“It was a journey.
It was a journey for sure.”
The prospect of the celebrated XCOM team, Firaxis, making a Marvel-themed superhero strategy game is mouthwatering.
Pairing a team of that talent with a licence of that appeal is inspired.
All you have to do is substitute in superheroes, don’t you?
Marvel’s Midnight Suns
But what if it’s not so simple working with Marvel?
And what if the XCOM formula didn’t actually work very well with superheroes?
Which self-respecting superhero would take cover in a battle, after all?
The game will be released 7th October on PlayStation and Xbox consoles, and PC.
A Nintendo Switch version will be available at an unspecified later date.
Eurogamer: Okay, Jake, every Marvel superhero has their own origin story.
Can you tell us the origin story of Marvel’s Midnight Suns?
And I am a very hardcore Marvel Comics guy so my initial reaction was an immediate yes.
So there was that trepidation of, well, what does that mean?
I was like, this must happen now.
So yeah, we immediately decided to do it.
The process was awesome in the sense that they weren’t like “you should use these heroes”.
They didn’t even say any suggestions about story, heroes, pop in of game, nothing.
They were like, “What do you want to do?”
And some of that was almost like playing chicken, to be like where’s the line with Marvel?
And, again, they’re very enthusiastic people.
From this side, it sounds like Marvel was pretty open to most of your ideas.
Did you battle creatively about anything?
Jake Solomon:Oh, honestly, no.
I wasn’t even thinking about what the gameplay would be.
I was like, well, we’ll just have all these heroes.
And then everybody, the team, was like, “That’s insane.”
And I was like, “Okay, that’s fine.”
But no, the roster we have has always been the roster.
We didn’t have to make any switches, even the roster we presented to them.
They were like, “Okay, great.
Yeah, this makes sense.
This makes sense.”
They really get involved, especially when it comes to the Hunter.
How do we stand somebody next to them and have them be as interesting?'
But we had to work on the backstory of the character, even what their base costume looks like.
There are ways to make something the right way in the Marvel Universe.
There’s quite a few customisation options available to the player.
Were they happy to let people like me run amok in their universe?
Jake Solomon:They were, they were!
you might’t do that."
They were remarkably great when it comes to things like that.
But yeah, it’s fun and I can’t wait to see what people do.
It’s one of my favourite features.
I presume you had to go through an approval process with Marvel for those at least.
We said, with Iron Man, the storyline our game is based on is rooted in the ’90s.
So we were like, well, let’s look at Iron Man’s costumes from the ’90s.
And that helps because they go, “Okay, great.”
But yes, they are geniuses, they have worked on so many costumes.
How does it tie to the story you’re trying to tell?
And how does yours look different than other games out there?
We have a couple of versions here and we talked through those with Marvel.
There’s seriousness, there’s silliness, there’s bickering between the heroes.
It’s also a pretty similar tone to what you’d expect to see from a modern Marvel movie.
So was it all written in house or did you bring in established Marvel writers to help?
We’re like, oh, yeah, that makes sense to add them in.
And so again, they’re always very additive, they’re not restrictive.
Now, you said this is your first time working with an IP that’s not your own?
How hard was it to stay true to Firaxis' style when working on a new IP?
They just play the game avidly and give us feedback, but they’re never prescriptive with gameplay stuff.
So in that case, we are victims of whatever success Fiaxis has had.
So you’re up at night worrying about ‘how good is this game?’
Personally I would sell my soul for a great game.
Like, if I can just guarantee the game plays well…
I’ll do anything for that, and I think a lot of our team feels that way.
So we worry about that first.
Thematically, none of this fits with what we’ve done before.
Jake Solomon:Yeah.
I mean, it was really interesting.
And we started very XCOM-like and that didn’t work very well.
It’s like none of this works.
That was a terrifying moment.
“Okay, we’ll do an XCOM and then we’ll do it with the superheroes.”
And then, two weeks later, I was like, that’s not gonna work at all!
I guess we’re just gonna make a brand new game here.
So that was a little bit terrifying.
I’m so happy with where we ended up.
But yeah, it was a journey.
It was a journey for sure.
So you’re worried about that first.
Then you go, “Okay, how do we make this as accessible as it can be?”
I just believe you have to start there; you could’t start from the other direction.
But I think that’s the great thing that happens when we represent abilities as cards.
People are already like, “Yeah, I understand how card games work.”
But instead, we’re like: it’s cards.
And people go, “Yeah, I get that, I know how card games work.”
I get that."
Now is there a better option?
And so I think that’s also another element of accessibility.
That wasn’t planned but it kind of comes out of the cards.
Okay, can I ask one more quickly?
Would you like to see the Hunter pop up in the Marvel Cinematic Universe?
Jake Solomon:I’d love it man!
That to me would be the coolest thing.
Thank you so much.
