A new character has arrived on the battlefield of the gods in Smite, and the community has received it with gratitude. Baba Yaga is already available in-game under the Mage class and can now be purchased by players with 11,000 Favor or 200 Gems.
This creature from Slavic mythology is said to dwell in the darkness of the woods, changing shape and working cunningly; everyone who deals with it is said to pay a price.
To learn more about the powerful Baba Yaga and the popular Smite In general, we have interviewed Alex Cantatore from Hi-Rez Studios, who has offered us more details about the character, the development of the game and has even given us his opinion on the Nintendo franchises.
You can find the entire interview below:
Smite is a game that thrives on gods and heroes from all mythologies, with so many legends, stories and mythical characters to choose from, what criteria do you follow when it comes to including a new god for the game?
Smite brings together gods and myth legends throughout history. Our goal is always to bring a new experience to Smite with each new god.
Whether the mythology of a god propels us into a new gameplay, represents a new unique personality style, or forces us to reconsider the very idea of what a "God" is in Smite. Look for example at King Arthur and Merlin, we are always wondering: What's next? What can we do to keep players excited to explore our world?
Smite is a quite different MOBA than usual, mainly because it does not use auto-attacks and its third-person perspective that is far from the typical zenith view of other titles in the genre, where did these ideas come from? Why not bet on something more conventional?
Smite evolved from one of Hi-Rez Studios' previous titles, Global Agenda. It started as a game mode for Global Agenda, an experiment to see if we could transition the core gameplay elements of a MOBA to the third-pers on shooting experience that already existed in Global Agenda. It was so much fun playing around with that experiment internally, so much so that we decided to turn the project into its own individual game: Smite.
Doing something conventional isn't usually a great way to get players excited. We try to evolve any genre we play. Smite's perspective makes combat much more engaging and rewarding than zenith perspective point-and-click action. It opened the MOBA genre to a whole new audience of fans of shooting games and MMO players. And best of all, he adapted the MOBA experience to something perfect on consoles.
Today Smite has a roster of more than 100 playable characters. How difficult is it to keep the game balanced so that the experience is as fair as possible?
Balance is, curiously, a matter of perception. If players believe that a god is too powerful, it is important that we do something about it, even if he or she is weak enough in terms of statistics. We, of course, keep a close eye on the statistics. But balancing the feeling of power is possibly more valuable to people who play your game on a daily basis.
When you create a new god and put a skill kit on it, you probably do so with a number of ways to play it in mind, but players often come up with other ways to play. Has a player ever created a combat style that you didn't have in mind?
Sometimes we propel a god in a different direction if its initial release is poorly received; Susano, the Japanese god of the summer storm, was initially conceived as a pressure-oriented, mobile killer, but became a more explosive killer in response to player feedback.
Smite was released 6 years ago, in March 2014 after a long beta phase. Many years later, how do you see the health of the game? Will there be Smite for a while?
Smite is doing fantastically well. Even now in Season 7, we are on our way to our best year yet.
Based on the first discussions about Season 8, which will launch in January 2021, I don't think the end of Smite is in sight.
Let's talk a little about the new god: Baba Yaga. What can you tell us about it? In which position do you think it will fit better within the game?
Baba Yaga is the Forest Witch of Slavic mythology, a master of chaotic magic who can harm, or help, her allies. Their abilities can take many forms and have many effects, and only Baba Yaga knows exactly what they will do.
Baba Yaga lives in the forest, in a magical cabin with chicken feet. This hut follows her across the battlefield of the gods in Smite, acting as a home away from home. We play Baba Yaga as a "Magician" in Smite, we think she will be more suitable for the role of Mid Lane. Some initial tests show that it also has potential for the Support position!
This is a bit personal question, but I'm a big fan of your game, I've been playing it since beta. Therefore, I would like to ask you, what led you to do the Arachne rework? I say this because it is one of the most famous cases and really one of the few, since you have not done many complete character reworks over the years.
Arachne's original kit suffered from a lack of counterattack and interactivity. She set up some traps, threw you up a wall into the traps, and then jumped on your back, silencing you so you couldn't defend yourself.
Overall, over the years, we have taken the direction of giving players more opportunities to read their opponent's actions and react. A recent example would be Zeus's "Detonate" ability; What was once an instantaneous and unavoidable source of damage, now has a small visual signal before activating, allowing players to block damage. That is also an important goal for our Loki rework (in progress).
We are a website specialized in Nintendo. Last year you released Smite for the Nintendo Switch. What difficulties did you encounter when making this port?
It was fantastic working with Nintendo throughout the process. We are delighted to be able to deliver a game of the complexity of Smite, running at 60 FPS, in the palms of players' hands on the Nintendo Switch.
The biggest challenge was undoubtedly fitting the entire game into RAM. SMITE's core mode, Conquest, features 10 unique players and dozens of minions and jungle camps, all fighting at the same time on a large map. Fortunately, our technology team was able to make a number of optimizations to make everything work well on Nintendo Switch, while also improving our performance on other platforms.
Do you have a message you want to send to the Nintendo community encouraging them to play Smite on Nintendo Switch?
If you like a little strategy with action, I honestly think Smite is the most fun game you can play. It is a game in which you can participate in a fun Deathmatch-style Arena game, or experience a competitive Conquest experience.
And if you like mythology, there is no better game than Smite. You can explore many different myths and watch them interact with each other in our unique world.
In the past, we've seen Nintendo promote all kinds of games in Zelda and Mario costumes. Given the opportunity for a collaboration between one of the Hi-Rez Studios games and a Nintendo franchise, which game and which IP would you choose? Is there a Nintendo character you would like to see somehow in Smite?
There are many great Nintendo games for all ages, how do you choose one?
I think Kid Icarus fits easily into Smite by theme. Link's fighting style would also fit Smite well.
But my favorite Nintendo games are the Metroid Prime series, so if it were up to me we'd take Samus Aran to Smite.