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Heroes of Newerth

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Heroes of Newerth
File:HeroesOfNewerth.jpg
Developer(s)S2 Games
Publisher(s)S2 Games, Garena (Southeast Asia)
Designer(s)James Fielding
Composer(s)Arnej Šećerkadić
EngineK2 Engine
Platform(s)Linux, Mac OS X, Windows
ReleaseMay 12, 2010
Genre(s)Action RTS[1]
Mode(s)Multiplayer

Liam Clark Is In The 300 Club Heroes of Newerth, or "HoN", is a science fantasy Action RTS video game developed and released by S2 Games for Microsoft Windows, Mac OS X and Linux. The game was heavily inspired by the Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne custom map, Defense of the Ancients and is S2 Games' first game title in the Dota genre.[3] The game was released on May 12, 2010.

Gameplay

Heroes of Newerth pits two teams of players against each other: the Legion and the Hellbourne. [4] Both teams are based at opposite sides of a map. The map is split into three continuous 'lanes' (Two in one of the lesser played maps), running from one base to the other. Defensive towers are positioned evenly through each lane, until the lanes terminate at a team's base. Bases are strongly defended with extra defensive towers, and buildings from which units spawn. These units, termed 'creeps' are spawned every thirty seconds, and run along their lane until they meet opposition - which they then attack. Victory is achieved when one of the teams manages to push into the base of the opposing team, and destroys their primary structure; the Hellbourne's 'Sacrificial Shrine', or the Legion's 'Tree of Life'. At any point after fifteen minutes has expired a team can choose to concede defeat - this loses them the game and requires a unanimous team vote to pass.

Players on each team choose one of 71 different heroes, each with various abilities and advantages to form their overall strategy. The players in Heroes of Newerth control a single hero and their development from a top-down perspective, while common features of real time strategy games such as base management and resource collection are removed.[5] Each hero has 4 different abilities which can be learned and upgraded as the hero gains experience and levels up. Experience is gained for killing enemy heroes and creeps. The maximum level a hero can achieve is 25 and the experience required per level gain increases with each new level. The only resource that a player controls is gold which is used for buying various items for his hero. Every hero has small periodic gold income but most of it is gained for killing creeps, enemy heroes and destroying base structures(like defensive towers). An important part is that only the hero which inflicts the final, killing blow gets gold, otherwise they only gain experience, except for in hero kills, where teammates near the kill get gold if they are in proximity. In turn, enemy heroes can terminate their own creeps when they are almost dead to prevent the enemy from placing the killing blow and gaining additional gold and experience. These techniques are called last hitting and denying, both of which are very important early in the game. When a hero dies, he loses a part of his gold and after a certain amount of time, based on their level, respawns at the well located in their team's respective base.

Once started, average game length is around 35–40 minutes[6]. Players on the winning team gain ranking points while the other team loses them. Ranking points are used to place players on the ladder system and it has no influence on game play- players are always on equal footing despite their ranking.

Development

According to Associate Game Designer Alan "Idejder" Cacciamani - as of October 2009, Heroes of Newerth had been in development for "34 months, but the first 13 were spent on engine development. The entirety of assets, including maps, items, heroes, and art were made in 21 months."[7]

Heroes of Newerth is supported on multiple operating systems, including Windows, Linux and Mac OS X. [8]

New features, balance changes and new heroes are regularly introduced with patches.

Changes since DotA

Most game mechanics and many heroes in Heroes of Newerth have a direct correlation from Defense of the Ancients. The additions that differentiate Heroes of Newerth from Defense of the Ancients are features independent from game play; such as tracking of individual statistics, in-game VOIP, GUI-streamlined hero selection (draft mode, etc), game reconnection, match making, player banlists, and chat features.

Several features added via updates include a Hero Compendium (a list of the heroes in the game with detailed statistics about them), the ability to set a "following" trait on a friend which makes the player join/leave the games that a friend joins (similar to the "party" feature in other games), and an in-game ladder system.

Upcoming features include: Post-game MVP awards, team match-making and a map editor.

The game uses S2 Games' proprietary K2 Engine and a client-server model similar to that used in many modern multiplayer games.[9][10]

Beta

Heroes of Newerth was in beta from April 24, 2009 until May 12, 2010. Throughout this time, over 3,000,000 unique accounts were registered.[11] S2 Games used a Facebook fan page and word of mouth to attract players to the game. Many people who had bought one of S2 Games' previous games also received an invitation to the game through their registered email.

On August 22, 2009, the pre-sale of Heroes of Newerth began for members of the closed beta. Players who purchased the game at this time received additional benefits, including name reservation, gold-colored nameplate, gold shield insignia, and an in-game taunt ability.

Open beta testing for Heroes of Newerth began on March 31, 2010, and ran until May 12, 2010, when the game was officially released.

Heroes of Newerth 2.0

S2 Games has announced that Heroes of Newerth 2.0 will be released on December 13, 2010.[12] Features included in the planned update include: casual mode, a new user interface, team matchmaking, an in-game store, and a map editor. The update plans to introduce microtransactions via the in-game store with the use of coins. Coins can be used to buy alternative hero skins, avatars, and brand new announcer voices. The in-game currency can either be purchased with real life currency or earned via Matchmaking games.[13]

Reception

The game has received generally favorable reviews and currently holds a metascore of 76 out of 100.[14] As of June 2010, the number of concurrent users online peaks at about 30,000+ per day. S2 Games CTO Shawn Tooley notes that the game has "sold enough copies to crack the top 100 PC game sales of all time."[15] Laura Baker, the director of marketing for S2 Games, has also said that both the "Mac and Linux clients have done well for us."[16]

Awards and Nominations

Date Awards Category Result
March 11, 2010 12th Annual Independent Games Festival Awards Audience Award Winner[17]
October 25, 2010 MTV Game Awards 2010 Let's Play Together Nominee (result pending) [18]
December 1, 2010 4th Annual Mashable Awards Best Online Game Finalist (voting in progress) [19]

See also

References

  1. ^ "Welcome to the Dota 2 blog". Dota2.com. 2010-11-01. Retrieved 2010-11-02. {{cite web}}: |first= missing |last= (help)
  2. ^ "Heroes of Newerth System Requirements". Heroes of Newerth. Retrieved 2009-09-22.
  3. ^ Nguyen, Thierry (2009-09-01). "Clash of The DOTAs". 1UP.com. Retrieved 2009-11-19.
  4. ^ Marie, Meagan (2010-03-03). "Heroes of Newerth - In Defense of The Ancients". Game Informer. Retrieved 2010-11-19.
  5. ^ "Game Overview". Garena. Retrieved 2010-11-19.
  6. ^ "HoN Stats". Honstats.heroku.com. Retrieved 2010-08-27.
  7. ^ "Ask S2 Games #1 Retrieved on 2009-10-31". Forums.heroesofnewerth.com. Retrieved 2010-08-27.
  8. ^ "S2 Games Announces Heroes of Newerth". IGN.com. 2009-09-02. Retrieved 2010-11-19.
  9. ^ "Heroes of Newerth Launches Worldwide Today". Bluesnews.com. 2010-05-12. Retrieved 2010-11-19.
  10. ^ http://ai.eecs.umich.edu/soar/Classes/494/talks/lecture-16.pdf University of Michigan lecture notes on network programming in games -- Page 7 relevant w/ regards to Peer to Peer disadvantages
  11. ^ Burnes, Andrew (2010-05-12). "Heroes Of Newerth Goes Live". IGN.com. Retrieved 2010-11-19.
  12. ^ Pavlacka, Adam (2010-12-02). "PC Preview - Heroes of Newerth 2.0". WorthPlaying.com. Retrieved 2010-12-03.
  13. ^ McGee, Maxwell (2010-12-03). "Spotlight On - Heroes of Newerth 2.0". GameSpot.com. Retrieved 2010-12-04.
  14. ^ "Heroes of Newerth (pc) reviews at Metacritic.com". Metacritic.com. Retrieved 2010-07-10.
  15. ^ Mark Wedel (2010-06-24). "Kalamazoo-made 'Heroes of Newerth' drawing huge online gaming crowd". Kalamazoo Gazette. Retrieved 2010-07-12.
  16. ^ S2 Games Calls Their HoN Linux Port A Big Success Phoronix, September 21, 2010 (Article by Michael Larabel)
  17. ^ Kietzmann, Ludwig (2010-03-11). "Joystiq live at the IGF/GDC Awards 2010". Joystiq.com. Retrieved 2010-11-05.
  18. ^ "MTV GameAwards 2010". Gameone.de. 2010-10-25. Retrieved 2010-10-26.
  19. ^ "The 4th Annual Mashable Awards". Mashable.com. 2010-12-1. Retrieved 2010-12-1. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= and |date= (help)

External links

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