Marooners’ Rock recently had the pleasure of hearing from the COO of Camex Games, Michael Tseng, about their latest turn-based, hex grid tactics game Tactical Monsters Rumble Arena. Tseng talks about the differences between their last game, Heroes Tactics, the extensive cast of characters, and other unique features to their game. Read on to brush up on your historical knowledge of Camex Games and maybe find a reason or two to check out Tactical Monsters.
Can you tell us a little about yourself and your role working on Tactical Monsters?
Hi, I’m Michael Tseng, in my role as Chief Operating Officer for Camex Games I oversee a wide variety of activities within the company, from game roadmap, to publishing, to business development. I’m not the only one that wears multiple hats, though; all of our team members work in small game teams and do multiple things. This is the only way we found to keep the team efficient.
Who is Camex, and what Camex games would players recognize?
Camex Games is an indie studio completely focused on tactical games. In addition to developing games, we also publish the games we make. Most members of the studio cut their teeth on tactical RPGs and have always loved creating them. We launched Heroes Tactics in 2015. Now we are focused on Tactical Monsters Rumble Arena (a cross platform game currently available on mobile and PC/MAC).
Heroes Tactics was a big hit for you and was also a tactical battler. How does Tactical Monsters Rumble Arena differ from it?
We consider both completely different games. The only similar concept is that both games feature tactics-based gameplay, but otherwise, it’s all new – new monsters, new gameplay elements, new features.
Tactical Monsters has a core focus on PvP, while Heroes Tactics was focused on single player battling. Tactical Monsters is built around being very fast-paced (3-5 minutes per battle), exciting to play, and exciting to watch. Because of the PvP gameplay focus, Tactical Monsters has to be much more tactical and strategic than Heroes Tactics. We’ve created many new elements to help players decide, in real-time, which character they should move, how they should move it, and maybe even suggest what the outcome of the move is. Every move counts and we want players to have that detail of control to help make the best tactical decisions.
With the focus of the game being on a broad mix of characters, what types of characters can players expect to see? Any personal favorites?
Basically monsters in our game come to the “Rumble Arena” from a global mix of cultures, from all timelines, from earth, from space, etc. We took inspiration from just about everything available. There’s a ton of variety in the creatures available – from Franky the Frankenstein, to fantasy monsters like Medusa and Griffin, to folklore-inspired monsters like WuKong and the Mummy, to monsters you’ve never seen before such as Bigfoot and Nobu the ghost samurai. Each has unique abilities such as magic skills, physical skills, ranged skills or even world-ending skills like the nuclear warhead from Dr. Walter’s Mecha Machine.
My personal favorite is WuKong, because he can summon a “shadow” Wukong, which is basically a copy of himself. He can also travel longer distances relative to other characters. However, like every character in the game, there are advantages and disadvantages to using him.
In the game, there is no character that “beats all others”. It’s more about using the characters in combination with others, planning your starting positions, along with timing and strategy in order to win each battle.
What features do you feel help Tactical Monsters stand out in the genre?
Our focus on real-time PvP modes makes the game feel like playing speed-chess on a pro level. The game’s multiplayer focuses on fast-action and deep, yet brief, matches with players around the world. Each battle is quick but thrilling and intense, lasting just a few minutes. This makes the game not only fun to play, but exciting to watch.
Along with PvP, we offer various single-player PvE, modes. We designed the game to ensure players will have earned and unlocked a variety of monsters before jumping into PvP by playing in the solo-combat mode, where you taken on opposing AI teams of five characters with your own team. There is also the Guerilla Warfare mode, where the player battles 10 bosses continuously with their entire roster of monsters, we also call this the endurance mode. There is also the Proving Grounds and also the Rumble Tower mode, where players are stripped of their ranks and compete on a pure tactics and “how clever are you?” level. These PvE modes provide players with alternative ways to get familiar with the game, tune their strategies, and build their decks with powerful monsters.
With the game now on mobile and PC, will Tactical Monsters come to consoles soon? If so, can we expect to see any new features?
We created Tactical Monsters with the motto “Play anytime, play anywhere” –This means that our PvP gameplay will be cross-device, and currently players on Steam Early Access are already battling live players from Google Play. In the future, we may also allow each player’s progress to be synchronized across multiple platforms; so a player can play any time through their day; from their phone while on the bus during their morning commute, on PC when they get to the office, and on their console when they get home.
As for specific additional platforms, we’re planning to bring Tactical Monsters to consoles and the web in 2018, and offer cross-play support then.
Are there any plans for new content or features to be added post-launch? What can fans look forward to in the future once they’ve become active players?
There will be more tactical modes to come, especially PvP modes as well as Friends and Clan war features. And definitely more monsters will be “born”. We have special monsters planned for holidays, so you can expect to see some familiar faces in the coming year.
For more information, check out their website. Tactical Monsters is also in Early Access and Free to Play on Steam, currently. If you are interested, definitely check it out.
