At its core, the game is a first to five, three-on-three soccer game with a five minute timer. A team consists of two strikers and a goalie. Each player picks a character with distinct abilities and sets up three training slots that customize how each character plays.
The game is played in a small arena, and players can push enemy players outside of the arena where they become disabled for a few seconds. This allows for breakaway plays where the remaining players can score on the team down a player.
As the short game progresses, the character levels up to 10. These levels translate to how hard they hit the ball, damage and knockback on enemy players.
Omega Strikers began development under the alias “Project P” in late 2020. Only recently did Odyssey Interactive release the name “Omega Strikers.” Since the end of last year, some influencers were able to alpha test the game.
Since the beginning of development, players only knew it was a “three-on-three arena battler for PC and mobile” game, and the soccer aspect was completely hidden. The mysterious slow release of information about the game built hype for interested players.
Odyssey Interactive is composed of well-respected game developers from Riot Games, who created “League of Legends,” “VALORANT” and “Teamfight Tactics.” Players had high hopes about the game because of the star lineup of developers, and as years of development went by, more well-respected game developers from other companies were leaving to work on “Project P,” further growing the hype.
Throughout this year, Odyssey Interactive has been giving beta testing “keys” to creators and players who signed up earlier in development. Keys are one-time passes that allow players to access and download the game early. These creators were given extra keys to give to viewers, but supplies were limited. This created a struggle to find someone with extra keys – until this September.
In September, if players watched a stream of the game, there was a chance you could obtain a key. After a couple days of outrage by viewers, the developers fully released the game on Sept. 16.
This was not the end of Odyssey’s creator and influencer integration. They held a competition between the streamers. Players could join a streamer’s team and earn wins for the greater team.
At the end of the competition, the top 3 streamer teams with the most wins would be able to create their own cosmetic set for a character and earn 5% of the revenue earned during the first season of the game. Odyssey created emotes that players could use to show team spirit, and would update the standings of the competition on their social media.
This type of competition incentivized players to play the game, and playing the game equals financial rewards for their favorite creators.
At the end of the competition, MoistCr1TiKaL’s Team Moist had 2,267,867 – more than double the wins of Rakin’s Team Rakin, which came in second with 995,713 wins. Third place was Lily Pichu’s Team Comfy with 525,016 wins.
This game continues to expand and grow out of game with new creator events through Twitch Rivals, a Twitch-led competition. The exact logistics for the event are not laid out, but traditionally Twitch Rivals events have great viewership and prize pools for creators.
Even months after release, the game consistently remains at the top 10 viewed games on streaming platforms.
The game promised at least four more characters within the month of October, which is sure to continue bringing attention to the game. There are very few in-game communication aspects beyond emotes, and the team plans to add chatting and other ways to communicate with teammates in future patches.
Odyssey Interactive also is developing a mobile version of the game that is planned to be released by the end of the year.
