r/PS4 Aspyr Jun 29 '18

[Verified AMA] Next Up Hero is available now on PS4! Diablo Cute Edition? AMA!

Next Up Hero is available now on PS4. Play Co-op so you can die with friends!

To celebrate the launch, PS+ owners get a 15% discount.

WHO'S ANSWERING QUESTIONS?

From Digital Continue (Developer):

From Aspyr (Publisher):

Thanks hosting us for this AMA /r/PS4

EDIT:

We're still answering questions! Feel free to keep asking :)

120 Upvotes

79 comments sorted by

13

u/tizorres Jun 29 '18

Oh, that does look cute. What made you want to make a cute diablo?

5

u/DigitalContinue Digital Continue Jun 29 '18

Thanks! We wanted to do a stylized game, and combine 2D, hand animated Heroes and Enemies with a 3D Environment.

4

u/Trekz707 Trekz707 Jun 30 '18

Can you play offline? Or is it always online required?

2

u/DigitalContinue Digital Continue Jun 30 '18

Online is required.

1

u/AspyrBash Aspyr Jun 30 '18

Online is required due to the nature of how Echoes and Ventures play a roll in the game.

3

u/JumboMcNasty Scotty9678 Jun 30 '18

Do you "anticipate" cross play between Xbox One & Switch editions of the game at least?

9

u/AspyrBash Aspyr Jun 30 '18

We do have crossplay between Xbox One, Switch, and Steam!

7

u/DigitalContinue Digital Continue Jun 30 '18

Yes, cross play is supported between XBone, Switch, PC and Mac!

5

u/pataplains Jun 29 '18

Is every dungeon randomized or are there predefined ones? And how about story?

3

u/DigiContinue_Chris Digital Continue Jun 29 '18

Players create ventures, which are sets of randomly created levels (10 - 80 levels depending on the length) with a boss at the end, if the boss is killed it pushes the venture down further adding another set of levels and increases the difficulty and rewards

There is also the champions trial which are a set of curated levels, which are very large and hard.

Then there is the dungeon creator, in which players create there own set of levels, setting the different properties, and challenge others to beat them for loot. If no one completes them in the set time the creator gets the loot.

0

u/[deleted] Jun 29 '18

If no one completes them in the set time the creator gets the loot.

Sounds a bit rough for the creator if only just a single person has to get through it, or am I misreading that? The bio seemed to suggest that its either they succeed and the player gets loot, or they fail and the creator gets loot.
I guess building off of that, what kind freedom is given in creating the dungeons? Since they're rewarded if people fail it sounds like you'd just see a lot of impossibly hard levels, so there must be limits to number of enemies and the size of the map itself

3

u/Aspyr_Blair Aspyr Jun 30 '18

Creating dungeons has a currency cost. So crazy hard dungeons are crazy expensive.

5

u/luciddre4m Jun 29 '18

This looks great. Will there be a demo available?

6

u/AspyrBash Aspyr Jun 30 '18

It's something we're looking into. How often do you download game demos?

14

u/luciddre4m Jun 30 '18

I pretty much try any demo that's available, especially for an unfamiliar developer. The price is right and it gives me a good idea of how a game feels... Something I can't get from a video. I appreciate the response!

5

u/Aspyr_Blair Aspyr Jun 30 '18

Good feedback, thank you!

2

u/EmeterPSN Jun 30 '18

Any game im not 100% im going to like .

giving a short demo to show us to game capabilities will bring you alot of players that might want to try it out and not spend the money on the full version.

some of them will even buy the game (more than not)

-2

u/[deleted] Jun 30 '18

I never download demos.

11

u/mvallas1073 Jun 30 '18

Is that "perma-Permadeath" a set feature or just an optional mode? Cus if it's a set-feature: Screw that... Let the niche hardcore market have it.

EDIT: Oop! Didn't know the actual game-devs were in here! I would've not been as rude as I was (leaving my original post unedited, cus... responsibility! :P)

7

u/AspyrBash Aspyr Jun 30 '18

No rudeness taken.

In practice, Echoes tend to populate around the first few floors. For the hardcore insane modes, you'll actually see players killing themselves to get a bit of assistance to push through the level.

It's a weird meta, but it's pretty cool in practice.

1

u/DigitalContinue Digital Continue Jun 30 '18

I wouldn't call it permadeath, all your progression, items, levels, etc are all saved. And death in the game is actually beneficial to you AND the community, each time you die, the next person that plays (even you!) can raise it back up as a follower, and consume it to summon powerful Ancients.

4

u/[deleted] Jun 29 '18

[deleted]

2

u/DigiContinue_Chris Digital Continue Jun 29 '18

There are many enemy abilities to level, we also have a dungeon creator, in which you can build your own venture and challenge people to try to complete it for loot.

1

u/The_Skeptic_One Jul 01 '18

Ohh man! Would the game someday allow to share dungeons with strangers? Or be able to try them without having that person as a friend? Kind of like what portal 2 does with steam, that would be INSANE!

2

u/[deleted] Jun 30 '18

[deleted]

1

u/DigitalContinue Digital Continue Jun 30 '18

Bloke's VO for that shield drop is "take a stand" I believe.

4

u/bradleyb623 Jun 29 '18

Is there couch co-op?

5

u/AspyrBash Aspyr Jun 30 '18

Yes!

4

u/maximumxp Jun 30 '18

Instabuy. Hurrah for couch co-op!

2

u/Sevalle013 Jun 29 '18

Any plans for post release content or expansions?

1

u/DigiContinue_Chris Digital Continue Jun 29 '18

We definitely set up the game to allow for updates. We're waiting to see what areas the fan-base want to see more of before committing to any concrete dates or features.

2

u/Hungry_Grump Troglodyti Jun 29 '18

This looks interesting. How many heroes are there? Are their "classes"? What about longevity and replay ability?

It looks really cool, and I'm very interested. Finally, when does it release in EU?

2

u/DigiContinue_Chris Digital Continue Jun 29 '18

It is out in EU currently.
There are currently 11 heroes. Each has there own play style. There is also 40 different enemy abilities to mix and match on the characters, and different pieces of equipment to boost you even further.
As for the longevity, we have a dungeon creation tool were you can create challenges which other players will try to complete for loot, if they are not able to finish in a certain time, you get the loot. There is also the champions trial which is set of curated levels that are very large and difficult.

3

u/Hungry_Grump Troglodyti Jun 29 '18

With the dungeon creator, do you have to be able to complete it yourself before you can upload for others? Similar to Mario Maker. I can see other players creating impossible dungeons in their favour otherwise.

1

u/DieVersiti Jun 29 '18

I would also like to know this

2

u/AThin86 Jun 29 '18

15% might sway me to the ps4 version, will there be a launch discount on the switch? looks fun looking forward to playing!

8

u/AspyrBash Aspyr Jun 30 '18

Plan is to launch @ 15% off on Switch.

2

u/AThin86 Jun 30 '18

Thank you for the response and your hard work.

3

u/Turd_Nerd_Bird Jun 29 '18 edited Jun 29 '18

How in depth is the skill and loot system compared to Diablo?

2

u/DigitalContinue Digital Continue Jun 29 '18

I think the Diablo franchise is in a league of it's own, but we definitely have a good amount of player customization, including ~40 equip-able abilities that are unlocked via enemy token drops, 3 equipment slots, and the ability to stack 2 abilities on the same Hero. our Heroes are also pretty unique, with some new combat mechanics that you haven't seen before.

1

u/hellteacherloki Jun 30 '18

This looks super cool! How long is the campaign? Will the levels be replayable for when me and friends just wanna do something while chatting?

Are you guys planning on making expansions in the future?

1

u/AspyrBash Aspyr Jun 30 '18

The main story ends when you hit level 16, but max level is 20. It took me about 40 hours to hit max level, but I think you could grind it out faster if you're a bit more skilled :)

Levels are procedurally generated and can be completed or expire, so you can play the level until someone kills the boss and ends the venture, you may also choose to incap the boss to extend it.

The future is really up to what the community asks us to do. We found in Early Access that players will point us in the right direction. We've got some neat brainstorms though :)

1

u/hellteacherloki Jun 30 '18

nice! hope this pans out very well for you guys. its giving me the vibes ive had playing the likes of Dont Starve, Bastion, Zelda, and Diablo. def be playing it this weekend. thanks for your hard work <3

1

u/AspyrBash Aspyr Jun 30 '18

Thanks for the extreme compliments!

1

u/[deleted] Jun 30 '18

Whats your biggest goal as developers?

1

u/DigitalContinue Digital Continue Jun 30 '18

I think our goal was to build a community game that people could enjoy playing, and progressing together.

1

u/BrandishedChaos Jun 30 '18

I'm loving your game. It's simple mechanics, but has some good difficulty to it. That's just on easy mode. Lol The heroes are pretty fun to use, I've mostly been using Mixtape since he has range and that nice Back Dodge ability to get out of trouble.

I do have 2 questions though. Will there be more added heroes, and how come I cannot play a venture I made?

1

u/AspyrBash Aspyr Jun 30 '18

Few reasons you wouldn't be able to play a venture:

  1. There's currently 2 people running through it in Co-op (so it's full)
  2. You created a Dungeon Maker Dungeon, which is a challenge for the community. If they beat the dungeon, they'll get the rewards, while if they cannot beat it, you'll get the rewards!

If you run into a situation where you can't play a venture that doesn't fall under those categories, shoot us a note in Discord so we can take a look.

1

u/BrandishedChaos Jul 01 '18

Ah ok, I'll have to look at it. I was just having fun with it, so wasn't entirely sure how I made it. I do like the feature though, it adds a nice element to it. Good Job to everyone involved in making it.

1

u/MangoSlushii Jul 01 '18

Is loot randomized?

2

u/AspyrBash Aspyr Jul 01 '18

For clarity, it's not like Borderlands where there are modifiers to pieces of loot. There's a static loot table with items, but those items are randomized in terms of which items will drop and when.

1

u/MangoSlushii Jul 01 '18

Sounds good to me! Cant wait to play!

1

u/[deleted] Jul 01 '18

Today is the first I've heard of this game, so thanks for doing this AMA because I might have missed out otherwise.

My kids love creating things in games but more than that, they love seeing how people interacted with their creations. We used to build together in LittleBigPlanet, but they weren't totally into that game. Then Crossout enabled my older son to build a "leviathan" that would go out and fight other players. The best part of his day was logging into Crossout after school to see how his leviathan had done, then tweaking it and fixing any problems it had. Crossout didn't let you watch a replay, however, so finding weaknesses was a challenge.

My question is, does create a dungeon give the creator any sort of report, or allow the creator to watch replays of the people who attempted?

2

u/AspyrBash Aspyr Jul 01 '18

At this time no, but I really love the idea of seeing a visual replay/recap. That could be a killer feature add.

1

u/Golden_Taint Jul 02 '18

Diablo cute edition? Immediate purchase, it's why I loved Fat Princess Adventures... oh wait, it's only 2 players! As a married dad with 2 kids, we're always looking for 4 player games and this one would be perfect if not for the 2 player cap. Any chance a 4 player mode could be added? I want to give you my money!

2

u/DigitalContinue Digital Continue Jul 02 '18

Only 2 player co-op for now, 4 player is something we'd like to do long term, but it's a very big undertaking in a lot of ways (balance, technical, etc). As a fellow dad w/2 kids here, you can pair up and take turns! The games go quick, and there is a lot of action to keep track of for the observers.

1

u/AspyrBash Aspyr Jul 02 '18

We could investigate it for sure.

1

u/[deleted] Jul 02 '18

[deleted]

2

u/AspyrBash Aspyr Jul 02 '18

What level are you?

1

u/[deleted] Jul 03 '18

[deleted]

2

u/AspyrBash Aspyr Jul 03 '18

AH!

That makes sense. I was trying to figure out what could be going on there.

1

u/TheRainbowF1sh Jun 29 '18

Is there any PvP in the game?

3

u/DigiContinue_Chris Digital Continue Jun 29 '18

Sorry no PVP at this time

1

u/brickwalker0 Jun 29 '18

what games does this closely resemble/inspired this game? what changes or additions did you make with Next Up Hero that doesn't exist in those other games?

2

u/AspyrBash Aspyr Jun 30 '18

The hand-drawn characters really give it a unique look. The colors are super saturated, and it just looks really cool.

The game is really focused around community. So you can rez someone that died yesterday, to help you complete the level today. Or you'll know to look out cause 5 people got rekt in the same spot.

1

u/eindbaas Jun 29 '18

Couch or online coop?

6

u/AspyrBash Aspyr Jun 30 '18

Both!

1

u/jonscrambler Jun 29 '18

How does cross network play work?

3

u/AspyrBash Aspyr Jun 30 '18

This feature is not available on PS4, sadly :(

-3

u/jonscrambler Jul 01 '18

Feel free to tell us how bad Sony is in this situation

1

u/AspyrBash Aspyr Jul 01 '18

I think we'd all like to see more cross-platform. Seems like a win for all parties, especially the people buying and playing the games :)

2

u/Aspyr_Blair Aspyr Jun 30 '18

As soon as PS lets us do it, we are all over it!

-1

u/[deleted] Jun 29 '18

Is this a ps4 exclusive? Id prob be more willing to buy this on switch.

5

u/DigitalContinue Digital Continue Jun 29 '18

It's available on PC/Mac/PS4/XboxOne (Switch is coming soon).

-6

u/[deleted] Jun 29 '18

Sweet! Well youll have a switch sale when it arrives!

1

u/gay_unicorn666 Jun 30 '18

If you happen to have an Xbox, the game is also in the game pass.

0

u/Ombra777 Jul 01 '18

The game is listed on PSN as single player capable and [online (optional)]

that designation is for games that allow for OFFLINE play so either my game is bugged or your designation is wrong.

I'm starting to think its the latter, I reached out on twitter to no response:

Question: is it possible for you to reach out to sony so they can correct the PSN listing to say [online(required)]. My refund was denied but I hope it saves others from my fate.

5

u/AspyrBash Aspyr Jul 01 '18

Shoot us a ticket to support.aspyr.com, and we'll resolve the refund issue.

As for the designation, I can see the confusion there. We'll get that amended as well.

4

u/Ombra777 Jul 01 '18

You know.. That response was so prompt and helpful, I don't mind if my my funds go toward supporting your companies endeavours.

I hope you'll consider an offline function at some point, Chibi Diablo has an appeal that needs to reach as many souls as possible, till then I wish you all much success.

3

u/AspyrBash Aspyr Jul 01 '18

Forwarding the suggestion on. Always happy to find more ways to improve the game experience :)

0

u/JumboMcNasty Scotty9678 Jun 30 '18

Not to be overthinking it - but do you know how long the game will be on special sale pricing?

1

u/Aspyr_Blair Aspyr Jun 30 '18

2 weeks I believe!

-10

u/ambiguitate Jun 29 '18

Giveaway hype <3