The ambitious new MOBA is an tablet-only interpretation of the world’s most popular hardcore game: League of Legends.
When you think of “hardcore gaming,” images of sweaty nerds gathered together in darkened basements doing sixteen-hour non-stop World of Warcraft raids come to mind. In other words, a glorious experience. You don’t think of some hip twenty-something sitting in a Starbucks on his iPad. Jason Citron, founder of OpenFeint, aims to change these preconceptions, revealing his tablet-only company Hammer & Chisel, and its flagship game: Fates Forever, a League of Legends-style MOBA designed solely to be experienced on tablets.
Citron and Hammer & Chisel explain that we are now in “the post-PC era,” and that tablets, not consoles, smartphones, or PCs will be the major players in the upcoming generation. Fates Forever employs unique mechanics never before used in the genre, and the developer boasts that “For the first time, players will be able to literally touch their heroes and execute fun and visceral special moves not possible with a keyboard and mouse.”
Citron believes that touchscreen devices, especially tablets, are replacing consoles as the primary medium for strategic and competitive gaming. His goal is for Hammer & Chisel to become “the Blizzard of the post-PC era.” He believes it can do this by jumping the gun on his predicted tablet renaissance in gaming.
“I’ve been watching the next-gen consoles floundering while most people are buying and spending time on tablets,” said Criton, adding “58 percent of gaming professionals said they plan to release their next game on a tablet or smartphone. About 11 percent said they’d develop on the Xbox One and around the same amount intend to develop on the PlayStation 4.”
Fates Forever will launch this summer, and utilize “modern monetization techniques,” so we can probably assume a free-to-play structure similar to League of Legends.
Furthermore, Hammer & Chisel have offered to answer any questions you may have about the game. Just leave your question in the comments and i’ll include it in an e-mail to the dev team.
