What I’m Playing

Marvel Snap is one of the rare games I have played since its release in October of 2022. During that time, I was freelancing as a game journalist focusing mainly on mobile titles (yes, super duper important work). While I wasn’t the one that covered the game—the brilliant Barbara Walker gave the game a respectable 4.5 out of 5. I still played Marvel Snap along with every digital collectible card game the App Store had to offer. Consequently, Marvel Snap was the only game that stayed on my phone. (So…many…games were downloaded and uninstalled during this time). But one thing remained—I always went back to SNAP!

The Art of Play

My obsession with what my favorite board game designer (Cole Wehrle) calls play, made me ask the question of why I always came back to Marvel Snap? I must admit, this is the reason I love writing in the LitRPG genre. The mechanics of these game systems are awesome to talk about and theorize what the best strategies could be. What I love about CCGs is that you are able to put these theories into practice with deckbuilding. However, what truly makes Marvel Snap stand out among the countless digital CCGs is its snap mechanic. Basically, this is modeled after one of the most successful games of all time.

POKER!

Poker Face

While the point of the game is to win matches, the snap mechanic turns every game into a game of high-stakes poker. If you believe you will win the game and SNAP—but your opponent—SNAPS—it forces you to think about the board state. When you win these battles, you feel like a tactical mastermind. However, these losses (eight darn cubes) force you to feel as if you lost the highest-stakes game of poker, ever. Card games are almost impossible to keep fans coming back unless you’re Magic the Gathering or Pokemon. However, if a card game can make you initially buy into the concept (which is not difficult) but make you feel like you are getting ‘little wins’ over and over, (that is the difficult part) and can keep one addicted to the game; let me explain.

When you are playing Marvel Snap and you know that you are going to lose, you have the option to retreat. And instead of the game calling you a loser and forcing you to part ways with a bunch of cubes (It’s all about cube conservation) in your defeat—you still feel like a tactical genius. It gives you the feeling of, yes, I’ve lost the battle, but not the war. It’s a pretty powerful emotion and makes you feel like you’ve won, even though you’ve lost two cubes. Not only that, but it opens you up to play more games since you didn’t play a “full game” in that defeat. In essence, it doesn’t feel like you’ve lost—not truly.

Let’s Get SNAPPY With It

So, when I realized what was going on and why I still continued to play Marvel Snap, I did a bit of digging (as any good journalist does). To my surprise, I found that the game’s developer, Second Dinner was led by Ben Brode—one of the designers of HearthStone (one of the most successful digital card games of all time). And thus, it makes a lot of sense why the game is, pardon my pun, so…SNAPPY. It also makes sense as to why I keep going back to said game. That is to say, I’ve always been a fan of Ben Brode because I love the games he’s developed. Despite his games being “simple” at first glance, the real art of PLAY lies in the strategic choices of attempting to figure out if your opponent is bluffing. Having an opponent SNAP on turn one doesn’t give you the same emotional response as if said opponent SNAPs on turn five, in a close match. And that is the genius of Marvel Snap.

I’ve included a GDC panel (from a year ago) of Ben Brode going into detail about how his team designed my latest addiction…

Marvel Snap!