Marvel's Midnight Suns creative director Jake Solomon broke down the in-game comic cover creator held within this super-powered RPG.
The upcoming PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S title from Firaxis takes the developer's signature brand of tactics expertise and applies it to one of Marvel's lesser-known comic book teams, allowing gamers to "Rise up and join a darker order of heroes to defeat Lilith before the Darkhold is complete."
Since Midnight Suns was announced more than a year ago, fans have become acutely familiar with the project's ins and outs, as it takes a team of heroes that has yet to make its MCU debut (despite potential teases), and lets players interact with and battle alongside them in card-based combat.
However, one feature that has not been discussed too much thus far has been the in-game comic cover creator hidden within the title..
On the Cover of a Comic Book
In an interview with The Direct's Klein Felt, Marvel's Midnight Suns creative director Jake Solomon got into the nitty-gritty of the in-game comic cover creator.
Solomon said that one feature he "really really [loves]" is that "after [gamers] complete a mission" they are treated to a "procedurally-generate[d]... custom comic book cover" featuring all the heroes that came along on that mission:
"The other feature that I really really love, that we haven't talked about it hardly at all, but players will once they're playing the game, is the comic book creator. So, we have a feature in the game where after you complete a mission then it will create a custom, it will procedurally-generate a custom comic book cover and put all the heroes, or the villains that were on the mission, and it will pose them."
He also noted that the game will "generate text" on the cover as well, with the ability for players to go in and "move the heroes around [or] change their expression" to "create these ornate scenes:"
"It will have like a cool cover with all these graphics. And you can move the heroes around, change their expression, change their poses, add heroes to it, take heroes away, add villains. And you can create these ornate scenes that are comic book covers."
The Firaxis creative director mentioned the studio has not touched on the feature too much because "it's not going to define your experience playing the game," but it is something he is "so excited to see," because "once players get their hands on it, they're going to make the coolest stuff:"
"And so it's the kind of thing we haven't talked about because it's not going to define your experience playing the game, but it's an awesome thing that players are going to be able to make their own covers, and I cannot wait to start seeing people churning out their own ridiculous creations. You can add speech bubbles. Like, you can do all this stuff that we haven't even talked about yet that I'm so excited to see because once players get their hands on it, they're going to make the coolest stuff. I just can't wait to see that, the comic covers."
What Else is Midnight Suns Hiding?
These in-game comic covers are one of those things, that as Solomon notes, isn't "going to define [the] experience" of playing Midnight Suns, but they are a cool inclusion that adds to the experience.
This is supposed to be the ultimate Marvel role-playing game, so what good would living a comic book fantasy be without seeing the gamer's actions reflected in iconic Marvel Comics fashion?
What is even more interesting is that there are not just the procedurally-generated covers the game will award players at the end of each mission, but the ability to go in and customize those very same covers to one's liking.
Like the Spider-Man selfies from Insomniac's Marvel's Spider-Man, these custom covers are sure to fill up fans' Twitter timelines as soon as Marvel's Midnight Suns drops.
And surely this in-game comic cover creator is only the surface of what is hiding beneath the surface of Firaxis' latest tactical adventure. But fans will have to wait to see just what else could be hidden within this RPG's sprawling super-powered story.
Marvel's Midnight Suns hits store shelves on December 2nd for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC.