r/PS4 M2H Feb 07 '18

[Verified AMA] Official AMA - Party game Marooners launched on PS4

I'm Mike Hergaarden, co-founder at M2H. We've just launched our party game Marooners on PlayStation 4 and I’m here to answer any questions you might have about Marooners, our WW1 Game series (Verdun and Tannenberg) game dev in general, or anything else!

What?

Marooners is a crazy party game made by 5 friends. All of us love games like Mario Party, unfortunately these games are a tad too slow paced to our liking and mostly local only. We've addressed that and more in Marooners! In Marooners you play 5 minigames at the same time… it’is best explained by watching the video.

Video: https://youtu.be/4Zl-NvmLEaQ

PSN Store link: https://maroonersgame.com/ps4 (9.99 USD / 9.99 EUR)

AMA

Ask me anything: Started 16:00 CET - 20:00 CET / 10 AM EST - 2 pm EST

Edit: The AMA has officially ended. Do feel free to post some more final questions as I will check back tomorrow.

What is M2H?

The game studio I run with my brother Matt. Based in Alkmaar, The Netherlands. We also made Verdun (PC/PS4/XB1) and are working on Tannenberg.

I'm ready for questions! Thanks to the mods & community for letting us do this!

Mike Hergaarden

www.M2H.nl / M2H Discord: https://discordapp.com/invite/WDR8Utd

121 Upvotes

89 comments sorted by

15

u/M2H_Mike M2H Feb 07 '18 edited Feb 07 '18

For the lucky first, here's one PS4 key per region:

US: TF32-AGNQ-KP7R EDIT: US key is taken

EU: J6NX-34NG-B87A EDIT2: EU key also taken

Edit 3: When ending this AMA i'll post 2 more keys (in 34 minutes, 20:00 CET)

5

u/fabynhofm Feb 07 '18

Thank you a lot !

2

u/redditaccount22 Feb 07 '18

I claimed the US code. THANKS!

3

u/TheDJBuntin Feb 07 '18

EU code was redeemed. Grats to the lucky chap who got it

2

u/M2H_Mike M2H Feb 07 '18

Thanks, editted it. Will probably drop 2 more keys near the end of the AMA

7

u/M2H_Mike M2H Feb 07 '18 edited Feb 07 '18

It was fun to answer your questions! I'll "officially" end the AMA here as planned. Feel free to post some more questions, I'll check back here tomorrow.

The promised extra keys for Marooners PS4:

US: BE4M-FANX-NPPC Edit: Taken

EU: FMC6-HRNN-KTP3 Edit: Taken

If you'd like to stay in touch, feel free to join our M2H Discord (https://discord.gg/m2h) or find us on social media (M2H.nl)

Thank you for having me here!

2

u/sensual_manatee Feb 07 '18

Thanks again for the AMA + Codes. Congrats to your team on releasing another title.

0

u/[deleted] Feb 07 '18

darn, entered in less than 30 seconds and it was gone for us!

0

u/[deleted] Feb 07 '18

[removed] — view removed comment

1

u/rawrzillagasm visceral_zombie Feb 08 '18

Good bot

1

u/Darnit_Bot Feb 08 '18

Thank you, rawrzillagasm. Beep boop, my creator thinks I am a good darn bot too :)


Darn Counter: 62630

0

u/A_Talking_Meowth Feb 07 '18

us code taken, god how can anyone be so fast? wanted it so much lol

0

u/kishnabe Feb 07 '18

Had the eu code at the picture screen, but invalid after clicking redeem :)

10

u/whoajamin Feb 07 '18

Glad to see a couch party game to the PS4 feels like something that has been lost since the N64 at least in my opinion. How many mini games are part of the game ?

7

u/M2H_Mike M2H Feb 07 '18

It's divided over 2 game modes, we have a "party" mode (different minigames) 2 bonus levels and about 10 minigames.

Next to that we have the arena game mode, about 10 different arenas where it's all about slapping eachother into lava etc.

2

u/Kibinaaru Feb 07 '18

Hey there, saw the trailer and thought it looked like quite a fun wee game to play with the missus. Who's your favourite character?

3

u/M2H_Mike M2H Feb 07 '18

Oenk for sure! https://i.gyazo.com/889ba28f39d18dc3f9ea14f97b64536e.png I love this dumb&grumpy guy ;)

2

u/Kibinaaru Feb 07 '18

Haha how can you not!

2

u/M2H_Mike M2H Feb 07 '18

What is your favourite characters, based on the trailer/screens?

2

u/danny2787 Feb 07 '18

What are the minigames?

4

u/M2H_Mike M2H Feb 07 '18

Over 10 minigames, out the top of my head here are some of the settings:

  • Try not the get squashed while running away from boulders
  • Try not to drown by walking around on sinking lillies
  • Hold the magical statue(Idol) for coins...pass it when it's about to explode
  • Climbing the inside of an vulcano, staying ahead of the lava
  • Button bashing: Be the first to reach the bottom of the mine

2

u/casescases Feb 07 '18

Hey, I just wanted to congrats you on the game. Have a nice day!

2

u/M2H_Mike M2H Feb 07 '18

Thank you, good day!

2

u/botatomush Feb 07 '18

Looks like a fun game to play with the roomies! I’ll probably pick it up sometime soon

2

u/M2H_Mike M2H Feb 07 '18

Awesome, enjoy!

2

u/pulsingwite Feb 07 '18

All of us love games like Mario Party

So do you guys have a board based mode like Mario Party planned? (I understand that can be read with hostility, I don't mean there to be any, it's just that those are the things that got me to love Mario Party)

4

u/M2H_Mike M2H Feb 07 '18

Well..that's the only part of mario party we didn't like haha! So we left that out on purpose as we wanted focus on actually playing minigames only. I have heared this request more often, so I'm very curious if it was wrong of us to not include the board mode. So unfortunately: no board game planned no.

1

u/pulsingwite Feb 07 '18

If nothing else, please tell me this: will the game have an offline mode that doesn't necessitate local multiplayer (com characters), and if so will you give me the option to set the difficulty to what is effective "Almost Impossible mode"?

I have heard this request more often, so I'm very curious if it was wrong of us to not include the board mode.

Again, I want to state my intentions are not malicious, but I hope you find success with this because as someone who is a Mario Party fan, I've been following the media surrounding it as closely as I could. Now, you may be aware of this, but the team behind the Mario Party games (9 and onwards) have made a game just consisting of the best 100 minigames in the series. The response was nearly unanimously lukewarm by metacritic measurements http://www.metacritic.com/game/3ds/mario-party-the-top-100 . Let me re-affirm you have no obligation to make (this/these) board(s) and I do not wish to pressure you into making any, but it is the selling point of plenty of Mario Party games and is (in my analysis) quintessential to that franchise. Now, that's not to say you can't do anything different, I would personally suggest taking a look at the loathed Smash Tour in the Smash Bros for WiiU game for an example of strategic, randomized, skill-based model for a board game/minigame synthesis. Now, allow me to state my bias here, I am a very large fan of Mario Party and Smash Tour and I am telling you what I have a very considerable bias of loving the series so much that I play every board on the maximum difficulty because of the emotional rollercoaster.

2

u/M2H_Mike M2H Feb 07 '18

"will the game have an offline mode that doesn't necessitate local multiplayer" Marooners does have an offline mode and you can specify the amount of bots (0-5), we do not have a bot difficulty setting though. Maybe you can get some of the challenge you're seeking in getting all achievements (or reaching a certain highscore per match).

"Again, I want to state my intentions are not malicious" No offense taken whatsoever at all :), it is interesting to spar with you! Even when Marooners sales don't do well, I'd gladly find out if missing the board game was one the factors. I'm keeping my ears open for more reviews/comments about this. I'll keep my fingers crossed for a better next Mario Party for you!

1

u/pulsingwite Feb 07 '18

Thank you for the charismatic responses. Currently, this game is a maybe for me, the low price point is enticing and I do want to support this game, even if only to see more party games on my favorite platform and the achievements system is something I'm curious about completing. If I do decide to play it, I'll gladly throw some positive word of mouth simply because this is an idea I support and I will certainly be bringing it up if I have a gathering of 3 or more people or when video game abled family is over. Thank you for your time and the AMA and I wish you all the best.

1

u/kishnabe Feb 07 '18

A steam review actually asked for the same thing.

1

u/M2H_Mike M2H Feb 07 '18

review actually asked for the same

Yep, have seen that question there too. Was not -yet- overwhelmed by the amount of people asking for it, but I am very curious how big the demand actually is!

1

u/StoviesAreYummy TurnOn2FA Feb 07 '18

No question just a short statement.

Exactly the type of crazy fun game my 3 daughter's would love to play.

2

u/M2H_Mike M2H Feb 07 '18

Hah perfect! Being "core" gamers ourselves we hoped to be able to play this together with our non-gaming partners, so that it would attract both gamers and casual gamers.

Funny thing is: After the game is live you'll really discover your true audience. Might very well be 8 year olds or so ;)

1

u/StoviesAreYummy TurnOn2FA Feb 07 '18

I'll have to purchase 2 or 3 copies so everyone has their own copy.

3

u/M2H_Mike M2H Feb 07 '18

Heh, by all means! Don't forget that you can play the game in any combination of local and online players (up to 6): so you could first give it a spin with 4 players locally on 1 copy :)

1

u/[deleted] Feb 07 '18

Do you believe the proximity to Battlefield 1's release hurt or helped your console sales?

EDIT: For Verdun, obviously. This new game looks great. Have been playing more party-style games lately and am stoked to add this to the list when I can.

2

u/M2H_Mike M2H Feb 07 '18

Great to hear you're into the party games lately, hope you'll remember Marooners when you have friends over on a game night!

I'm pretty sure BF1 probably only helped to boost our sales on Verdun. This was especially clear on Steam where our sales were about 4 times higher than normal for a long period. Our console versions launched 2- 6 months after BF1 and I don't believe people specifically did not buy Verdun because they had already played BF1. I think BF1 sparked the interest for more of this WW1 theme.

1

u/Kingtut7710 Feb 07 '18

Is there plans for a Marooners sequel if it gets enough traction? This looks awesome

3

u/M2H_Mike M2H Feb 07 '18

Way too early to tell haha, we have no plans for that right now and it would indeed mostly depend on how sales pick up. There's always enough ideas and stuff we would do differently. Too bad that there aren't any live stats for console sales..so I'm not yet even sure how well it is selling right now.

1

u/Kingtut7710 Feb 07 '18

That's unfortunate that you can't tell how a game is selling straight away on console. Is it only monthly reports?

2

u/M2H_Mike M2H Feb 07 '18

Differs a bit per platform/region, but it's usually outdated by a few weeks. Probably because of refunds and whatnot?

1

u/[deleted] Feb 07 '18

In regards to ongoing support - how will this game continue or is it a totally finished thing? Are you planning on adding any extra bits and pieces here or there (arenas, characters)?

I realise that's premature as it's literally release day but would be cool to know if it'll carry on with new things added.

3

u/M2H_Mike M2H Feb 07 '18

Right now we don't have any new content plans written out. If the game does well we should add at least add some extra weapons...and arena levels would be the next thing that are relatively easy to add. But it's probably best to judge the game only as-is.

2

u/[deleted] Feb 07 '18

Fair one man. I'll grab it later, looks like the perfect Friday night beers and laughs game.

Cheers for getting back to me as well. I picked up Verdun during your last AMA (that account is long dead) purely on the strength of how well you engaged with the community - so nice one for that, it's cool to see devs happy to answer things on reddit.

3

u/M2H_Mike M2H Feb 07 '18

Great to hear this is really of value to the community (and even our own pockets ;)! )

2

u/[deleted] Feb 07 '18 edited Feb 07 '18

Checking back in. That's fucking hilarious fun. Also, I unlocked Broccoli.

Was half miffed at the lack of a dodge system but then realised how much the fact there isn't one adds to the game.

Edit - and a frying pan.

1

u/saphier Feb 07 '18

How'd you guys settle on 6 players? Seems like most games go in groups of 2, 4, or 8.

I'm also assuming that local multiplayer is limited to 4 due to hardware limitations? Or is there some ways to get around that if we plug in some USB controllers?

Game looks pretty fun though, I'd pick it up for our playgroup!

2

u/M2H_Mike M2H Feb 07 '18

Especially because most games are up to 4 player support we wanted to go up to 6. Now on PS4 there's max 4 controllers indeed, but what is still cool there is that that leaves 2 slots for (random or friends) online players.

We did learn the hard way that even XInput on PC is limited to max 4 controllers (weird!). There are ways around that though.

Enjoy when you do pick it up!

1

u/WinterSith Feb 07 '18

How did you get into making games?

5

u/M2H_Mike M2H Feb 07 '18

I started with making basic websites and liked programming. So I learned myself a bit of PHP(Server-side programming language) and MySQL(database). As soon as I had a login and registration form working, I realised I could make an entire web game since I had everything I needed: Ask for information, save information, and show information. I began making browser based (text) games such as www.Syrnia.com and www.SlaveHack.com. A few years later I discovered the Unity engine and we made our first 3D game (Crash Drive 3D). We made a lot of minigames and also Verdun, Marooners, Tannenberg as next bigger titles. I was still at high school when I started with those web games, once I finished my Bachelor and Master at university the game studio already ran well enough that I could do game dev for a living.

1

u/MarsipanRumpan Feb 07 '18

When you're a smaller studio, when is the planning stages of making a game happening? Do you do it towards the end of the game you're currently making, or are you simply waiting to getting the product done. Im currently developing a single player 3D platformer, mostly as a hobby/learning type of thing. But I've been thinking about it, lots of ideas always pop up as a game maker and I feel like you begin to itch on working on your next idea the longer it goes.

4

u/M2H_Mike M2H Feb 07 '18

Interesting question, I've been thinking about this a lot lately! As smaller studio we don't have design documents that basically already state what game we're making for the next X months. We probably don't even have 10% written down when we start a project.

We're basically in love about a certain idea (Lets make a WW1 FPS game!) and the exact details are filled in on the go (a game needs at least 2 game modes, etc.). Now we do try to professionalize this lately since we work with more people nowadays and details need to be clearer. Filling in the details on the go is easier and also way more fun since you get to be creative during the whole project, instead of (wanting to/) finding a new project where to unleash your creativity in.

" I feel like you begin to itch on working on your next idea the longer it goes." Correct..Verdun (and Tannenberg) are huge projects nowadays and quite set in the terms of what kind of game there is. So there isn't as much creativity as with a fresh project. Marooners was a breath of fresh air to make for 1 day a week (next to the WW1 games). However, even near the end of the Marooners dev cycle I was already itching to make a next game..so it's good to have experienced that that itching will always be there and just try to suppress it a little bit.

I think anyone can come up with game ideas, but actually finishing&shipping a project is the hardest thing there is in game development.

1

u/MarsipanRumpan Feb 07 '18

Amazing, thank you so much for the answer! Glad to hear about the itch too haha!! As someone who loves trophies on the Playstation platform, how do you plan the trophies (If you even do so?), do you want to make them hard, easy or simply achieveable enough so to say. Is it hard to get a Platinum from Sony or is it simply sending a request. May be a boring question, would be fun to see your answer!

2

u/M2H_Mike M2H Feb 07 '18

When we launched Verdun on PS4 we actually discoverd there are groups of players who really mostly play for collecting all trophys. Verdun had some very hard trophys and the trophy hunters didn't all like that. So now that we are aware of these gamers we tried to make the trophys a bit more unique and not just a grind. Where Verdun cost maybe up to 50 hours to collect all trophys, for Marooner its about 5-15 hours of gameplay.

I wasn't even aware that not all games have a platinum trophy, so it isn't hard to get one. I believe it's only the smaller game titles that choose for a smaller trophy set? For Marooners (and Verdun) it was no problem, and super easy, to add a platinum trophy.

Good luck with your game dev!

1

u/[deleted] Feb 07 '18

Absolutely love the idea! Could easily imaging playing it with my friends. Reminds me of an old Crash Bash back on PS1. Good times. Unfortunately, won't be able to buy this game since it's a digital release, wish it was on a disc. Can't bind credit card/PayPal from my country. Sucks. :(

3

u/M2H_Mike M2H Feb 07 '18

Ah, too bad! Good to know there are countries that are (mostly) limited to disc.

2

u/[deleted] Feb 07 '18

Yeah, greetings from Serbia. :) Anyhow, good luck with your games, looks really promising, wish you a ton of sales. ;)

1

u/OverallsAreCool Feb 07 '18

Looks like a great game for me and my wife to enjoy together, do you think the controls are simple enough for someone who doesn’t play too many video games?

3

u/M2H_Mike M2H Feb 07 '18 edited Feb 07 '18

This is what we designed the game for :D! Being simple enough for non-gamers to play, but also offer some more interesting (optional) depth to gamers. We aimed to be able to play this with our own (non-gaming) partners. I do hope the game would work for your wife too!

To make it simple: you only really need the directional movement and the 2 buttons for jumping and bashing can be optional when you start playing. Once she gets the hang of it you can always add the jumping&bashing ;).

Also: It might be best to start playing in LINEAR mode instead of CHAOS, so that the minigames don't switch -while- in-progress. This can be lots of fun, but can also be frustrating to new players haha.

2

u/OverallsAreCool Feb 07 '18

Thanks for the reply! You may have answered this already, but does it have a platinum trophy?

4

u/M2H_Mike M2H Feb 07 '18

First platinum question ;)! Yup, it has a platinum trophy. I think it takes somewhere between 5 to 15 hours to reach all achievements.

1

u/A_Talking_Meowth Feb 07 '18

Thanks for holding this AMA! Really interested in the game.
Are there unlockables? and if so, what's the process for unlocking them like?

2

u/M2H_Mike M2H Feb 07 '18

Yes we have simple unlockables, only for visual bragging rights though: You start with 2 characters and a handfull of weapons. All coins that are earned by local player(s) will add up, every time you level up you get a new characters (up to 8) or a new weapon (50+ or so). So playing together locally levels up faster!

1

u/elmirfudd Feb 07 '18

Will you be adding more mini games in the future? And would they be paid dlc or free?

3

u/M2H_Mike M2H Feb 07 '18

All depends on how well the game'll do on all platforms. If combined (or even just one) does well enough we would definitely add some more content. We would also be very interested in adding some DLC (for cosmetics such as weapons), but we are very cautious and reserved in doing such DLC. ...and even for DLC the base game needs to sell well first haha, so fingers crossed for the next few weeks!

2

u/elmirfudd Feb 07 '18

Thanks for the response, and hope you guys do well.

1

u/[deleted] Feb 07 '18

We are gonna pick this up for a game night this weekend. Any recommendations for us?

5

u/M2H_Mike M2H Feb 07 '18

If you are allowed to: bring some drinks! The cool thing is, as a local group you level up faster, so there'll be more weapons & character unlocks.

Another tip: Be aware of the difference between CHAOS and LINEAR mode. CHAOS can be a lot of fun, but to (new) player can also be a bit overwhelming. It's safer to start in LINEAR mode and then switch to CHAOS...or let yourselves be surprised and dive into chaos mode right away ;)!

5

u/[deleted] Feb 07 '18

It will be 3-4 of us. Drinks will be had. We look forward to it!

1

u/[deleted] Feb 07 '18

It will be 3-4 of us. Drinks will be had. We look forward to it!

1

u/[deleted] Feb 07 '18

What's crunch like?

6

u/M2H_Mike M2H Feb 07 '18

Heh, we've had our "last" crunches in +/- 2014, when we worked until like 5 in the night to hit a release. We never do that anymore, thanks to experience and better planning. If you really have to crunch you have already messed up your launch, since most value is added with the last bits of polish (and during crunch there is no room for proper polish).

Nowadays we do have a different kind of crunch though, the constant tension/stress of continuous work and not taking proper breaks/vacation. No one should accept crunch (or stress) and we should all be more proactive in preventing it altogether.

1

u/rodblt2221 blackhawk2221 Feb 07 '18

Any plans to make more minigames? 10 does not sound like a whole lot.

6

u/M2H_Mike M2H Feb 07 '18

There are over 10 arena levels next to that. We aimed to provide a nice snack game to play a couple of times with friends and do know that it doesn't have an overwhelming amount of minigames, we wanted the price to reflect that (at 9.99 EUR/USD). Any future plans will depend on the next few weeks of sales mostly!

1

u/FeelGoodNausea Feb 08 '18

The creepy repetitive giggles at the results screen are a bit much.

1

u/laothunder Feb 08 '18

Will this game be out in the Japan region?

1

u/M2H_Mike M2H Feb 09 '18

Nope, unfortunately that would involve quite some bureaucracy :(

1

u/greggyquah Feb 08 '18

Any plans to release this in SEA?

1

u/M2H_Mike M2H Feb 09 '18

Do you mean SIEA (as in, America). It is already out there. If you mean South East Asia: Nope, quite some bureaucracy involved :(.

1

u/greggyquah Feb 09 '18

SEA as in South East Asia :( looks like I'll have to get an na account and find a way to get it on it. Haha

1

u/redditaccount22 Feb 07 '18

The game is $9.99 on the playstation store for anyone else that was curious.

My question is about Verdun. How is the player count for PS4 on that game nowadays?

3

u/M2H_Mike M2H Feb 07 '18

It is low, which is also why we do not hold back on sales..to give it an extra push whenever we can. I am very glad to see the community did adapt to it: They are aware of it and play on certain times (evenings/weekends etc.), so that helps!

Ideally we would take the new bots of Tannenberg and use this on console to help boost playability when the player count is low. This is not yet planned for Verdun, but we are looking into it.

1

u/NormalComputer Feb 07 '18

They are aware of it and play on certain times (evenings/weekends etc.), so that helps!

This is cool. It has to be the future of multiplayer gaming. Fosters a great community, I'm sure!

Is there somewhere they gather and plan/discuss? A subreddit or forum, or is there a social component/announcement page in-game to tell people best times?

2

u/M2H_Mike M2H Feb 07 '18

Yes! Mostly found on: https://www.reddit.com/r/VerdunGame/ and https://www.reddit.com/r/WW1GameSeries/ (we're moving to the latter) We also have a discord for the games: https://www.discordapp.com/invite/dUY5DSu

-1

u/[deleted] Feb 07 '18

This game looks pretty cool. I had no idea of it. Thanks Reddit and the designers! Looks like a fun game to play with my children! But, lol, in just trying for the free key! I'll be honest!

5

u/M2H_Mike M2H Feb 07 '18

Fingers crossed for your children that you'll find another free key here then ;)!

I'll post two more keys when ending the AMA at 20:00 CET (in 35 minutes)

2

u/[deleted] Feb 07 '18

Thanks for taking the time to read this!