are they all going to be on the campus?
				/u/TinyEric:	There are no current plans for an alternate playspace on our roadmap, but never say never.

*	Could you please give us an inside glimpse at the steps of an event creation, from the idea to its release to its end, and especially how long all that takes? Thank you!
				/u/Allenwarner:	We plan out the high-level ideas for the events at the beginning of the year. As each event approaches, I write a conceit and content doc detailing the story and every character, deco, outfit, etc. I get feedback from everyone on the team, and once we're in agreement, it gets passed to art and animation to start creating everything week by week. For me personally, it takes about a week to write everything for a week's worth of an event. From that concept doc to when the event goes live is usually one to two months.


*	What percent of event concepts are decided by Marvel versus TinyCo? For example I assume you had to do a Doctor Strange and Civil War event to tie in with the movies but chose A-Force and Ultron yourselves. How much freedom do you have and will that decrease as the MCU moves to having 3 movies per year instead of 2?
				/u/Allenwarner:	We choose what events we want to do. We like supporting the movies, using them as inspiration, and introducing some of those characters.

*	Will MODOK ever find a date that loves him back?
				/u/Allenwarner:	Yes.

*	Will we be seeing new methods to personalize our campus? Such as different floor types, different 'coin currency' decorations, etc. I was dissappointed to see that character's can't walk over the new gold flooring, or that they can't pass through "archs" such as the frozen ones. Would love to see some buildings they can walk in/out from as well.
				/u/Allenwarner:	I think floor types and penguin types are going to be a running theme in every event from now on.

*	Will they ever consider a massive update that introduces more features for decorating and designing your campus layout? Right now we have no space but so many decorations and buildings. Let alone if we want our campus to look aesthetically pleasing.
Right now we have a feature pending that will allow you to reset your campus to be empty (save for some never-storable buildings) so that you can more easily rebuild your campus in a brand new way if you so choose.
				/u/TinyEric:	While more space is an issue that I've addressed elsewhere, we would be happy to consider suggestions as to how we could make decorating the campus easier and more fun for those of you who love tailoring the campus.

*	could we get an inventory tab filtered by events?
				/u/TinyEric:	This is on the roadmap, but I can't tell you what the time frame for getting it out is (because I don't know), unfortunately.

*	Please tell me we have some epic God costumes for our characters! Perhaps a "Worthy" Loki costume...
				/u/Allenwarner:	Wait until you see Cosmic Odin.

*	Will Legends Assemble come immediately after Monsters Unleashed ends or will there be a story update or a mini event first?
				/u/TinyEric:	Thanks for your brutally direct question. Legends Assemble will be coming immediately after Monsters Unleashed.

*	First question: How are you? :)Secondly, my question is related to Hawkeye (because no AMA should be Hawkeye free). I missed the Ultron event and I didn't have the chance to recruit him, how soon will he be available for recruitment via story (or whatever else mean)? Last question is tied to the mechanics of the main mission board. After many many events, the board becomes cluttered with loads of ranking up tokens which are painfully slow to obtain. This creates loads of conflicts between items that are needed to advance in the game, but the tokens always take priority. Will this be changed?
 				/u/TinyEric:	I'm doing good, thanks for asking. We don't have an established timeframe for when Hawkeye will be released as part of the main storyline. All I can tell you is to hold on tight for the next few months. Tokens are definitely a problem on the main mission board. We're still going over our options for handling this, but as of yet we haven't settled on a permanent change to help with the congestion

*	Can we have a hint about the Other academy?
				/u/Allenwarner:	Which one? I can think of at least four coming soon.

*	Who makes the language localization for Brazil? The conversations are so funny, much better than any other games that I have played before.
				/u/TinyRocio:	Hello hello Brazil! We do our localizations through a few different avenues, but I will definitely let our localizers know that the translations have stayed true to the game's humor! :)

*	So we have a dinosaur and a doggo. What other animal character would you personally like to see added?
				/u/TinyRocio:	I would love to see Liho personally. <3

*	What is one thing you really want to do, art-wise, but are facing technical limitations in implementing?
 				/u/TinyEric:	Cool question. I would love to see an epic coordinated battle of Academy heroes against bosses at a much more detailed level. Like seeing M.O.D.O.K. throw Squirrel Girl at Scientist Supreme's smug helmet in glorious battle. But that's much harder than it sounds.

*	Do we have an update on a possibly comic book mini? with all the excitement around the cover I hope it can finally happen.
				/u/Allenwarner:	Me too!

*	My biggest concern is about the localized shard prices. They dropped it on January, now the shard price is the exact conversion for dollar. This caused a 75% price increase in shards for Brazil for example, what was previously expensive now is unthinkable. I would like them to reconsider this decision, as 20$ here is totally different than in other parts of the world. Neglecting other countries like this almost killed my motivation to play.
 				/u/TinyEric:	We'll look into this. Are you on an iOS device or Android?

*	Any plans for an Agents of Shield event? My Coulson and Daisy need some of their friends haha
				/u/Allenwarner:	Definitely possible, but don't forget Orrgo, Maria Hill, and Peggy Carter.

*	Name a character you really want to add to the game, but haven't had the chance to yet?
				/u/Allenwarner:	Beta Ray Bill.
 				/u/TinyEric:	I would love to add Jace, the Mind Sculptor, but it hasn't been in the cards yet.

*	What Can you guys tell us about the upcoming "Legends Assemble" Event, something to get us hyped up?
				/u/Allenwarner:	Recruitable characters are Odin, Frigga, Nick Fury, Leader, J.A.R.V.I.S., and Hank Pym. Hulk and Peggy Carter have awesome outfits. You can use the Helicarrier. Bacon salt is a running theme.

*	Who was the monster(s?) you couldn't include in this event, but wanted to most?
				/u/Allenwarner:	I got Orrgo. That's all I ever wanted.

*	Is this event planned as full or mini?
				/u/TinyRocio:	It is a full event!

*	Why can't She-Hulk have a nice bath with someone else but only alone?
				/u/Allenwarner:	There's a bathtub?

*	Under siege was a great mini-event as it brought back several characters we missed out on. Will there be another mini-event similar to under siege?
				/u/Allenwarner:	Definitely possible.

*	What is your favourite part/thing about this next Legends Assemble event you're working on /u/AllenWarner ?
				/u/Allenwarner:	Attuma and his underwater minions turned out really fun. I love so many of the characters and outfits. There's a penguin with a beard.

*	For a while there we had quite a bit of teases to keep us guessing for what the next few events were going to be. Now we've more or less caught up, with our only real hint being a rival school and the presumption that there will be events to tie in with the MCU movies. Can you give us some more clues to keep us guessing for the months to come?
				/u/Allenwarner:	We're not done with Kang and time travel. There are too many awesome characters and outfits from 1602, 1872, 2099, and the ones we get to create ourselves.

*	Recently there we're a few runaway graphical bugs. What is the funniest graphical glitch or animation mistake you've run into during the development of the game?
				/u/TinyRocio:	Oh my goodness, so many good ones. I think my favorites so far have been Lucky during joint-actions, but Devil Dino has had some pretty great ones as well.
				/u/Allenwarner:	I like when Loki starts to turn into a turtle.

*	For the writer(s): Is there a character that is hard to write for?
				/u/Allenwarner:	For whatever reason, the weirder the character, the easier they are to write for me. Maybe I'm weird.

*	Any chance we could see event characters get new costumes? ex. Luke Cage getting his Power Man costume
				/u/Allenwarner:	Sure, there's a chance. It's just hard to make happen without alienating people who didn't play that event.

*	Allan warren and the interviews are awesome is there a way you make a poll in twitter or facebook to choose an upcoming event?i mean you are a team always aware of the social media
				/u/Allenwarner:	Thanks! We could try another poll sometime. It was fun for the Halloween outfits. I try to check out what our community is talking about in different social media, and I try to reply to pretty much everyone who asks me something on Twitter. I'm always looking for the fan art and cosplay. Our players are really talented and creative.

*	what characters were/are you most excited to introduce to the game?
				/u/Allenwarner:	I was really excited about M.O.D.O.K. and Orrgo because I like the weirdo characters. I was excited about Rocket because he was my favorite character as a kid. Daredevil, She-Hulk, Black Panther, Ghost Rider, and Elektra were all really cool for me because I've just always loved those characters. The character I'm most excited to introduce is one I can't talk about yet unfortunately, but I'm definitely excited to introduce more cosmic characters.

*	I rewatched the teaser, and there seemed to have been a lost glove poster... did the rightful owner ever reclaim it, or did some thief take it?
				/u/Allenwarner:	Somebody took it. He probably wouldn't like you calling him a thief.

*	What is an event you'd like to include in the game, but is 100% certain to never be able to be in game?
 				/u/TinyEric:	Batman vs. Loki: the Forever Danceoff had to be scrapped at the last minute due to exceeding our yearly awesomeness budget.
 				/u/tinykate:	Catwoman vs. Black Widow
				/u/Allenwarner:	Batman

*	How did you decide which zones to put into the game? Which zone is your favourite? And can you give us any hints as to any new zones coming up after the Thunder zone?
				/u/Allenwarner:	We wanted them to be varied, and represent different aspects of the Marvel universe. Makluan is my favorite.

*	WOULD YOU BRING TOMMY SHEPHER/SPEED THE TWIN OF WICCAN INTO THE GAME? AND NOH-VARR ?
				/u/Allenwarner:	YES

*	A few questions about design: Which character(s) have the team had the most fun in designing? Which character(s) have the team had the least fun in designing? It'd be great to hear if some have been fun for the art and story-telling departments but a nightmare for the engineering team!
				/u/Allenwarner:	A lot of the funnest characters are difficult for animation and engineering. Lucky, M.O.D.O.K., Rocket, etc.

*	I know you can't give out specific dates, but I'm I'm hoping you can answer: what characters and events you have planned out for this next year?
				/u/Allenwarner:	Yeah, we can't really say past Legends Assemble!, but if you look back at the timing of some of our events from last year, you'll have a good guess at three of the events coming this year.

*	Are there any specific people that you would have liked to put more dialogue in their story for?
				/u/Allenwarner:	Groot? In all seriousness, I don't think I've put the Spider characters in dialogue enough since their event ended.

*	can expect more amas in the future? when could be the next one?
				/u/TinyRocio:	Absolutely! We plan on having another one as soon as we can, as well as some more planned player-interactions that I'm very excited for. ;D

*	Whenever Wasp say 'What ever happened to romance?' I always go 'idk girl, ask your creators'. Can we get some hints or updates about the state of the dating feature please?
				/u/Allenwarner:	I still believe dating will happen. The Hangouts feature is a major first step in that process. I personally wasn't comfortable launching dating until we had a lot of options for every character and player, but I think we've reached that point with our roster, and now it's just about figuring out exactly how the feature will function, and where it will fit in the schedule.

*	Allen Warner: How did you get into writing for video games, and do you have any advice for starting out in the industry with that in mind?
				/u/Allenwarner:	I started in animation and comics before moving to games, but in my experience every writer takes a different path to where they end up. Here's my advice...

    Write as much as you can.
    Read as much as you can.
    Play games with an eye on the narrative. Both what you think works, and what doesn't.
    Get published as much as you can, even if it's self-published.
    Apply to every Game Writer job opening you see.
    Connect with recruiters and people working in games who can help you get a job in games.
    Prepare yourself for a lot of rejection.
    Don't give up.

*	You have created an amazing game that is extremely fun. So fun for me that it has become my favorite game. How did you at TinyCo come up with the idea for this brilliant game?
				/u/Allenwarner:	Thanks! We love Marvel, and we love pushing ourselves to come up with new and unique ideas that you can't find anywhere else in the Marvel universe.

*	Any plans for a Thunderbolts event, or at least a recruitable Songbird?
				/u/Allenwarner:	No plans right now, but it's definitely possible. If we do it, I think it'll be a combination of the various teams with a couple curveballs.

*	What has been the most fun story to write for a character (and why) and what has been the least fun/one you wish you could redo? (and why)?
				/u/Allenwarner:	Orrgo! Also, Squirrel Girl, M.O.D.O.K., Winter Soldier, and a bunch of others. I'm pretty hard on myself, so I'd probably redo quite a few.

*	Is there an explanation for the Odins, Nick Furys, and Hank Pyms already involved in actions? Thanks!
				/u/TinyRocio:	Don't worry, we have thought about it. :)

*	How do you keep track of the character's personalities? Since there are so many and they're all different.
				/u/Allenwarner:	Keeping track of their personalities is easy. Keeping track of their storylines can be complicated.

*	What's your favorite costume?
				/u/Allenwarner:	That's a tough one, but I'm gonna go Lawyer Loki.
				/u/tinykate:	Penguin Falcon. I think /u/Rocio would agree.
				/u/tinykate:	I super love our original Black Widow outfits, specifically Symbiote Black Widow and Cthulu Black Widow.

*	Are you going to bring back previous event characters again??
				/u/Allenwarner:	Yes.

*	I take it you've seen a few of the fan events on the sub. Do you take any inspiration from those for future events/concepts?
				/u/Allenwarner:	Those posts are incredible. I pay the most attention to the character request portion.

*	A while ago we had a discussion that the lack of speedster characters in AvAc might be due to difficulties programming them. However, Electro has a quasi-speedster action which shows us it works. Can we actually expect characters like Union Jack's vampiric sister Spitfire, the Inhuman Drive, or Wiccan's twin brother Speed in the near future?
				/u/Allenwarner:	I don't think it has anything to do with technical limitations. You will get speedster characters.

*	Do have to go digging into the comics to write for the characters or do you already read them?
				/u/Allenwarner:	Both, plus the Marvel wiki. I think I know my Marvel pretty well, but research is always a good thing for writing.

*	Will the Legends Assemble event be mostly focused on just Asgardians or Gods in general?
				/u/Allenwarner:	Neither really, but Odin and Frigga will both play a huge role.

*	Will there be any Spider-Man content released when the new movie comes out in July?
				/u/Allenwarner:	Can't say, but I bet you have a good guess

*	In the doctor strange event the Loki outfit says it was not the final form, when do we get the final form?
				/u/Allenwarner:	We'll have to ask a Super Saiyan.

*	Who is the best fanfic writer on campus: Kamala, Miles, or maybe Coulson?
				/u/TinyRocio:	I think I would be a fan of Kamala's fanfic.

*	Is there any possibility for a crossover with any other properties that Marvel, Disney or TinyCo own? It would be absolutely amazing if TinyCo could pull this off!
				/u/Allenwarner:	I agree that this would be amazing, but there aren't any plans for that to happen.

*	If someone could ask an art designer, What is the process of creating/drawing a character from being 'assingned' that character until it is released?
				/u/TinyRocio:	Not an art designer (sorry!), but getting to see the process before my eyes, it starts with an awesome concept drawing (which you may have seen before in our Marvel.com articles) based on the existing plans that we have for the character (how we plan on interpreting for the Academy). Once we run that through a few iterations (more or less depending on the character), and get internal and external approval on the concept, we hand off the design to our 3D artists, and it goes through the process again! The crux of it: lots of iteration, lots of eyes seeing each design.

*	Since the next event has water related qualities, does this mean there will be more actions like spider man's one out in the water? (can remember the name, test the waters maybe?)
				/u/TinyRocio:	Absolutely! The water will be utilized next event, and rest assured we're hoping to take advantage of that blue expanse. :)

*	Will a certain team of SHIELD agents ever come?
				/u/Allenwarner:	Certainly

*	Are the characters in this Legends Assemble event the characters /u/AllenWarner said "We'd never expect to see" on the campus in the last interview?
				/u/Allenwarner:	No. This event story is the first step to those characters.