Ever since its announcement, multiplayer has been a big focus when it comes to questions from the community. As such, we decided it would be in the best interest for our readers to host an in-depth Q and A with Double Fine so that we could enlighten you all with a better understanding as to what the multiplayer is all about.

With that we invite you to take a look at the below Q and A we hosted with Brad Muir, a designer on the title, and let us know what your thoughts are. As usual, feel free to give us any questions you have here, in the Facebook group, or even our Twitter channel.

So give us an overview of multiplayer, how does it work?

The multiplayer is what we call a “stage battle,” where there’s two giant rock show stages that are set up at opposite ends of a map. It’s a self-contained fight, one army versus one army, and each player controls what we call an “avatar,” who is a leader of one of the three factions of the game. There are three factions, and each faction has its own unique avatar that you control.  The goal is to protect your own stage while trying to destroy the enemy stage.

The way that you do that is by recruiting squads. You collect fans on the map as a resource, and with those fans you’ll be able to recruit more squads. Basically you’re creating an army that is produced out of your stage, then you use simple squad commands to send them around the map. You fight over fan geysers, the resource of the game. Once you control those the fans will flow towards your stage, increasing your resources, allowing you to build a bigger army than your opponent and crush his stage for Brütal Victory.



So once you build up your army, what are you then going to do with them?

Using the orders, you’ll be moving this army across the map with the ultimate goal of getting them in a position where they can attack the enemy’s stage. It takes a lot to take it down, but if you can get it all the way down to zero the enemy stage is destroyed and you win the game. So the ultimate goal is to take down your enemy’s stage, but you also have to be aware of what’s going on at your own stage.

How did you guys balance the factions? Is it like rock paper scissors? Or just an elaborate skin system?

It’s definitely not like a fancy palette swap. We have about ten units per faction, and they’re all unique. Each one has their own specialty. There are different classes of units, like each faction has a basic melee squad that they start with, so they have their equivalents, but where they really differ is with their double teams.

The double teams are one of your main tools on the battlefield.  It’s a special ability for each unit that you can activate by running right up to them with your avatar. So even though each faction has a melee unit at the start of the game, they all have different special abilities. We really tried to push the asymmetry, like the games that really inspired us, they all had a high degree of asymmetry in them so that you really have a different experience when you’re playing the 3 factions. Things get really interesting when you see how certain units from one faction stack up against the units of the other factions.  
 
In terms of rock-paper-scissors there are definitely counters in the game.  If your opponent is recruiting lots of infantry squads you can create a powerful anti-infantry unit, like a fire-breathing Metal Beast or a rat-spewing Ratgut, and have a big advantage on the battlefield.

How does playing through single player effect your abilities in multiplayer? And vice-versa?

As it turns out; when you put a player into a strategic environment as a brawler-style character, it’s pretty complicated, there’s a lot of stuff they have to figure out. So when we went to make the campaign there was a lot of easing the player into that. We start in a familiar place of just being this third person action adventure game where you’re doing some brawling and then you get a car, then there’s a big boss battle, then there’s an open world. it takes a while before we introduce the squad mechanics, then a bit more before we introduce the recruitment mechanics of having the stage.

I think we did a really good job of taking a new player who’s maybe never played a strategy game on the PC before, who’s very much a console player, and just sort of easing them into this new experience.  You’re thinking about your fans as resources and thinking strategically about where you want your army to go, and which units you should be building. I think that it should be so gradual that even players who don’t consider themselves fans of strategy games will have no problem. There’s so much action-oriented gameplay in Brütal, it’s really an action game at its heart.

I would say that learning the stage battle experience, the campaign is important. I’m guessing that there are going to be some really hardcore kids that just jump right in and just start trying to figure it out on their own, but I think that for more casual players going through the campaign is going to be essential.



So how do you feel about the overall multiplayer game play?

I really feel like we’re delivering something that’s unique and different. There’s a high number of units, each one is special. There’s a lot of knowledge and a lot to learn in Brütal Legend, I’m just hoping that because it’s couched in this action framework that it’ll just be fun to mess around and do these things because you’re right down there in the action. I think it will be a game where you can experiment with all the different types of units and have a good time while you’re learning, rather than it feeling like a stuffy experience. It’s pretty complex, but again, if you take a step back and look at the campaign it gradually teaches you these elements, I think you’ll be pretty good at playing stage battles by the time you’re at the end of the campaign.

Is there anything else you’d like to say to the community?

I’m excited for people to get their hands on it!  The rest of the team and I are really looking forward to playing against everyone online.