In development for nearly four years with a relatively small, but dedicated following, Circuits and Shields is now opening its proverbial doors to the world. With the unique, headlining game mode “Circuitball” shaping up to be a high-speed combination of Ultimate Frisbee, Rocket League, and classic MOBA gameplay, Circuits is shaping up to be a dynamic experience in the crowded, but admittedly dominated MOBA genre. As their large crowdfunding campaign draws near, Circuits is hoping to gather a final wave of feedback from a new wave of alpha testers, even promising cash prize tournaments as a Kickstarter campaign promotion!
Proclaiming itself “The Modern Gamer’s MOBA”, Circuits looks to streamline systems the likes of League of Legends and DotA2 pioneered over a decade ago, focusing on high-speed and fluid gameplay with unique features designed to encourage teamplay and accelerate the classic lulls in action that MOBAs are notorious for. Though certainly a refreshing take, the developers promise they are actively avoiding rewriting the genre as a whole with their core philosophy being: “No gimmicks, just smarter design, and superior gameplay.”
No MOBA would be complete without well-designed characters, and while Circuits currently only has five playable champions, they are shaping up to be quite the cast. While Circuits is set in a sci-fi world, their lore structure allows endless possibilities, including a robot janitor obsessed with cleaning and a hip-hop hitman who excels at failing upward. These quirky personalities are backed up by eccentric abilities never seen before in MOBAs, like Aperture-esque portals that open up new ways to approach battle and a champion centered around a unique resource meter called “equilibrium” that requires proper balancing of abilities for optimal play.
Hoping to redefine your assumptions of indie-developed, Circuits blurs the lines between AAA production quality and indie design ingenuity. While no studio or full-time employees in the traditional sense, Circuits employs a unique development model with contributions, big and small, from over 100 freelancers, including those with resumes from companies like Riot Games, Ubisoft, and Blizzard. It also places a huge focus on community feedback, emphasizing a game built for the players, by the players. This is especially shown by their recent overhaul of core systems, re-architecting their entire codebase to Unreal Engine’s “Gameplay Ability System”, an expensive, but necessary change made to drastically improve responsiveness and game speed after numerous reports of sluggishness from their testers.
Rather than making yet another DotA/League of Legends clone, it’s clear the developers have taken a long hard look at the aging MOBA genre and looked to address the pain points. Circuits and Shields is targeting their Kickstarter campaign toward the tail end of Q4 2020, but has promised exclusive rewards prior to the launch just for becoming an active member of their community. This is a great opportunity to get involved, see into the development process, and help the developers build the best MOBA possible.
Get Involved with Circuits at:
- Discord: http://discord.gg/circuitsandshields
- Twitch: http://twitch.tv/circuitsandshields
- Website: http://circuitsandshields.com
