SEGA, Demiurge Launch Puzzle & Glory on iOS, Android (Interview)

SEGA has announced the release of Puzzle & Glory, a match-three RPG, on iOS and Android devices. Developed by Marvel Puzzle Quest creator Demiurge Studios (which was acquired by SEGA's mobile division, SEGA Networks, in early 2015), the game allows players to create a team of heroes and complete quests to save the world of Aetria from the Blight. Levels in Puzzle & Glory are split into adventures, which are further split into paths. Each path requires energy (supplies) to begin, which recharges automatically over time. In some cases, players may have access to more than one path, and must decide how to proceed. In each individual stage, players make matches of three or more like-colored gems to remove them from the board and damage the enemy team. Players take up to three heroes into each battle, which can be assigned different roles on the team (tank, firepower and support) depending on their stats or abilities. Each hero has its own skills relating to the colorful symbols on the board, and while enemies take damage after every match, creating matches with character-specific colors charges these skills. The game offers both offensive and defensive skills, which must be manually activated once they're charged. Players will face two overall kinds of enemies in Puzzle & Glory. The first ‘attacks’ the player by creating damaging symbols on the game board, which will harm a member of the player’s team if they aren’t removed within a limited number of moves. The other kind of enemy, like a boss defending the end of a path, for instance, will take turns with the player, making their own matches and instantly damaging the user’s team. As players progress, they’ll earn rewards including free and premium currency (coins and Arelium, respectively), as well as experience points and special reagents for their heroes. These reagents can be combined with coins in hero-specific recipes to unlock skill points and additional experience points for the character. Skill points can be spent to upgrade a hero's specific skills, while experience points boost the hero's level, raising its stats. While players can receive heroes for free while playing, they can also purchase new heroes outright with free and premium currency. For social features, players can join a guild with friends or strangers, and can chat with their guildmates. In addition, gamers can complete events with other players, earning prizes for all members of their guild in the process. Even if players aren’t in a guild, they can still interact with others in cooperative events. Player-vs-player tournaments are also available. Puzzle & Glory is available to download for free on the iTunes App Store and Google Play. In a recent interview with SocialTimes, Dave Guskin, senior game designer at Demiurge, revealed more about the game. SocialTimes: With a number of popular match-three battle titles already available on mobile, how does Puzzle & Glory differ or stand out from the pack? Dave Guskin: Three things. One: Puzzle & Glory is a proper class-based combat RPG on top of a match-3 game. There’s a lot of depth of strategy to picking three heroes to work together, emphasizing strengths and minimizing weaknesses. When you combo together the right team with the right set of skills, you can take down powerful bosses for amazing loot. Two: P&G gives small groups of players—friends in a guild, or as a pick-up group—the opportunity to cooperate to take on challenges (like big bosses) together, where each individual's efforts matter a lot. Three: We’ve built P&G as a dynamic living world—the presence of other players in the world matters, and there's always something new to explore with events occurring in new locations every day. ST: Can you explain more about the game’s cooperative, guild-based gameplay? DG: Players can join a guild at any time, or can join a pick-up group for a particular event rather than play with a guild. Players in the guild add up their scores to win big prizes for each member in the guild. Within our story-driven PvE content, players can coordinate through chat and then join together in small groups to go on raids together and take down big bosses. There are also special ‘story finale’ dungeons that you can unlock for your entire guild. ST: How will players be able to spend money in the game? DG: Just like with our company’s other mobile title, Marvel Puzzle Quest, we make sure that all of the cool stuff in the game is accessible to all players, even those who don’t spend at all. We think the sweet spot is to give good value to anyone who wants to spend, but never require someone to spend to enjoy the game. Everything that a spending player can purchase outright, a dedicated player can unlock for themselves through loot from regular gameplay, including a good supply of Arelium (our world’s valuable currency). ST: Is there anything else you’d like to add? DG: We’re excited to add more heroes and places in the world to visit through our live events—each week will show off more of the world of Aetria, and exotic new locations will have new enemies and new challenges.

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SEGA, Demiurge Launch Puzzle & Glory on iOS, Android (Interview)

The match-three puzzle battle game sees players creating a team of heroes and competing in single-player adventures and multiplayer events.

Brandy Shaul

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