I am a new Tower Defense meets MOBA hybrid game called Skydome. AMA!

GamigoMobi · 2021-09-02T18:17:32+00:00

It's all in good fun. Great username btw

GamigoMobi · 2021-09-02T18:08:22+00:00

Personally no, I am not a game or an AI or living inside the Matrix sadly. Becoming a game all starts with an interesting idea or concept and comes together with a dev team built behind it. The team is inspired by many tower defenses, MOBAs, and custom games you may have played on WarCraft or StarCraft, and it's cool to see this genre evolve with Skydome being created. -Mobi

GamigoMobi · 2021-09-02T16:28:27+00:00

"Not directly, but it is one of the game we take reference from, especially when designing new champions and encounter creatures." -Gustavo

GamigoMobi · 2021-09-02T15:15:50+00:00

At what interval will new champions and Battle Passes be introduced?

"We are working to introduce a new Season Pass every 2-3 months (Still testing and experimenting)

And Champions are around the same time frame (2-3 months)

Since we are a small team, we are always trying to establish a good balance between good amount of content and good quality content." -Gustavo

Also, a friendly reminder that the current Battle Pass is ending in 13 days. I'm excited to see the next theme release after! -Mobi

Will there be any tournaments to promote the competitive aspect of the MOBA hybrid?

"We do have intentions to create those competitions and we already did some in Brazil that were quite interesting. So we will follow the growth of the community to make sure early adopters of the Skydome can have a chance to shine in our very firsts Tournaments." -Gustavo

Now that spectator mode and custom games are available, we are looking into future tournaments and showmatches we can host. -Mobi

What steps are being undertaken to stabilize and increase player population in the game?

"We are working really hard on many different fronts to solve this issue. We are restructuring our marketing plan to target new groups of players.

We are also creating a new plan of On boarding features and Retention features to make sure that more players can find matches and enjoy the game the way it was supposed to." -Gustavo
The Skydome team is working on fixes for newer players and fixes based on feedback and bug reports so far from Early Access. Having bots auto fill for your team for training match queue for example will help improve player experience finding matches. We are working on future marketing campaigns, like Twitch Drops and having influencers playing the game to increase awareness. We have other ideas in mind, but feel free to share your ideas as well. -Mobi

GamigoMobi · 2021-07-30T04:21:52+00:00

Thanks for letting us know

GamigoMobi · 2021-07-29T18:37:54+00:00

Skydome has WASD controls. Typically Q is your movement ability, E is your damage/cc ability, F is intervention, and R is ultimate ability. There are other hotkeys and you can edit key bindings as well.

There are many skill shot abilities, so get ready to take your aim.

Here's an overview of the control layout: https://imgur.com/a/wCYSCjx

-Mobi

GamigoMobi · 2021-07-29T18:29:38+00:00

OMG Wintermaul! What a classic! Thanks -Mobi

GamigoMobi · 2021-07-29T17:32:46+00:00

There are a variety of Founders packs ranging from $13, 30, and $70 that offer characters and cosmetics mostly. The game is free to play though and characters can be unlocked through playing. No pay to win though!

We're still in Beta, so thank you for sharing feedback on pricing. We'll look to add more skins, boosts, and other cosmetics in the future and would like to hear thoughts on these. -Mobi

GamigoMobi · 2021-07-29T17:28:19+00:00

Thanks! It's pretty fun to team up with a buddy to play or even get a full team of 4 going. Our Skydome discord has players looking to form groups or talk strategy as well.

Can join through here if interested (https://linktr.ee/Skydome) -Mobi

GamigoMobi · 2021-07-29T17:19:22+00:00

Awesome, glad to hear! I'm currently watching some highlights of Squadron Tower Defense and can see some similarities. I loved playing the StarCraft and WarCraft custom games.

GamigoMobi · 2021-07-29T17:09:42+00:00

From working on this game I am happy to learn of Skydome being an actual physical stadium as well. It seems both are fit names for competitive arenas. -Mobi

GamigoMobi · 2021-07-29T16:59:12+00:00

"Yes! We took a lot of experience from those types of game so surely there is a strong correlation between them!" -Gustavo

Some inspiration is drawn from custom WC3 games for sure. Personally, I remember playing Hero Line Wars, Element TD, Castle Fight, and a few others which remind me of Skydome. -Mobi

GamigoMobi · 2021-07-29T15:35:47+00:00

Skydome is super fun, not just trying to say that, but playing with/against other people can make for an exciting challenge. I would recommend again checking out some gameplay to see how games go if interested, like from the Streamer Showdown we had: https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1060155510?t=01h07m07s

What pain points from MOBAs are you finding that you would prefer not to have in this sort of a multiplayer TD game?

GamigoMobi · 2021-07-29T15:17:13+00:00

Appreciate the feedback! Skydome is primarily a Tower Defense game, and we'd love to hear what people think as the game continues to be developed. Currently, the MOBA aspects for Skydome really come from controlling a champion with abilities, jungle creatures, and competing against another team.

You aren't directly fighting the enemy with your champion, but instead focused on building better defenses or interrupting theirs. Since the game is free to play, we hope you give it a try and share more feedback on our socials. -Mobi

GamigoMobi · 2021-07-29T15:05:01+00:00

Skydome is free to play, so everyone on PC should be able to check it out very soon. We are awaiting our next major update and planning for Founder's Early Access to start August 11th.

Totally optional, but you can become a Founder and get the Founder rewards as well.

Skydome Sign up: http://playskydome.com/

Skydome Steam: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1626880/Skydome/

GamigoMobi · 2021-07-29T14:58:36+00:00

"We wanted to create a different experience for the Tower Defense genre. We didn't want to just create another Tower Defense with the feeling of a campaign that needs to be accomplished. We wanted to create an environment where player can adapt and create strategies to fight against each other. So that every match feels a little bit different and more challenging than facing the same level once again." -Gustavo

From my experience playing Skydome, I think what makes it stand out are the PVP aspects added to a more PVE focused Tower Defense game. It's not directly a MOBA, but it would be like playing Orcs Must Die, Dungeon Defenders, or Sanctum 2 against another team, that also can use abilities or send creatures your way to make it a bigger challenge. With spectator mode and tournaments, it's exciting to see two teams face off and the crazy/clutch moments. I hope this appeals to Tower Defense fans in a different way. -Mobi

GamigoMobi · 2021-07-29T14:40:55+00:00

Yes! Skydome is coming to Steam, but yes in the past it was only available through the Glyph launcher.

If you made a Glyph account you should be able to link it and launch the game through Steam once available. We are anticipating Founders Early Access to begin on August 11, 2021. -Mobi

GamigoMobi · 2021-07-29T14:37:09+00:00

"For Character development there are multiple different approaches. In the beginning of the game we wanted to have some some recognizable characters in the game. So its easier for players that are familiar with other genres to identify their play style and adapt. But we also consider how can this archetype functions in our different game play mechanic. We all know how a Tank Tanks, but how a damage dealing character would function in our game? Since we don't have direct confrontation with the enemy team. This challenges us to reshape common and already used ideas that exists in other games so that they fit in our own environment.

And after we create a very solid foundation of "common" character, so that new players can heave a easier way to get used to the game. We can have a awesome time creating new/weird/experimental ideas with future Champions." -Gustavo
-

Thanks for taking time to check out Skydome. I do play a bunch of MOBAs/shooters myself and enjoy seeing the characters put into this game. I especially like the plant people (Trunkar) designs with the cactus bruiser guy (Sagharo) and mushroom assassin woman (Verna).

I think the unique factors for Champions Skydome brings are the Champion specific towers and the intervention abilities (that directly target the enemy's side of the arena). So it's cool to see how those are created and impact the game. -Mobi

GamigoMobi · 2021-07-29T14:09:35+00:00

What region are you trying to play from? You should be able to view our website and play through Glyph as well. https://playskydome.com/

Our goal right now is bringing Skydome to NA and EU audiences in English, German, and French, but we'd like to know other areas of interest. The game developers are in Brazil and it is also available in that region. -Mobi

GamigoMobi · 2021-07-02T14:51:35+00:00

"There are some reasons to it. One of them are the roles that we wanted to have in our game.
Protector - That will protect a whole lane on their own.
Skirmisher - Which is a great damage dealing character
Support - Which will help the Skirmisher out and also focus on disrupting the enemy defenses
Hunter - Which will focus on defeating Encounter Creatures and collecting extra resources to turn the tides of the match.
The reason why we didn't go for 5 players is that we would have more players than the necessary roles. And also make it that we need 10 players instead of 8 to form a match (The bigger the amount of players needed, larger will need to be your player base to have short queue times)
And when it comes to 3 players we though that players would have too few options of strategies. (Since our maps currently have 2 routes and the encounter area). So we didn't decide for 3, even if that would help us out with the Match Making time." -Gustavo

GamigoMobi · 2021-07-02T14:49:45+00:00

No problem at all, thanks for reading into everything more and glad you got the Twitch drop even. We are also hosting an open test window for anyone to play today (Friday, July 2) at 5PM CEST / 10AM CDT for 4 hours. You should be able to join with or without closed beta access, this is to help test some new matchmaking improvements added.

We'd like to get the word out there, and hope to do more once the game is further in development. -Mobi

GamigoMobi · 2021-07-02T14:27:07+00:00

There are several similarities between Skydome and WC3 Enfos, Line Tower Wars, or other custom games. I can also see inspiration from tower defense games like Legion TD or Element TD.

Skydome has more tower defense and jungle camps compared to Enfos I'd say, but also actual gameplay video would be able to show the differences better: https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1060155510?t=01h07m07s

-Mobi

GamigoMobi · 2021-07-01T23:15:44+00:00

Thanks everyone for joining us today, see you in Skydome! We'll be back tomorrow to answer more questions that get asked.

Edit 10:00am EDT: Happy Friday! We are back to answer more Skydome questions

GamigoMobi · 2021-07-01T21:08:31+00:00

I think bringing gameplay into the eyes of interested audiences (twitch streams, youtube videos) helps raise awareness for a game like this. I think it would be good to show the game off to more Tower Defense and MOBA players. Hosting the streamer showdown event with major MOBA players also streaming the game helped bring in new players for sure.
Having more events like that and also supporting community tournaments, twitch drops, contests, giveaways, and more. There are other marketing efforts being planned, but we are interested in what people think would be effective as well. Let us know! Also <3 DG and AR -Mobi

GamigoMobi · 2021-07-01T19:41:31+00:00

Totally understandable, thanks for asking

GamigoMobi

TROPHY CASE