‘Dragon Front’ Brings Cross-Platform CCG Action to Facebook Gameroom—More Exciting Updates on the Way

Posted by Oculus VR

Sep 19, 2017

We’re a week away from the anniversary of Dragon Front’s first closed beta, making it one of the longest running VR games with the number of regular updates. Today, we’re excited to share that this groundbreaking title is now available on Gameroom, Facebook’s new destination for playing PC games.

This is the first ever non-VR version of the game, and cross-platform play is fully enabled. That means you’ll be able to seamlessly match with other players across Gameroom, Rift, and Gear VR. Additionally, Dragon Front is the first Gameroom title built using Unreal Engine 4.

Thanks to existing versions of the game on both Rift and Gear VR, it’s highly scalable in nature. The Gameroom version will play on most PCs while still being able to take advantage of the increased horsepower behind high-end gaming machines.

Your level and stats carry over from one platform to another, so people who have been playing on Gear VR or Rift will be able to merge their accounts on Gameroom to continue their strategic gameplay on the go.

This is just the latest development in a robust content release plan scheduled through 2017 for Dragon Front. In the coming months, fans can look forward to Dual-Faction Champions, a brand-new faction, and more.

To celebrate Dragon Front’s Gameroom launch and learn more about the developer’s future plans, we sat down with High Voltage Chief Creative Officer Eric Nofsinger for the inside scoop.

Congratulations on the upcoming anniversary! How has Dragon Front changed since the beta days?

Eric Nofsinger: Dragon Front has evolved with the addition of the three DLC factions: Silence, Essence, and Delirium. We added Touch controls and support for the new Gear VR Controller. Personally, I love playing VR with the simple controllers, both on the Rift and the Gear. It’s a thinking game, not a twitch game, and caters just as well to the Rift’s Remote and the Gear VR Controller, as the XBoxOne or Touch controllers. We want to support everyone’s favorite way to play—and now we’re excited to reach more people by opening up the game on PC.

As the first CCG built exclusively for VR, Dragon Front broke new ground. Were you inspired by games like Magic: The Gathering? How do you see the world of tabletop gaming in relation to VR?

EN: MTG and Hearthstone for sure, with many others. We just wanted to make a different experience, and that’s why we added the 4x4 grid to the equation. It turns Magic into a game of chess that’s more about positioning than card text. CCG and board game purists differ in opinion on many things, but both genres have the ability to create fiercely competitive social atmospheres, which carries a lot of the fun-factor load for many players. VR’s ability to simulate, if not recreate, that feeling of IRL social competition makes the entire game experience a step above tabletop-like video games. By incorporating VOIP, we hope to continue that same competitive spirit over to Gameroom.

Speaking of the social element, the tagline on dragonfront.com reads: “Collect. Socialize. Conquer.” What can you tell us about the game’s community and social experience?

EN: Dragon Front puts the player in the game, eye-to-eye with their opponent. You can see your opponent’s head movements and converse, but it’s so much more than that. We have players who use this game as a way to connect with friends and family overseas, a respite from the endless stresses of military deployment, and in one case that I know of, it was a community of people willing to play endless games with a man undergoing a lengthy hospital stay. On some level, you could liken the community interactions to board game night at the comic book shop; strangers can form meaningful connections over the course of a few games, even if they never discuss anything besides the game. The VR space and Gameroom integration means people can do it from anywhere in the world!

Strangely, we initially thought the VOIP integration might lead to hostility and trolling, but our community is amazing, and most people use it as a tool to help other players improve their skill in the game. Chat clients allow a lot more discussion on tactics, metas, and cards outside of the game. Beyond VOIP, our community uses our Discord channel constantly.

You’ve got a lot of new content coming to the game. How has all of that material changed the way that you play the game?

EN: So much awesome stuff in the pipe! Designers are always testing and balancing new cards with the old cards. I mostly play the game internally, but I like to play on the live build on my Rift at home as well. All of the internal testing affects my own personal strategies so much that I end up getting creamed when I play some of the non-devs on the live build.

What can you tell us about Dual-Faction Champions?

EN: Dual-Faction Champions are going to change everything. Our players are so unpredictably creative when it comes to strategy that they really shape the direction of the game’s meta. With 21 new Champions, each able to slot into two different factions, we’re going to see some crazy new decks. It’ll be interesting to see how players use these champions in both of their designated factions. We’ll offer a Season Pass for the Dual-Faction Champions, and outside of that, we’ll release one per week for 21 weeks.

With 450+ cards in play and more on the way, Dragon Front now has more than a card for each day of the year. What do you draw on for continued inspiration? What are some of your favorite cards?

EN: To keep the inspirational energy going, the design team plays every single card game that comes out, in addition to most miniature and board games. Our team is also really interested in the different ways that fantasy and science fiction tend to manifest. High fantasy, steam punk, speculative fiction, space operas, and especially horror fiction—we consume as much of it as possible, and I’m sure players who are familiar with our Delirium faction have picked up on the Lovecraftian influences.

We try to find new ways of using old concepts. A fun design exercise consists of opening the dictionary to a random word and trying to build a card around that word. That’s how we came up with the Popcorn Leech—the word of the day was “popcorn.”

How do you continue to capitalize on VR as a medium nearly a year after release?

EN: It starts with knowing that VR isn’t just a fad. We respect the medium by putting out quality content and creating opportunities for deeply engaging fun. People tell us all the time that this is the VR game they’ve spent the most time playing, and considering the sheer amount of strategic options, the visual and audio content, and the competitive elements of the game, I’m not at all surprised.