SBB99 Official Launch!
Everything you need to know about our first live SBB99 games.
Hi all, Matt Nass here, and I’m going to break down what’s happening as we bring SBB99 to the live environment. For those of you who haven’t seen it yet, SBB99 is a version of Storybook Brawl where instead of playing against 7 players, you play against 99. We ran a few playtests on our external environment, and the reception was amazing! We managed to fill 100 player lobbies, and people had a blast playing despite some bugs and missing visual pieces. With all that, here’s everything you need to know about our first live SBB99 games.
When
Our plan for SBB99 is to run a test event on Wednesday 6/15 from 12-3pm PT, then our official launch will be on Friday 6/17 from 12-3pm PT! Following that, we will be running another event each week on Friday, but keep an eye out on our Twitter and Discord for the most up-to-date info on timing.
Visual Updates
When we run SBB99 events, they will be the only way to queue into PVP games. We wanted to make sure this was as clear to players as possible, so we added a few key features for this. First, there will be a countdown timer before the event starts to signal when it’s starting, and there will also be a timer during the event for when it ends. Second, the Play button’s text will change to “Play SBB99” during the event.
One of the most common pieces of feedback we got during playtesting was that there was no way to see how many players are left in the lobby. We have added not one, but two ways to see this. First, a “players left” counter will appear at the top of the hero bar on the left of the screen. Second, the hero bar will be scrollable, so you can see the health totals and heroes for every player in the lobby. These two features will help you feel the vastness of SBB99 lobbies.
Stability
One of the biggest challenges with running 99 player games is making sure that there are no lag issues for players. We believe that we’ve solved most of the issues players had during testing, but there is always a chance for unpredicted issues. We’ll be monitoring things closely, and make sure to make adjustments as needed to make the playing experience as smooth as possible.
Enjoy
We hope you enjoy SBB99! Please, give us as much feedback as possible on this feature. Feedback will help inform how often we run these events as well as potential new SBB99 features. Thanks, and good luck taking down the number 1 spot in a giant lobby!
-Matt Nass