Written by AndrewH

Spacetime Studios recently made news using the announcement the company would be dropping development of a few of their titles within their catalog of games. While these games is going to be remaining active, they simply will not be receiving updates with new content. Within the original announcement regarding all of this, Spacetime Studios hinted at a new game that’s coming and today we finally reach discuss it. This new game is named Call of Champions and it is a MOBA but it isn’t your typical MOBA kind of game.

We actually sat down with Gary Gattis and Cinco Barnes from Spacetime Studios yesterday to speak about Call of Champions and also the recent changes with Spacetime Studios in regards to all their games generally. Company the company goes back to their original name – Spacetime Studios. Back in 2014 the organization chose to change it to Spacetime Games but that just didn’t feel right nor did it represent the organization in a way that they wanted, so it’s now to Spacetime Studios also it does sound much better.

Call of Champions

Call of Champions may be the new game that Spacetime Studios hinted at in January of this year once they made their announcement regarding other games. Back when Pocket Legends was released, Spacetime Studios basically changed the horizon of the items a MMORPG for mobile is and that style has been emulated by others since then. With Call of Champions, the company is attempting to do this again however with the MOBA genre.

Essentially Spacetime Studios disassembled why is up a MOBA game and rebuilt it in the ground up to better fit cellular devices and the style of gameplay that mobile gamers have rather than creating a typical MOBA style game. With that in mind, there are several format alterations in Call of Champions that distinguish it using their company MOBA titles.

First, matches are designed with a 5 minute time limit. This was done for a few reasons but the big the first is to provide a very intense gaming session. You might be wondering how it is possible to have a good MOBA game with matches that are only A few minutes. The answer to this comes in the form of the way the combat actually happens in this game. Call of Champions features an almost brawler-style of combat, filled with combos and other things you would find in a Street Fighter or Mortal Kombat type of game. Teams are also 3v3 instead of 5v5.

The goal, or the way you win a match, is by ‘pushing’ an orb, called the Orb of Death, into the enemy teams base. To push this orb, all you need to do is have people in your team near it and it will use the direction of the opposing team’s base. Obviously there are other methods to win should no teams have the ability to destroy the other’s base.

In total you will see 20 different heroes to choose from at launch but Spacetime Studios plans to have up to 40 in total. Each hero will have their own stats, unique abilities, and even back stories too. There will be five distinct classes these characters can come under, each representing different type of play. For example one character might be a warrior which is much more of a tanking type of class. Here’s where another interesting feature comes into play with Call of Champions. Character customization happens outside from the match. So when you start a match, all your abilities are already unlocked so rather than having to gain levels throughout a match, picking skills to upgrade during a match, and purchasing upgrades and items throughout a match, all of this is done among matches. A player’s hero gains XP and gold, which varies depending on if you win or lose a match and how you did, and can use that to upgrade/customize their hero after a match.

If you are worried there won’t be enough customization available for your unique hero, have no fear! You will see 10 tiers of possible customization and skill upgrades available. So there will be a lot of flexibility in the way you basically design your character as he/she levels up after matches.

Maps

The maps in Call of Champions will consist of a 2 lane design (top and bottom lane) having a center area. The middle area can vary depending on the map as well as the initial map that’ll be coming using the game, the center area is a maze where power-ups can be found. Team bases are in the ends of each map. The reason behind the look can also be in regards to intense gameplay sessions. Gary Gattis and Cinco both described farmville as sort of such as the last 10 minutes of the intense and shut basketball games, that is usually the most exciting area of the entire match. This is what Call of Champions is attempting to supply however in a MOBA setting.

Maps can also get no minion spawning. It is all about player on player combat. However there will be other defensive features for teams to utilize for example towers, beacons/traps, and so forth. Teams will have to use technique to take these down while coping with their opposing team trying to beat the crap out of them.

eSport and Social Goodness

MOBA games are basically the backbone of eSports at this time. While many different types of games appear in eSports, MOBAs are the most popular right now. While Call of Champions isn’t being built being an eSports game, there are plenty of features that’ll be coming using the game that essentially make this perfect for eSports. There’s a full spectator mode available where you can now watch matches as they are being played. So commentators can spectate a match that’s happening in real-time and there are even tools available such as rewind, slow motion, and x4 speed up you can use for play analysis.

All of this, as well as matches, could be broadcasted onto TwitchTV since that is also built right into the game. So even though the game isn’t being built especially for eSports, each of the features are there with this game to become an eSports title.

The Rest

So when will we see Call of Champions land on Android? At this time the game is within a pre-Alpha build. Spacetime Studios is looking to possess a beta going shortly (which we will set of when/if it’s a public beta), and from there the company want to have the sport inside and out your hands after Q2 2015. That’s, obviously, if everything goes smoothly. In terms of pricing, this can be a MOBA so downloading and playing the game is going to be free and our guess is the fact that you will see optional IAPs available, most likely for certain heroes or alternate looks of existing heroes.

We is going to be going hands-on with Call of Champions at GDC 2015 in a few days so expect more coverage to come. If there is anything you want us to check out specifically regarding Call of Champions, let us know in the comments below. Because of Gary Gattis and Cinco Barnes for seated and speaking with us.

Official Website: Call of Champions

Related Article: Spacetime Studios Dropping Development On Some Games