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In Brawl Stars, you call the shots

Community manager Ryan Lighton on shaping a game around its players.

Brawl Stars

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Asking the internet for its opinion is often a risky business, but that’s exactly what Supercell is doing with its latest game, Brawl Stars.

The Finnish gamemaker has been crafting the game’s thrilling team-based shootouts around player feedback ever since it was released in a small number of countries in 2017. Now that the game has been released globally, that player influence is there for everyone to see.

So, when some members of the fledgling Brawl Stars community set up an online tool so they could design their own battle arenas, Supercell noticed and added YouTuber Lex’s ‘Sneaky Fields’ arena into the game.

Fan-made arenas like Sneaky Fields are being added to Brawl Stars regularly.

“Lex and many many more have created their own maps and submitted them on Reddit,” says Supercell community manager Ryan Lighton. “We have now implemented somewhere between 10 and 15 maps that our community made entirely.”

Similarly, when there was uproar in the community about the removal of brawler Mortis’ hat, Supercell took note. “The artists thought the character would stand out more if they removed [Mortis’] hat and showed his purple hair,” continues Lighton. “The community blew up – they loved the hat, and they got #BringBackTheHat trending.”

The game’s artists noticed – and have now added in an unlockable ‘skin’ for Mortis which re-instates that notorious hat.

So, Mortis: hat or no hat? We prefer him without. Look at that lush purple hair!

“When we’re developing, the community has a seat at the table,” says Lighton. “Game modes, brawlers, skins – they will have an influence on everything we’re developing.”

It is also helping the Brawl Stars community to become full-time YouTubers. Supercell has helped promote KairosTime’s channel so much that he’s recently been able to become a full-time YouTuber.

“As a community manager this is the dream,” continues Lighton. “If these guys can follow their passion full-time, that’s spectacular.”

Regular in-game events will also take shape based on what the community wants. Brawlidays, which runs over the festive period, is the first of those moments – in this limited-time game mode, you’ll team up with two other brawlers to take down a honking great boss character.

There’s a great opportunity to support the community with cool new stuff that’s going on all the time.

Frank Keienburg, Brawl Stars team boss

This style of play could even develop into fuller cooperative mission-based levels, says Brawl Stars team lead Frank Keienburg. “There’s real passion driving this – a lot of our team play cooperative games like World of WarCraft and Destiny where you play in a small group of players and you fight end characters.

“We’re experimenting with it and we don’t know how far it’ll go,” he adds. “It will depend on what the community wants how far we go with these kinds of experiences.”

So if you jump into Brawlidays now, don’t hesitate to tell Supercell what you think through Twitter, Instagram, Reddit or Facebook. You might just inspire Brawl Stars’ next special event.