[2021] Community talk - Level 14 and Slash Royale

Hey everyone,

Following the Level 14 announcement yesterday, a large part of the community shared their concerns and disappointment about adding a new level and how the Slash Royale event was seen as a way to trick players into spending their resources and leaving them with nothing when the update drops

This was never our intent. We owe you explanations and clarifications, as well as telling you what we are planning to do about it

Here we go:

SLASH ROYALE

The Slash Royale event was designed as a celebration of the arrival of Level 14 and a way to help players gain XP and put you as close as possible to King Level 14, where you will be able to enjoy the content of the next update.

While we focused on allowing you to upgrade as many cards as possible to accumulate experience and progress towards King Level 14, we missed an essential aspect: card consumption and post-update cost reductions.

We messed up, and we sincerely apologize as a team for not seeing this before. Our intent was not to turn Slash Royale, which we wanted to be a massive progression boost for everyone, into something that left players feeling disheartened and scammed. We're taking a big L today, which is especially painful at the end of such a positive year.

To make up for any uninformed spending decisions players may have made, we have decided to compensate ALL players with the extra cards spent in card upgrades before the new levels are released. To be clear, this does not only apply to upgrades done during Slash Royale but to ALL card upgrades done over the history of the game for levels 11 to 13.

What this effectively means is that you will already have a big chunk of progress towards the new card levels when the update goes live. Specifically, you will get:

Level 11:
Epic +10

Level 12:
Common +500
Rare +300
Epic +60
Legendary +4

Level 13:
Common +2500
Rare +550
Epic +160
Legendary +14

This compensation will happen when the update goes live, at the same time as the XP redistribution.

STAR POINTS

Another recurring subject we've seen is Star Points. Every Star Level you currently have will stay. You will not lose anything that you have already purchased.

LEVEL 14

We knew from the start that adding a new level would be controversial and would not be seen as a positive change by some players. I want to share our vision and decision-making to help you understand why we think this is needed for the game and how we see this addition as part of a long-term plan.

- The history of Royale: core game vs metagame

For more than 5 years, Clash Royale has always had a maximum of 13 levels. The game was designed that way, with no plan to add another level, ever. While it worked fine for some time, it made the game very static and made it difficult for the team to add new content and expand the game. Making progression easier and improving the players' journey was hard to justify as there was nothing to do once reaching the end-game.

While the core game of Royale (the actual gameplay of a battle) has kept a lot of players engaged in the game, another group of players left along the way because the metagame (how you progress,what your journey looks like) was not gratifying. Another group of players stopped playing once reaching max because again, there was nothing more to do.

Adding more content and expanding the game is vital but was blocked by the original game design. This is something we decided to tackle and change.

- The Grind

One of the main complaints and something tied to the original game design is that progression feels like a grind for most of the players. Getting to the "end-game" is long, not fun, and ultimately something that makes you quit.

This is something that the team is aware of, and you said it loud and clear in your feedback following the Level 14 announcement.

It's normal and expected that as we're announcing a new Level, we face a general outcry because of how the progression was working so far. The players have only known the metagame as it has been before this year: long and unfulfilling.

Adding a new Level is the first step into a broader plan and deep rework of how you progress in Clash Royale to make your journey more enjoyable. We will closely follow players' behavior and your feedback to adjust and improve so that the journey will no longer feel like a chore but something genuinely gratifying.

However, we also recognize that some players are more interested in the competitive "end-game" experience, and we will also explore ways in which we can improve and add to the game with you in mind.

Thanks a lot for reading. We want to reiterate how sorry we are for messing up what was supposed to be a great moment for the community.

Cheers 🤝

The Clash Royale Team

External link →

Hey everyone,

Following the Level 14 announcement yesterday, a large part of the community shared their concerns and disappointment about adding a new level and how the Slash Royale event was seen as a way to trick players into spending their resources and leaving them with nothing when the update drops

This was never our intent. We owe you explanations and clarifications, as well as telling you what we are planning to do about it

Here we go:

SLASH ROYALE

The Slash Royale event was designed as a celebration of the arrival of Level 14 and a way to help players gain XP and put you as close as possible to King Level 14, where you will be able to enjoy the content of the next update.

While we focused on allowing you to upgrade as many cards as possible to accumulate experience and progress towards King Level 14, we missed an essential aspect: card consumption and post-update cost reductions.

We messed up, and we sincerely apologize as a team for not seeing this before. Our intent was not to turn Slash Royale, which we wanted to be a massive progression boost for everyone, into something that left players feeling disheartened and scammed. We're taking a big L today, which is especially painful at the end of such a positive year.

To make up for any uninformed spending decisions players may have made, we have decided to compensate ALL players with the extra cards spent in card upgrades before the new levels are released. To be clear, this does not only apply to upgrades done during Slash Royale but to ALL card upgrades done over the history of the game for levels 11 to 13.

What this effectively means is that you will already have a big chunk of progress towards the new card levels when the update goes live. Specifically, you will get:

Level 11:
Epic +10

Level 12:
Common +500
Rare +300
Epic +60
Legendary +4

Level 13:
Common +2500
Rare +550
Epic +160
Legendary +14

This compensation will happen when the update goes live, at the same time as the XP redistribution.

STAR POINTS

Another recurring subject we've seen is Star Points. Every Star Level you currently have will stay. You will not lose anything that you have already purchased.

LEVEL 14

We knew from the start that adding a new level would be controversial and would not be seen as a positive change by some players. I want to share our vision and decision-making to help you understand why we think this is needed for the game and how we see this addition as part of a long-term plan.

- The history of Royale: core game vs metagame

For more than 5 years, Clash Royale has always had a maximum of 13 levels. The game was designed that way, with no plan to add another level, ever. While it worked fine for some time, it made the game very static and made it difficult for the team to add new content and expand the game. Making progression easier and improving the players' journey was hard to justify as there was nothing to do once reaching the end-game.

While the core game of Royale (the actual gameplay of a battle) has kept a lot of players engaged in the game, another group of players left along the way because the metagame (how you progress,what your journey looks like) was not gratifying. Another group of players stopped playing once reaching max because again, there was nothing more to do.

Adding more content and expanding the game is vital but was blocked by the original game design. This is something we decided to tackle and change.

- The Grind

One of the main complaints and something tied to the original game design is that progression feels like a grind for most of the players. Getting to the "end-game" is long, not fun, and ultimately something that makes you quit.

This is something that the team is aware of, and you said it loud and clear in your feedback following the Level 14 announcement.

It's normal and expected that as we're announcing a new Level, we face a general outcry because of how the progression was working so far. The players have only known the metagame as it has been before this year: long and unfulfilling.

Adding a new Level is the first step into a broader plan and deep rework of how you progress in Clash Royale to make your journey more enjoyable. We will closely follow players' behavior and your feedback to adjust and improve so that the journey will no longer feel like a chore but something genuinely gratifying.

However, we also recognize that some players are more interested in the competitive "end-game" experience, and we will also explore ways in which we can improve and add to the game with you in mind.

Thanks a lot for reading. We want to reiterate how sorry we are for messing up what was supposed to be a great moment for the community.

Cheers 🤝

The Clash Royale Team

External link →