darkSpyro

Hi,

I am an original skylanders fan that use to post on the forums back in the day, was a big fan of skylanders, yet wanted to come on the forums to see what people, today, think about the franchise. I LOVED skylanders when it first came out, the concept was awesome, and the characters were amazing Giants was an amazing sequel with tons of exciting characters to look forward to. Swap force was alright, I didn't buy all the skylanders though, because it was starting to become a bit much with a new game EVERY year, why buy all the characters if you know there will just be another game in a few months?

My point of this thread is I just want to see if more people disagree, or somewhat agree. Are there any skylander fans out there that think perhaps they shouldn't have made a new game every year, as it is a bit overwhelming to buy so many little toys, and having a new game so soon doesn't allow for more creative thinking sand development to be put into each game to make it special? I feel like the franchise would have better sales today even by making a game every 2 years lets say, that way the games would allow for fans to have more hype.

Well, you don't have to buy all of them and you can have fun with the characters in future games, but most agree 1 and a half is too little as it is. Content gets cut, postgame gets rushed, glitches have to be patched out months later though some stay. The design process doesn't seem to be an issue since there are tons of extra designs that get cut for various reasons, but with less time to polish and experiment with the figures, even that part would only benefit from an extra year.

2 years between games would be too much in my opinion. 1 year and a half could work but a big game like Skylanders always benefits from being released during Fall.

I think 1 year is alright. There is a 4 months gap between a new game and the last toys from the previous games, which I consider quite long since I am a big fan and always look forward to more from the series.

I honestly think maybe the problem isn't that they release a game every year. I think they just need to take a couple more months to develop it, like maybe make each game a holiday release.

I don't think I wouldn't have wanted them to release games this fast but I wouldn't mind if they took their time after Skylanders 6.

It all comes down to how much replayability it will have.
Giants and SWAP Force had the highest replayability in the whole series (mainly thanks to the increased level cap and character's specific Quests in my opinion), Trap Team at least had a lot of new Skylanders but SuperChargers has almost zero replayability if you aren't interested in racing.

Characters help since you don't have to rush and buy them all on sight but there aren't many of them this year...

If their next game has a high replayability factor then I'll be really happy if they'll invest more time creating the following entry.
If not... I hope for another yearly release.

Or they will add a third developer team, so that the next game from VV and TfB come's out in 2018 and 19.

But let's say for a minute they would make the next game a lot more open, like a mix of kid-friendley Diablo and Lego games hub worlds. Furthermore up to 20 story levels, but with a open world to explore, with secrets, riddles, quests, random dungeons, elemental zones, etc. and four new adventure packs with more content.

What's alltogether would be a step in the right direction and with more content the gamers would buy the one or two new Skylanders more, as just one per element and for more it will be mostley to less content. But back on topic: would this be enough to hold the gamers in a good mood for two year's?

Quote: Bifrost

Well, you don't have to buy all of them and you can have fun with the characters in future games, but most agree 1 and a half is too little as it is. Content gets cut, postgame gets rushed, glitches have to be patched out months later though some stay. The design process doesn't seem to be an issue since there are tons of extra designs that get cut for various reasons, but with less time to polish and experiment with the figures, even that part would only benefit from an extra year.

I think the fact that some people DO WANT to collect them all, but want reasonable limits on how many they produce is an important fact that escapes both Activision and some fans. No one had a problem with 30, people had problems with countless reposes and 100+ figures.

I mean it's not a requirement, since OP said it's overwhelming.

I feel the exact opposite (and this is a retread of stuff I've said before).

I think we need more games - but not more figures.

It's real easy for even the most casual of players to have spent over $1k on the franchise since the beginning. Compare to buying a new system at $170-$599.

Now, in addition to already having to had purchased a system (or three - and a compatible mobile device) since the beginning, you have all this cash invested. And, to show for it, you have five console games (six if you count Racing), five 3DS games (one of which is the same as one of the six console games), and four mobile games (one of which doesn't even utilize all the figures I've already bought). So, with this $1k+ investment, you can play 13 different games.

If I only bought 13 games for my 3DS (that cost me $250 - a quarter of the cost I pulled out of my butt above), I would feel I wasn't getting my money's worth on it (I probably have 35-40 retail 3DS games and a ton of downloaded software on it).

Well, that would be what spinoffs are for. Not big, main games introducing a new concept, simple adventures that are fun over innovation. Buuut, as we know, that seems to be just mobile games for now, even of it's been suggested since year one. Would love to,say, have a Skylanders Universe: (something) Island Adventure where you go through some themed levels, no earth shattering plot but still something to tide people over. Maybe even more story-driven spinoffs, like an RPG, but that might be stretching 'tide people over' since you need to take manpower from VV or TFB to follow the lore closely.

In a sense, I kind of agree with the whole spin-off idea. I mean, Skylanders has literally hundreds of characters, and it would be cool to have entire games centered around them to delve more into who they are as a character. And maybe these games could provide bonuses for people who are fans of the Skylanders series.

Like say you have a portal and a Head Rush figure and you're playing Head Rush's video game. You place the figure on the portal, and it gives her a power boost or something like that.

Knowing Activision, it probably will never happen. But regardless of it's likeliness, I think it'd be a cool idea.

They'd give an excuse that parents wouldn't know any better, but that doesn't mean they couldn't be more broad and less likely to bomb spinoffs like a game for Dragons, another for Elves, etc, or of a specific element.

The biggest issue with character-specific spinoffs now is that there's zero incentive for Activision to develop games/levels for the 100+ characters already out there - they're very unlikely to sell more product (used doesn't count) and without an additional source of revenue, there's no incentive. On the flip side, if they made some kind of game going-forward, folks would cry about how all of their old figures do nothing.

I *still* think a simple 8-bit/16-bit styled platformer where each figure unlocks one level would be the best.

Digital Download - no charge to start. Connect a portal to get past the title screen.
Scan in *any* figure and unlock one level, roughly the size of a Super Mario Bros. 1 level, maybe themed with the figure you scanned in. Everyone who scans, say, Series 1 Spyro will get Series 1 Spyro's level. Once you unlock his level, you can play it - either with him or with another character.

It's a quick diversion and sounds great.

Except, now, you have to start out with 100+ levels available. And then you have to playtest all 100+ of those levels with all 100+ figures. And it quickly devolves into a mess. Oh, and when all that is done and you want to release the next new character? You have to design it a level, playtest that level with 101+ figures and playtest your other 100+ levels with the new figure.

It's a hard balance for Activision to determine how to create new content that entices us to buy new figures (that pays for the cost of creating that new content) while not making us feel like our previous purchases are worthless.

Amiibo Tab(or Mario and Friends or whatever that new amiibo game is) for Skylanders wouldn't be half bad, though the problem would be make things not repetitive for so many unique ones.

Personally I think they should have made less toys and more games per series .

30 -50 Skylanders for only 1 PS 3 and one 3DS game is way too little . Part of the fun is using your toys to explore new worlds .

They could have made multiple games focusing on extra bonus hats or <something better ? > behind gates unlocking only for legendaries and for minis and one for Eons Elite .

Hey! It's funny because I used to post on these forums a lot too - Just came to see what has been happening on here as I've been gone two years now. I always thought the problem with the Skylanders series was that it felt rushed. Just not enough time was spent on developing stories, characters, graphics, etc. In the end quality is sacrificed for speed. Y'know, would it really hurt for more time to be spent on each game?

Hmmm... I think this has always been Activision's problem. They had a winning formula, but ultimately their love of gimmicks and yearly releases has destroyed the legacy of the franchise. There's just TOO MANY Skylanders and not enough content!

That is true, they're very much about yearly series after yearly series and little risk taken all the time. And of course,when that hurts a game,they blame it on the devs or the gimmick,not themselves; or outright kill a series over that instead of just leaving it on the backburner.

I stop at Swap Force because there were too many Toys. The amount of toys are overwhelming.
For me I would prefer the option to buy the toys online as a code. Download the code and that character is in the game.
No putting all the toys on the portal.

I did get the Supercharger game since I'm a huge Donkey Kong fan. If I knew the amiibo was getting release later I would have gone with the Playstation game.

Think they should take their time on the next Skylander game. It would be nice if they added worlds that you can buy thru DLC to make the games last longer.

I somewhat stopping at TT for reasons mentioned above . But i am sure if SC goes on a mega sale discount will probably grab it .

The toys are too much of a good thing .

Where is the Gamestop 50% off racing packs listed? I see it in OPs post, but not anywhere else.

I like the fact we get a yearly game.

I have been into videogames my whole life and I have experiencedm the frustration of seeing how much of my favourite franchises get forgotten through time. So now, each time I discover a new franchise which I love (like skylanders) I try to enjoy each of its releases, since who knows when it will end. We may not get a perfect polished game due to the date release pressure, but we still get a good game and that's much much more than getting nothing in two years.

Sure people can argue we would get a better game if time development was longer, but careful with this reasoning, as a shorter period of time between one game and another also gives a shorter reaction time to feedback. Imagine sky 6 was not released until fall of 2017, we would have been stuck with superchargers until then...great, right?

Additionally the fact a game gets a longer development doesn't guarantee the correctness of certain decisions. For instance, even if Superchargers had been in development for more time, I don't think it would have change the fact of the compulsory vehicles sections. More time may have ment more vehicles, more circuits, more revamps, but not changes on the issues that fans have been complaining about.

On the other hand if development time was spent wisely, listening to feedback and creating a game which really mades up for a blank year, then I'll go for it.But I'm not sure that would happen.

There are some things nothing but time can help, angelg. There's contracting, there's licensing, there's all the legalese depending on what they'll use for marketing and whatnot, there's waiting for VAs to record lines BEFORE you can continue certain things, there's proofreading and making sure the lines are right... In general, even if you develop a game well in a short time period, you'll have to wait for so many things that time quickly becomes shorter than ever.

More time on SC probably would've added actual postgame content. The frame work is definately there with the "randomly" generated Arenas and the Bandit Train, so much the latter is unfinished(missing anywhere from sounds to animations) in certain rolls, which someone would've definately gotten around to fixing with more time, I hope. Same applies to a future game with more time - more content, more stuff to do once you're done with the hype train, less things to complain out of sheer boredom. Nobody's arguing to the ends of earth in Rayman and their development cycle is 'once it's done', because Legends is full of content and Raymesis can go hit himself with something.

If more development time to SC would have ment getting online PVP arenas or some sort of randomly generated PVE train I would have wait 6 more months without any doubt. In that case the extra development time would have been spent wisely and it would have been worth

What scares me is what if they used that ET to focus on things which are not that important, like getting more industrial deals to create chase variants or creating more impersonal vehicles? That's what worries me.

^ Hmmm... Yeah, that wouldn't be perfect. Chase variants are fine, but do not mean anything to the casual player.

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Sure people can argue we would get a better game if time development was longer, but careful with this reasoning, as a shorter period of time between one game and another also gives a shorter reaction time to feedback.

We all know perfection takes time . Does not matter if its good food or making a video game. We literally knew that Giants and Trap Team was rushed . We know when short cuts are taken and we dont appreciate the lost potential .

But why all game content must fix 100 % at the release of the game, while a lot of packs and characters for that we need them will release up to a half year or more later? If I remember right SC starts with version 1.2 and after a few updates we have now version 1.5.1. Alltogether small updates, but they could use that for the next games to add later requested content a few month later with the release of the adventure or whatever packs.

Devs have moved on at that point. The content was finished already, but probably just lacked some essential coding and was left for post-release, because it's usually only a handful of people working on patches while everyone else is on vacation or working on another game.