Last week, Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen for the Nintendo DS made it’s way to video game stores, and with it so did the multiplayer design feature which I was the lead for, Battle For Earth. Following upon the success of Transformers: Battle For The Allspark Agora Games once again collaborated with Vicarious Visions and Activision to bring players an even richer experience than Battle For The Allspark.

Our main goal with Battle For Earth was to bring back the same experience which player’s loved so much on Battle For The Allspark but this time make the player feel as if there was a war going on all around them, right where they live, Earth. Unlike Battle For The Allspark there are multiple regions which are always open for conquest. Conquer the Earth, and your faction wins the war. However, it’s not as easy as it sounds. Each region available for conquest has different difficulties, and each day boasts new downloadable missions. As if that didn’t make it interesting enough, before you can overtake a region which is already under control, you must make it neutral and then gain control of the region.

Battle For Earth doesn’t just aim to be a multiplayer back of the box feature, but rather it was designed for the fans of Battle For The Allspark. When brainstorming ideas for this new feature, we made sure to design not only with new players in mind, but also provide a richer and deeper experience that hardcore fans of Battle For The Allspark were waiting for. Stephen Totilo of Kotaku recently wrote about Battle For Earth (Autobot Fans Currently Crushing Decepticons Fans), and while he was only “able to hold off for about 15 seconds, earning 450 experience points” in a single mission, he was the “784th-most valuable contributor to the Decepticon effort.” He later even suggests that perhaps the “creators of hip-hop games should divide their games into East Coast and West Coast flavors. Or Gran Turismo should be sold in Democrat and Republican editions.”

Naturally, I am very proud of this feature and would like to personally thank Jodi Bernardini, my right hand designer who worked besides me on this project, Eric Torrey one of our many amazing developers at Agora Games, the entire team at Vicarious Visions, and Activision. Not only do I feel that we put together an amazing experience for Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, I also feel that we really listened to what our fans wanted, and creating unique and unforgettable experiences is what this industry is all about.