00:12
Hi, everybody. It's been a while. I know we've been kind of quiet. We've been working so hard. We kind of go through these phases where we're more talkative and then phases where we're like so intensely busy that we, I know, kind of go quiet for a while. But the good news is that's really because we have been working so hard. We just got back from consensus in Austin, which was amazing. And I know y'all are very excited to hear about the progress that we're making on the web three side of things. 

00:42
And that's coming soon. Yes, I promise. We're headed into the most jam-packed season for Wildcard that we've had. And getting it right is so incredibly hard. It's really hard, isn't it? 

00:55
It's the most intense thing I've ever done. And I've worked on some amazing, very intense games and I've been doing this. 

01:02
Okay notion I was at karate combat and I'm sitting next to Yoon for Magic Eden. And he goes, can I ask you a personal question? And he goes, you guys don't actually have to do this. And you work this hard. 

01:18
Anyway, it's fine. We can't help ourselves. Katy and I are obsessed with this act of creating and working with a creative team and building amazing entertainment. 

01:27
We want to get it right. We want to get it right. 

01:30
That's why it's so hard. I've worked on amazing games before, but this is the first time I've tried to build an amazing game in Web3. And it is next level, intense and difficult and challenging because there's just so many expectations. And when we make announcements and when we deploy new things, especially onto a blockchain, that stuff is, you know, it's like you send it through a one-way door, you got to get it right. And our version of getting it right is at a higher level. 

01:56
Dude, it means a lot more fits and starts on the way to execution than we've had before. And so, you know, were really excited to talk to you guys about the web three side of things in the coming weeks. We. Well, I was going to tell you all the things that were rolling out, but Paul goes, don't just do that. We have announcement. 

02:15
Announcements. 

02:16
An announcement. So he's giving me this face and he. And so then I was like, okay, fine. I know what you're dying to tell them, which is that between now and the end of the year, I'm gonna. 

02:28
Make all your hopes and dreams come true. Am I allowed to say that? Is it legal to say that? I feel like it's legal to say that at that. Anyway. Your hopes and grates will. Yeah. There is so many expectations, and the reason I feel confident about our ability to say this is you kind of look at the way people discuss web three games on crypto Twitter, and people talk about how the key to getting it right is building a team of crypto native folks who are the ones out there on the front lines who really understand this space. I hear this kind of said a lot that the mistake that other teams make is that they just don't talk to those folks. They announce things, they launch things. 

03:15
Like, yeah, maybe we talk to them and. And we get a lot of different information and it, like, we pay a lot of attention and so we're. It's hard. 

03:28
Yeah, we have this incredible group of advisors now, deep bench, and we are workshopping that plans for what is happening later this year with them relentlessly and listening to all of those, all that feedback so that, like Katy said, so that we truly get it right. It just means so much. 

03:45
So. So we are going to come back to you with the list of announcements. Of announcements. No, we're not just execute, but today is not about that. Today is about showcasing what the game team has done, which is absolutely insane in the last several months. 

04:05
It has to start with the game. It'll always start with the game. Like, I hope that for those of you who have been tuned in and listening to us for two years now, we've been consistent on this. Nothing else matters unless we deliver one of the best games ever. Unless we. Unless. Unless our entire strategy hinges on creating one of the most fun games I've ever played. You've ever played any of us? 

04:29
Couple of milestones that they've done and then let them be excitedly showing us all of the things. So what have they done just in. 

04:38
The last little bit? 

04:39
Yeah, I mean, this last several months has been the most intense, I think I've ever been or we've ever been pushing the team. You know, we have a build that you guys had played for a while that we called the vessel build. It's the one we brought to Dreamhack earlier. And that game had some great. It was. Was a lot of fun, and I was proud of it at the time. But we know that when we're about to announce and launch a big, brand new build like this, that it just has to better in every possible way. Like, there can't be anything that's a step backwards or even a step sideways. Every feature has to be improved. Every aspect of the game needs to be polished and improved. 

05:14
Okay, so let's let them tell us about that. 

05:17
Okay, so. Well, I just want to cover the main things that they've been working on. So we have fundamentally improved combat and the champion feel we have overhauled the core game mode and the match flow and the way scoring works to be a lot more fun, dramatic, exciting to play, and to watch. There's over 30 new summons. I'm really proud of the team that has worked on this to produce this. 

05:38
Shout out to Kara. 

05:39
They have been pushing, like, I mean, there's, like, a new summon that comes online every few days right now, and they all have different behaviors. They look totally different. And the most important thing, and I think what the team is most thrilled to show you guys today is we are debuting and showcasing Wildcard’s, brand new faction, House Malus, and their champion, Ragna. 

06:03
What, a female champion? 

06:06
Yeah, of course. 

06:08
Okay. 

06:09
But we're gonna hand it off to our game team, who is gonna show you everything that we've been working on. We have a couple of different clips and an intro to Ragna, who is just a badass, and then we're gonna go get our asses back to work on the Web3 dreams coming true. Announcement of announcements that will be coming soon. 

06:32
Yes, we'll see you soon. Take it away. Ami. 

06:58
Everybody. I am Ami, your community director for Wildcard. I am so excited to be here with you guys for this absolutely monumental moment of bringing into the game the first champion since we initially announced Wildcard a few years ago now. So before we get into the fireside chat with the team, we put together a great little video for you to get to know the champion a little bit more and also hear from some of the people that brought her to life. So let's roll that video first. 

07:31
Powerful. 

07:34
Intense, brutal. 

07:38
Boss. 

07:40
Fierce. She is an unstoppable force on the battlefield. 

07:46
I mean, can I say badass, or is that not okay? Yeah. 

07:50
Okay. 

07:52
Badass. That lady takes no prisoner. 

07:56
One of the things I love about Ragna is her strength and her power. It really translates from her personality and her frame into her motion as well. I think she's probably one of my favorite characters to animate on Wildcard so far. 

08:09
She's also got a really great sense of presence, her gear. She's like a human flamethrower. Everything she does leaves her opponents engulfed in flames, and it's incredibly satisfying. 

08:21
She's a total badass both in the arena, where she's literally throwing fire, but also in her life outside of Wildcard, which is probably what I love the most. 

08:31
When she is not being a larger than life athlete on the arena floor, she is running her foundation that supports young, talented, emerging female athletes who aspire to be as incredible ish. Her attitude, for sure. 

08:51
She packs a real punch and she's a formidable new champion, and she knows it. 

08:54
My favorite thing about Ragna is the presence of fire, using her abilities consistently and just keeping everything ignited and to power up her ultimate, just dashing around and seeing everything on fire. 

09:06
For Ragna, you can go really fast, burn down that opponent, and apply overwhelming pressure right out of the gate. That's what she's good at. 

09:27
All right, so that's just a little taste. But we are here to watch altogether, all 143 of us, the world premiere of Ragna's reveal trailer. So let's do that and we'll get back to the team. All right, so let me see your fire gifts. Fire emojis. Let me see your hype. That is Ragna. She is amazing. Literally sets the world of Wildcard on fire. So we're so excited to hear more about her first, to celebrate, and also to pay a little homage here to the community who's been so instrumental in kind of like getting ready for this big reveal. We're going to do a giveaway here in the chat. So as a thank you for being here and being here live to see this moment. 

11:22
So to participate in that giveaway, if you weren't in the first one in Discord, this is for Discord only. If you're watching us somewhere else, go over to the discord now. There's a channel called giveaways. It's real simple. Little giveaway bot. You can pop over there, hit the button as soon as it goes up. We're giving away 30 fan on fire Wildcard swag pins. I mean, we had to use the fire one, right? So head on over there. You can still hear us on stage. While that's going, press the button so that you're included. And we're going to choose 30 winners. Those will be given out after the event later today, so hang tight. And, yeah, we'll celebrate with some fire pins, but that's going to run for about three minutes. 

12:09
While that's running, I want to share with you guys some absolutely incredible, Malus-inspired fan art that the community submitted. So we've been doing champion, sorry. We've been doing summon reveals over the past couple weeks or so introducing, folks. So we got some fan art of existing summons, we got some theoretical fan-made summons, some really fun stuff. So we're going to roll those while this giveaway runs. Thanks, Taylor. Alright, so congratulations to all the winners. You all will receive a fan on fire Wildcard swag pin. If this is your first one, Wildcard Swag is a digital collectible. There's a whole bunch of them. I think there's over 30 of them now that you can collect. And they all show up on your wild file, which you can also claim for free. 

15:21
It's kind of your identity legacy in the Wildcard universe. So if this is your first pin, congratulations. Welcome to the Wildcard ecosystem. If it's adding to your collection, awesome. Thank you for being here. Okay, so we're gonna get started on this fireside the fire I est fireside chat with the team. So before we dive in, let me introduce the folks that we have here with us today. You've been with us for a while. There might be some familiar faces, maybe some new, but I am here with Chris Moffat, who is our art director, Dan Heard, who is our game director, and then Leah Schultz, who is on our narrative and media team. So let's kick off this discussion with just a little question. 

16:11
So obviously, you know, based on the trailer and the video with the team, Ragna is a game changer in more ways than one. So, Dan, can you give us kind of a little bit of insight on how exactly Ragna is changing the game of Wildcard? 

16:30
Well, thanks for asking, Ami. I absolutely can do that. So in Wildcard, we have multiple champions and they're all aligned with a house, right? So we have Bulgar with Lubbab and we have locke with Kronos. So up to now, we've had basically an easy to get into champ who is all about hitting things and summoning giant creatures onto the battlefield. That's great. That's our brawler style of gameplay. We also have a more controlling style of gameplay. So Locke gets in the battlefield slowing things, but it's actually quite fragile. You don't want to get into the mix, you don't want to be in a melee because you're not highly survivable there. So really it's about control and value over time. So that's worked well and we've had a lot of playtests around that. 

17:15
But actually in the short term, we've always had a plan of getting to a three house initial meta, which allows us to kind of see how the game matures and see how people build decks. Remember, you can mix and match summons from any house, so you can go single house and really emphasize a house's qualities, or you can mix and match to your heart's content. So now that we've brought the Malus into the fold, this play style is very different. So it's all about pressure and applying that pressure onto your opponent and kind of casually, when we talk about it internally, it's really like no plan b, right? So plan a is overwhelm your opponent with fire and fast summons. There's even summons that ignore basic combat and go straight for the goalie. So that puts another type of pressure on your opponent. 

18:11
And usually when things get tied up, nope, they zoom on past. And so Ragna is kind of an embodiment of all of that. She's kind of in the middle. She's not quite as durable as Bolgar, but she still hits hard, and she's very agile on the other side. And many of her moves apply fire, and fire is kind of a withering sort of effect that sticks around on a summon for a little bit and does little ticks of damage. It also happens to be how she charges up her ultimate, which is enormous blast of fire. And so really, the playstyle that we're trying to encourage here is something that's fast moving, that leverages summons, that apply that pressure, and hopefully you overwhelm your opponent and score that goal before they even know what hit. 

18:56
So this has kind of been a missing piece of our initial meta, and now we're really excited. And the design team has done, Brad and Steven have done an amazing job of tweaking and building up her abilities to kind of complement what's happening with these summons, as well as tweaking the summons themselves. So that way they carry that theme forward. And then as you build your decks, you can see how much of that raw aggression do you want? And there are some awesome combos we've already been playing with internally. So I'm very excited to see the community start messing around with those and see kind of what are the new meta decks out there. So, yeah, it's a very exciting moment for us. We feel now there's going to be an explosion of additional play styles. 

19:44
And with the addition of Ragna, I think everyone's going to find something they like in the short term. And then, of course, we have plans that go way beyond that for adding even more variety to the mix. So, yeah, we're all pumped, and we're happy to see what you think. 

19:59
Awesome. And personally, just like from being in almost 100 community playtests, I'm so excited. I've seen just about every meta you can build out of two champions. So I am so excited to see what you guys do with three and all the new summons available. But of course, with those new mechanics and everything that comes with bringing those into the game, those also have to be, it's a video game. Those also have to be visually represented. And personally, I've looked through the design documents and stuff and there's a lot of thought put into how those abilities are represented visually on the character in the arena. So I want to throw it over to Chris Moffat who can talk more about just kind of like how that the visual aspects of Ragna came together. 

20:47
Yeah. 

20:47
Thanks, Ami. So, you know, when we first started thinking about Ragna, you know, we had her kind of in a proxy state for a while just so that design could really kind of figure out her ability set. And, you know, one of the things that came out of her kit was that she, they really wanted her to be able to set things on fire with almost everything she did. So she's basically a walking flamethrower. So when we started kind of looking at designs for her, we wanted to try to make sure she really kind of encapsulated this athletic vibe. So we wanted her to be really powerful looking and strong and have this kind of sporty kind of gear. And so we wanted to make sure she had, you know, comfortable shoes for running around. 

21:37
And so we give her, you know, give her these cleats and just kind of really thought about her equipment as just kind of this extension of her abilities, but not to the point where she was overly bulky or weighed down by her gear. So, so, you know, as were, as we're starting to look at her kit, you know, she has this dash ability. We want to be able to set things on fire. So when she dashes, she puts her hands forward. So we wanted to build that into her forearm gauntlets so that she has these flames shooting out. And then on her back she's got a pack that get, you know, that gives her these, this extra boost. And also when she does a jump or a double jump, we want to make sure she gets off the ground quickly. 

22:17
So, you know, we added these boosters to her boots or to, you know, to her legs. On her lower leg, she has these little boosters. And so, and then even with like a flying kick, she comes down and does this flying kick and sets everything on fire. So really just want to make sure she could just deal out fire in all these different ways. And, of course, her ultimate would use these flamethrowers that are built into her forearm, into her gauntlets that would be kind of tucked away and then kind of revealed when she goes into that ultimate mode. So. So, yeah, that was really a big part of it, was just trying to find ways to incorporate all those different mechanics and, you know, show that she's infused with this sort of, like, fire, magic, this power that's built into all that. 

23:03
So, yeah, that's. And then. And then also with her sidekick. Her sidekick can also enhances her fire attacks and abilities. 

23:12
So, yeah, synergy, it's, like, not necess. They're not, like, independent. They're synergistic, right? 

23:17
That's right. 

23:18
Yeah, yeah, it's. It's so cool. So, yeah, the. The reason I love that so much is that, like, and on the champions, rarely is there something just to, like, look cool. Like, it's all functional. Like, every piece of her suit is there for a reason. And it, like, adds to her gameplay, which I think is so great. And speaking of things being very intentional, I don't know how many people know this or kind of, like, dug into the season war season one lore of Wildcard, but now Wildcard, the game. The game that you're playing when you hop into the arena and you're going one v one is a game that is actually played in a universe, like a living, kind of, like, futuristic Sci-Fi universe that exists outside of the Wildcard universe. 

24:09
So there's relationships, there's royalty, there's planets, there's travel, all of these things. It's a living universe that Wildcard exists within. So that means that the champions also have lives outside of Wildcard, and Ragna is no exception. So that's why we brought Leah in, because, Leah, I'd love for you to just touch on kind of like, the development of Ragna as a living person in this Wildcard universe. 

24:36
Yeah, for sure. So the narrative team, they worked pretty hard to ideate on what Ragna's life and culture may look like, especially because this Wildcard universe is set thousands of years in the future. So Ragna really embodies a rich, blended heritage carried forward through so many generations, which really makes her this truly extraordinary and unique character. And she also really embodies the culture of house Malus itself, where standing out and being true to yourself is kind of everything. So in a house that values individualism, and autonomy. Ragna is no exception. She is so much more than a champion. I'd be remiss to not touch on her incredible life outside of the arena, because not only is she a powerhouse in the sport of Wildcard, she's a great baker, she's a traveler. She comes with stories from across the stars. She's a fashionista. 

25:30
She's always setting trends in the universe, and she's also a pretty successful business mogul. So off the battlefield, she's advising and nurturing young talent and setting up training centers for aspiring Wildcard players who want to be like her one day. So I'm really excited for y'all to be able to experience playing Ragna and just getting to see what she's all about. 

25:52
And for anyone in our community who loves lore like we do, we'll find some more opportunities to get you guys even, you know, more acquainted with Ragna and kind of all those things that Leah's just touching on kind of lightly. Yeah. She really is such a. Such an interesting character. So clearly, from all of this, we know that the Wildcard universe, the Wildcard game, is never going to be the same. Now that Ragna is here, I would love to open it up for community questions. So if I'm watching Discord chat, although if anyone on the community team is watching in YouTube or on Twitter and you see questions there, please let me know. But I'm watching Discord chat right now. 

26:36
So for anyone in the Discord chat, if you have questions for the team about Ragna, about the game of Wildcard, about the meta, any of that, let me know and I will pose it to them. I'll kick us off with just some questions of my own. Actually, you know what? I saw a comment. It wasn't necessarily a comment, but I made a question. It was a comment. But Peyton in chat said when you were Dan describing Ragna's kind of, like, play style and stuff, that it sounded like marine rush in Starcraft two. Does that mean anything to you? 

27:11
It'd be like the Zergs. Right? And the zurgling rush. So, you know, that's actually one of the references that we use when we think of that sort of playstyle, right. That's a very entrenched, fun, dynamic playstyle. And so they kind of embody that idea of no plan b as well. And so our game operates a lot differently. But some of those core conceits are there. There are some costs for summons go across the scale, but generally, you'll be able to get things onto the battlefield quickly and apply that pressure initially. So, yeah, everyone's familiar, or a lot of people familiar with the idea of the Zerg swarm. That's actually a type of deck you can kind of make even across houses. So it's not just a Malus only property, but you might find some Malus summons that are especially good in those roles. 

28:03
So I personally have made a loadout that really tries to emphasize the rush concept, but then I have a few spicy picks in there that help distract other summons. So that's one of the key pieces is that when you do a rush type of gameplay, the individual components are always usually fragile. Well, there are certain combinations of summons you can do where they're not getting the attention, so you're really leveraging all the additional damage that they bring onto the battlefield, but if they get hit, you know, they're out of it. So there are a lot of ways to distract the other summons and kind of play to those strengths. And so, again, it's a very robust, and the addition of Malus really opens up deck building all the more. And so I'm very excited to see what comes out of that. 

28:47
Yeah, definitely. Me too. Me too. So, in developing a champion, there's a lot that, you know, in the. Especially, you know, in the beginning kind of design and planning stages, a lot that gets, like, suggested or, like, started, and then in practice, maybe it gets thrown out later. So, question for the whole team, like, design side, art side, narrative side, were there any ideas for Ragna that didn't make it into the final iteration, and what were those? 

29:21
I can talk to this if anyone else doesn't. 

29:26
Yeah, do it. 

29:28
Okay, so one of the early concepts for Ragna, this is a funny one, was she actually had two for her sidekick. Currently, we have a fire cat named singe, but previously, she had a couple of Dobermans that followed her around and kind of emphasized her abilities in various ways. So cool on paper, right? That's always the thing. Like, hey, how does this look like design wise on paper? So it's super cool. You get in the game, and the strangest thing happens. So those dogs are very loyal, and they always want to be by your side, and so they're. They're running to kind of keep up with you. But what it turns out is there's so much pressure on the battlefield, and there's so much combat going on when your own dogs are running towards you. A lot of playtesters, us included, are like. 

30:16
And we're trying to punch them and try and get them out. Of the way, like, oh, no, I'm under attack. No, they're good boys. They're trying to get behind you, but we can never solve that. That issue. Like, they just look like summons running straight at you because you're very used to things coming this direction, and so they're trying to catch up to you, and they just want to be good dogs, and then you're trying to punch them. And so where we landed with singe, I think, is a much more evolved take on that. That really removes that question from the equation and further amps up, I think, the core of her, like, fiery and damage dealing capabilities. So it's a better fit overall. But that was kind of a funny change that really came out of playtesting. 

30:54
Yeah. Awesome. What about on the art side, moff? Was there any. Were there any concepts that got tossed out before they made it live? 

31:03
No, I think. Well, so with. And with those dogs, I think we, you know, we'll definitely find a use for them and maybe a future summon or a future champion and use them in a different way. But Ragna went through, you know, a few different iterations. I mean, before she had the flamethrowers as her primary, you know, weapon, she. We had some. Some versions of her with these huge gauntlets, and it just didn't make sense and didn't. Didn't fit the flamethrower kind of kit that she was, that she had kind of figured out for the design team. So. So, yeah, we had a lot of different iterations like that, but I'm trying to think if there were some other things. I think at one point, we had. She had Ray ban sunglasses, and we. 

31:49
I remember the sunglasses. There was, like, different versions, and were all kind of, like, voting on which glasses we liked. 

31:54
Some people hated the aviators. 

31:55
Yeah, yeah. 

31:57
She had aviators, but we kind of. 

31:59
Gave her something that was more. More athletic. It was kind of a mix of, like, welders glasses and sort of, like, basketball, you know, eyewear or something like that. But, yeah, they have to. Where they ended up. 

32:12
I wonder if I can dig that up for the community. So you guys can see ragna and aviators, the glasses that did not. That were not to be. Yeah, and that's. That's a really fun part of the process, is, like, I mean, Ragna is the first time that I've experienced that, like, the kind of iterative, like, oh, like, here's some different, like, costume layouts. Here's some different glasses styles. Here's some different, like, hairstyles and really just like, you know, we have this whole team, but even on things, like, I'm not on the art team, but I still get to, like, weigh in on the art questions. And same with design. We're all involved in the playtesting and, like, deciding what's fun and what needs work and all this. And, yeah, it's. It's very cool to be involved in that process. 

32:59
Okay, we do have a question in from the community. So c strife is wondering if you can talk more about Ragna's ultimate ability and some of the thoughts that went into creating that ultimate ability. 

33:11
Sure. Yeah. So I mentioned before, our very talented design team, Brad and Steven, kind of worked up an initial kit for Ragna, and we knew themes that we wanted to hit on that. And so on paper, there are a lot of different abilities, and one of the kind of themes that cropped up during that, but everything's up for testing, and then you put it in front of people and you see how that plays out and whether or not it's really expressing what it is expressed in the game. And so one of the core kind of sub themes of Ragna was kind of this idea of trading health for additional damage, a little bit of risk and reward in the way that she deals damage. 

33:50
So that flamethrower concept that we talked about earlier, but also in her ultimate initially was targeted to just do a bunch of damage overall, but then actually take a hit. Ragna would take a hit to her own health and go down to a very low level of health once. So imagine just exhausting yourself applying all that flame onto the battlefield. So after testing, we ended up really feeling like, you know what? The health reduction didn't matter in that case. And if we rewind a little bit, a few steps previously, one of the higher level guidance beacons that we use for a champion is they should all feel overpowered. Op, you should look at somebody using locke or bulgar or ragna and be like, hey, they got the op champ. And then they're looking at you and they're saying, hey, you got the op champ. 

34:43
I need to go play that champion. This is where we get to play and where we get to put really push the envelope in terms of power level or fun or strength and mechanic. So we are constantly pushing based on feedback, we decided, you know, the health trade off stuff isn't that great. I kind of like it still a little on the flamethrower, but that had other issues, but still, it's like, well, is it just more fun to charge up your battery, essentially, and let loose with this huge flame wave? Absolutely. It's fun. So you already kind of jump through hoops by setting things on fire to charge your ultimate meter. So once it's full, why not cut loose? And we found we didn't really need that trade off there. 

35:25
So even the ultimate's kind of gone on a journey to get to where it is today, and then we're excited to see how people handle that, and I'm sure we'll get a lot more feedback on that. But, yeah, that's how that came into being and kind of some of the initial thoughts about it. 

35:38
Very cool. Very cool. Okay, I'm gonna throw it to kind of a fun one, like, personal preference kind of thing. We've been talking a lot about Ragna. Obviously, Ragna is a big deal, but there's been a lot of new summons that have come in alongside Ragna. You have all seen those kind of floating around on our social media. If you haven't, go check it out. But, moff, we did work and chill with you a while back, where you're actually working one of the Malus summons. I want to ask you, out of the new summons that have been revealed, what was your favorite to work on artistically and why? 

36:19
I think the punks probably were the most fun. We worked with a really talented concept artist, Benicius Muniz. He actually might even be in the channel with us, but he just did an awesome job realizing those guys. And. And then, yeah, there's just so much personality in that and in all their face. They have very unique faces and just kind of configurations of their gear, but there's just so much we can do with them. They're not just one offs. They're, you know, sometimes they're pilots. Sometimes they're. They may be in a machine of some sort. They may be grouped together, you know, working together to kind of lift this, you know, massive battering ram, or, you know, there's so many fun things that we can do with them. And, yeah, they've just. They. It's just a lot of. 

37:13
A lot of personality that we've been able to inject into the. Into house Malus with them, so really love those guys, even though they have gotten into some trouble with me, with. 

37:22
Some of the reveals they've got. They've gotten into some. Some trouble with the community, too, huh? 

37:29
Yeah. 

37:30
The only. The only summons with a Twitter account. 

37:33
That's right. 

37:35
Viniciss. Is in chat and says hello. Yes. So and maybe this is, like, a good place to ask this. Leah, no pressure. Do you want to reveal anything about, like, what's going to happen with the punks now today? Do they have to be called to the arena and off of Twitter? 

37:55
Yeah, I think it's time for the punks to lose their. Their desk job running their. Their Twitter, their ads, and I think it's time for them to lose that job and join Ragna on the battlefield. Dan, do you want to discuss their gameplay a little bit? 

38:11
Sure. Yeah. So they're a really fun, kind of low cost summon. They exist basically to cause mayhem, as you've seen maybe in our meta a little bit here. Another role that we've given them is the ability to pilot other vehicles and things like that. So what you'll notice is some of the summons have punks doing something or piloting something, and then when that something generally breaks, maybe their engineering's not so good. It's all, I said, no plan B. Right. So they're going for it. If that doesn't work out, didn't really have the durability to keep lasting. Right. What we tend to do is when that thing breaks, they pop out and they continue the fight. So there's several summons that there's, like a log carrying summon where it's got big old bomb on it. 

38:55
When it explodes, they pop out and they're kind of disoriented, but then they start fighting. So they're really. They throw themselves in head first. They're there to get the job done, and they're not going to let silly things like mechanical explosions stop them. So that's how we're using them. 

39:11
They give me, like, orc fives. Like Warhammer. 

39:14
Orc five s. Yeah, very kind of Warhammer. Yeah. Warhammer 40K. Slap it together. Make it work. We're gonna get there, right? 

39:23
Keep going. There is only warm. Yeah. Yeah. That's awesome. Okay. I did see a question come in. Okay, so circling back to Ragna, we'll come back to the summons. Luke is asking, did. I hope this isn't revealing anything I'm not supposed to. Multiple dashes on Ragna. Did that feel pretty balanced? Was that. 

39:50
I love the way that Luke wrote that question, because it's kind of wearing his opinion on his sleeve, maybe, but, yeah. So Ragna has multiple dashes, doesn't she? And with each dash, she applies a line of fire and can catch things on fire. That fire doesn't last a super long time. It gives you a few ticks of damage. Crucially, it helps her build up her. Her ultimate. So every tick of fire damage is causing that meter to go up and up. So you kind of always want to be withering these big groups. And so Ragna's dash kit is around. It doesn't knock you around like Bulgars. It doesn't slow you down like locks. It's meant to kind of apply and wither slowly over time. It's not enough to get the job done by itself. Now, to Luke's question. Well, she's zipping around. 

40:38
She's got a lot of charges. Well, this game is, in many ways, even pre early access. So what we're trying to do is get a read. We have a concept, which is there's a certain level of agility that we want her to feature on the battlefield. We want her to be hard to tack down. We want that sort of feeling to feel different than Bulgar. Right. I can't imagine Bulgar zipping around like that. So, again, we want each champion a very distinct personality. Is the current number of dashes the perfect number? Probably not. Right? And we're going to figure that out together, and we're going to keep playing and tweaking, dash distance and dash timings, and cool down and refresh and all those things. That's where we're starting, though. We're starting by trying to say a statement and sitting with that for a while. 

41:24
So something I talk to the designers about a lot, and they're really good about upholding this is we listen for feedback, but we try not to knee jerk and change it immediately because we had a negative experience or we got some negative feedback on it. What we try and do is sit with that over time and look for patterns. When we start seeing a pattern, hey, this is really hard to interact with. See, that would be something that I'd really perk my ears up to, is it's difficult to interact, then that's something. That's the type of thing that we take a look at. We're like, okay, let's dial that back a little bit, or let's shift how it works. 

41:59
So there's so many ways to solve problems, and I'm glad you asked that question, because it really points to where she is and where actually a lot of elements of the game are. Inner development cycle, they're here. We've got great testers like you and other people putting in their time to playtest. But the wider that audience gets, the more feedback we're going to be getting in and we start really clearly seeing some of these patterns. So we do our best upfront and then we play with that for a while. We tweak it. We tweak it, but generally just realize that she and her powers are just an early point in her journey overall to becoming kind of a final, really mature, super solid champion. 

42:40
Yeah. Now I'll say it here, Brad. Brad, who was our lead designer, put in the chat to mention that also, the distance is shorter than the other champions. So Ragna's dash, she has multiple, but it's a shorter distance than the other champions. Do you want to elaborate on that before I move on from that? 

43:02
No, I mean, so you can see some of the levers that Brad's pointing out. There's. There's a lot of things we can change. That goes back to my earlier point. How much fire does it do? How does it interact with things like slow? How many charges does she get? What is the distance overall of the dash? So those are all key pieces and they're parts of the puzzle. They're not. Just because the distances are different doesn't mean they're equal in gameplay. That's what us playing the game is all about. There's all these intangibles that become clear as we play. So, yeah, you can tell a lot of the different levers that are there, and they're all up for debate as we continue to play. Test her and get her in front of people. 

43:41
So your opinions truly do matter and we do hear them, and they're going to help inform the direction we take with Ragna. 

43:50
Definitely. So we're coming up on the end of our time today. I'll keep an eye out if there's any last questions. I do see someone typing right now, so I'll see if there's a last one we can fit in here. I will say for those in the audience that are very excited about getting into some more details about Ragna, her performance, her mechanics, and also what else is different in the next build of the game, which has Ragna and these new summons in it, we're going to be creating opportunities within the community pretty soon for you to get more of those details from even more folks on the online, on the design team, including Brad. So stay tuned for that. But, yeah, we can't wait to get her into your hands. 

44:35
We've been playtesting her with a smaller group and then the internal team, but, yeah, can't wait for you to try her out. So for before we head out, Dan Leah, or Moffitt. I always, like, stumble trying to decide if I'm going to call you Chris or if I'm going to call you Moffitt. Sorry. Anyway, are there any parting words, any last words about Ragna or the next chapter of Wildcard that you want to share with the community? 

45:03
I just can't wait for people to get a chance to play her. Yeah, you're gonna love her. She's a blast. 

45:10
He's a boss. 

45:14
We're just really thrilled to have these moments to connect with everyone, see what we've been up to. The team's been hard at work. Like Paul said, at the very beginning, the game's leveled up a ton and we're really focused on polish, polish, getting in that other content to make kind of the most robust, fun deck building, game playing experience that we can. Ragna is a key piece of that. And so it's been a long time coming, and we're very excited to get her slotted in where she needs to be into the Wildcard meta. And so thanks just from me and from the rest of the team for showing up and watching us and kind of listening to us kind of talk through our thoughts about this stuff. 

45:52
You're an integral part of the process, and this is very meaningful for us and really helps inform what parts we want to emphasize and how we want to kind of build up Wildcard moving forward. So thank you. 

46:06
Awesome. Well, thank you, Dan, Leah, and Moffat, for being on stage with me today and sharing more with the community about this really special new champion. Thank you to everyone in the audience today, no matter what platform you're on for joining us live for this first look, I think her trailer will go up on social media pretty soon, so you can watch it as many times as you want. But, yeah, we can't do this without you. Building alongside the community is the best thing in the world. So thank you for being a part of it. And yeah, as everyone has said here, more to come soon. So bye for now. It. 

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