Marvel Snap is changing the way they are doing updates, so that players get less friction.
Marvel Snap is one of the most critically acclaimed mobile games in recent memory, winning best mobile game at The Game Awards, the D.I.C.E. awards, and the New York Game Awards.
That’s quite the accolades for what amounts to a very simplified, but reportedly addictive card game. Gameplay is similar to poker, but Marvel Snap is designed in such a way that matches usually last about three minutes, no more than four minutes if it even gets there.
Marvel Snap has severely streamlined the depth of the game mechanics down to a very basic level. However, it trades that lost complexity with the immediacy of poker, forcing players to make bold bets that can pay off or flop immediately.
In an official blog post, developer Second Dinner explained the changes they were bringing to the game:
“Starting with our upcoming April patch – currently scheduled for April 18 – we’ll be making weekly changes to cards in the game.
Our patch every four weeks will continue to release on Tuesdays and include card updates as well, but the intervening weeks will each feature changes going live on Thursdays via OTA.”
As you may know if you’ve updated your own smartphone before, OTA means over the air. In Marvel Snap’s case, this means the changes won’t be coming in full patches that players will have to download every time they come in to keep playing.
The OTA hotfixes are smaller in nature, and amount to changing the numbers on the cards. These smaller changes still amount to changing Marvel Snap’s meta. Players are now going to have to be on their toes more frequently to keep up with how the game changes.
Obviously, changing the numbers around is significant enough to allow Second Dinner to buff or nerf cards as they see fit. Much like in fighting games, or other video game types with online communities, the point of these changes is not to balance out the cards for everyone. Instead, it’s to improve the overall game experience. Sometimes that means making the game a little bit easier for newer players. Sometimes that means throwing a wrench out for more advanced players to make things more challenging. These are two completely different kinds of changes.
Second Dinner also hints that they hope to program Marvel Snap so that they can make even more substantial changes OTA. Possibly, they will eventually make all regular updates OTA and only release a full patch out for emergencies or once every few months.
