Summary
- Supervive, a chaotic MOBA-Battle Royale fusion, is a culmination of 3 years of development with broad replayability and deep community engagement goals.
- Supervive's influences, from competitive games like Fortnite to the single-player emphasis on intuitive gameplay, aim to engage players organically.
- A humble approach to competition drives Theorycraft Games, with long-term plans rooted in player interaction and enjoyment rather than grand ambitions.
Since 2021, Theorycraft Games has been working on a game code named "Project Loki." Today, the studio, staffed by veterans from Bungie, Blizzard, and Riot Games, officially christened the title as Supervive, a deliberately chaotic, delightfully anarchic fusion of MOBAs and Battle Royale. While the game won't enter public open beta until later this year, and the indie studio is staying humble about the game's prospects, the entire team has an enthusiasm behind the title that speaks volumes.
Even though Supervive is still only in alpha, it has a great deal to show for its three years of development to date. Following an impressive private preview of Supervive, The Best War Games had the opportunity to speak with Jessica Nam, the Executive Producer of Supervive, and Joe Tung, CEO of Theorycraft Games, about the influences behind and ambitions ahead of their innovative new MOBA.
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An Amalgamation of Experience
Regarding the lessons he learned during his time as the EVP of League of Legends, as well as the EP of Halo and Destiny, Tung says "I earned my MFA at Bungie, and my MBA at Riot." He was also quick to point out that those titles were completely different from each other in everything from mechanics to monetization, so it was difficult to single out any lessons that defined Supervive. But it is exciting to hear that Tung considers Theorycraft Games' debut to be the culmination of his industry experience.
Tung's initial design goals behind Supervive seem extremely broad when laid out aloud. Deep replayability was the first focus. Theorycraft Games' wanted to create a game that would "serve certain players needs over the course of thousands of hours," and countless matches played. The next pillar was rewarding both mastery and belonging in the community. To Tung, these goals are not only globally resonant and broadly appealing, but also "immune to trends," which is reassuring to hear in an industry susceptible to faddishness. It also speaks of Theorycraft's commitment to organic fun.
Supervises' Secret Ingredient
Supervive has a huge number of competitive multiplayer influences—whose distinctive quirks "compete with each other as well as compliment each other," according to Tung. The most prominent common thread that runs through games like Fortnite, Apex Legends, Super Smash Bros, and League of Legends however, is an extremely high skill ceiling. But Executive Producer Jessica Nam revealed Theorycraft games used a surprising single player title as a reference point to help ease players to the mechanical complexity of Supervive.
While it may be tempting to assume Breath of the Wild 's wind gliders were the primary inspiration behind Supervive's wind gliders, Nintendo's modern classic had a more foundational influence. Players' abilities to interact with the map needed to feel intuitive. In such a dynamic game, physics needed to feel organic and improvisational rather than deterministic and rigid. Those were the touchstones Supervive borrowed from Breath of the Wild to temper and stabilize the more intimidating technical and competitive elements of its chaotic gameplay.
A Humble Approach to Competition
Both Tung and Nam frequently reiterated that the ways players interacted with and appreciated their game would drive their long-term approach to the free-to-play title. Everything from marketing, to Theorycrafts' approach to narrative, to the games' ultimate esports ambitions would be determined by how players best engage with and enjoy the game. Regarding the game's competitive aspirations, Tung had a piece of wry wisdom for would-be developers:
"When people ask, 'are you making the next esport?' I usually say 'if people tell you they are making the next esport, they aren't making the next esport.'" - Joe Tung
Joe did acknowledge that he thinks the potential is there. Many MOBA Casters have already found a lot to love about the title, and high-level play is entertaining to watch. Lore speculation videos have already emerged on YouTube. It makes sense that Theorycraft's marketing strategy is primarily based on partnering with content creators and influencers to show off the title early on.
Supervive takes another stride toward that end today, launching a pre-registration site for randomly selected players access to a private alpha session held later this week. Furthermore, Supervive is running a Twitch Drop campaign to allow players to increase their odds at earning a spot in the playtest.
Supervive is expected to enter open beta late in 2024.