The ‘father’ of League of Legends or Dota has released a new game, but hardly anyone knows it: It urgently needs new players – PC

Although we all know that theory according to which League of Legends It’s just a copy of dowrythe truth is both titles share a key creator. Steve Feak, better known on the internet as Guinsoo, was in charge of managing Defense of the Ancients when it was just a Warcraft mod and catapulted it to its greatest heights of success. Subsequently, Riot Games wanted to count on him to turn the modification into an independent video game. The rest of the story is well known, at least until Guinsoo left the company that created LoL or Valorant in 2016 to start his own adventure with another developer. It was with Hidden Leaf Games, which released its first video game last November: Fangs.

The danger of a launch that is too soft

Fangs is a multiplayer title that offers us confrontations between teams of four players, positioning itself as a middle ground between games like League of Legends and brawl stars. The goal was to try to capture the playable depth of traditional MOBAs and remove some of the more frustrating mechanics from them. Goodbye to buying items, minions or leveling up. All that mattered when it came to winning a fight was our ability – and that of our team – in developing it. The premise is tremendously interesting and, together with the fact that it comes sponsored by one of the parents of the genuspointed to success.

In this context, the developers of Hidden Leaf Games decided that the best option was to bet on a format similar to ‘soft launch‘. A premiere without marketing and in the form of Early Access in which they could count on a good number of initial users who would remain active in the game while they worked on the improvements before making their work known to the general public. The problem is that the first steps of the game have been somewhat bumpy. Although at the time of its release it reached a peak of just over 1,000 players, Currently it is difficult to even play a game (in an acceptable waiting time) unless we do it during the hours with the highest user peak.

Courtesy: SteamDB | Fangs is also available on the Epic Games Store (players on that platform would have to be added)

It is certain that Hidden Leaf Games, those responsible for the development of Fangs, still have a few tricks up their sleeves. However, the situation is dangerous even for a launch of these characteristics. While we were able to play the game ourselves and found it more than competent, it’s hard to convince the community to give it a try if there isn’t a strong player base. The intention of a’soft launch‘ is to move in low numbers, although always solid enough so that collecting data is easy -at the same time that you can act quickly- and this very form of release does not play against the title in the future.

Everything must be said, Fangs must be given the benefit of the doubt, because they are doing great job gathering community feedback and improving the game accordingly. Some overly complex systems can be tweaked and the title’s performance, currently not as smooth as it should be, is one of Hidden Leaf Games’ top priorities ahead of a Q3 2023 release. carry out many improvements for the premiere. The battle is by no means lost, but it’s time to put on the suit of great comebacks.

Fangs is especially entertaining when we play together with our friends and is available for free on both Steam and the Epic Games Store. It is up to you to decide whether or not to give it the opportunity.