Few games on the App Store can be so fun and so infuriating at the same time as Clash Royale (Free), so every time the developers talk about the game’s inner workings, passions understandably flare up. Recently, the developers did a Reddit AMA where they responded to all kinds of questions on such major issues as card balancing, matchmaking, and more, giving us an interesting inside look at the game. On balancing, the devs recognized how controversial a topic it is and confessed that it’s scary to work on or even talk about. The goal of balancing for this specific game is to make all cards useful at least to a degree, and the more cards and diversity exists, the more likely a rock-paper-scissors kind of meta emerges. The developers seem to be happy with the balance at the moment, although they of course said they’ll continue working on it.

Matchmaking is mostly based on trophies, but there are a few special rules. If you’re are on a losing streak, you get matched with others on a losing streak until you win. Once you get a win, you’re out of the losers club. If you’re an abusive trophy dropper, you get matched with other abusive trophy droppers so you don’t mess other people’s matches. The developers don’t like divulging details on matchmaking because they know players will take advantage of that information. They then went on to talk about how they see the future of the game as an esport, the 2v2 mode (spoiler, no ranked version coming any time soon), and more, so definitely worth a read.