14 DAY TRIAL // Scrolls, the next project from Mojang, will be a card-based collectible game adapted to the rigors of the Internet space and one of the most interesting aspects is that it will offer competitive multiplayer, allowing gamers to face off against one another.
Jakob Porser, one of the founders of Mojang and the closest that Scrolls has to a leading developer, told Gamasutra during an interview that, “Every time you do that with any game you definitely have balance issues. So it's going to be something that we will have to devote a significant amount of time to.”
Despite the problems with balancing a multiplayer experience that uses as many elements as Scrolls, Porser believes that it’s possible to see the game used in the s-sports arena, as long as it managed to reach a big enough number of players when it launched.
One big concern for the team working on Scrolls is how the community built around Scrolls will behave when the competitive element is introduced.
The core Minecraft players are a tight nigh ground and usually helpful when it comes to new players, but Scrolls might encourage a more cutthroat attitude.
Porser added, “I used to play World of Warcraft; I was into Arena and the PvP scene. After awhile, I actually kind of stopped going to the message boards and the forums, just because you almost got depressed when you got there because there was so much complaining on balance issues.”
The developer believes that the actual mechanics of Scrolls might play a crucial role in how the community develops and says that the open beta stage for the collectable card game will offer even more information on player reaction and will give the team time to tweak the experience.
At the moment Mojang plans to deliver an open beta stage for Scrolls in about six months, if everything goes as planned.