Tag: CCG »

Polish developers Tequila Games have unveiled Earthcore: Shattered Elements - a collectible card game for iOS that is set to come out early next year.

The unique point to Earthcore is the 'Card Crafting' feature, which will allow players to utilize the cards in their collection and fuse cards together to form new, more powerful cards, with over half a million of these combinations available. The game also features a Rock, Paper, Scissors-esque element system, with cards belonging to fire, water, and nature elements. In addition to this, the game also has a 'Risk' system, with cards with more special powers creating a higher loss to the player if they're defeated, meaning players will have to be careful when using these more powerful cards.

Lukas Deszczulka, the CEO of Tequila Games, had this to say on their upcoming CCG:

Following on from our history of creating successful casual games, Earthcore: Shattered Elements represents a big step forward and a very significant investment for Tequila Games. We are targeting both mid and hardcore players with a AAA title in a genre our team knows and loves. We’re currently working with some very experienced tabletop game design experts to innovate the CCG genre and we've invested heavily in the single player story-driven campaign, which is often neglected in games of this type. We’re sure that both new and experienced players alike will find Earthcore:Shattered Elements very different to anything that they've played before.

Earthcore: Shattered Elements is set to launch on iPhone and iPad in the first quarter of 2015.

Out this Fall is a new kind of card battle game: Outcast Odyssey. From This Means WAR! developer Magic Pixel Games, and Bandai Namco, you'll be able to explore and discover new worlds, fight various foes, and take on a number of quests.

There'll be guilds to join too, so you can tag along with friends!

Set to offer hundreds of cards to collect and evolve, Outcast Odyssey is set for release later this year. Check out the teaser trailer to get an idea of what else to expect.

For the first time since its release (which has thankfully been a much shorter window for iPad players than their PC counterparts), Blizzard’s wildly successful Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft CCG is sporting some brand new content: the single player “adventure” mode, Curse of Naxxramas. Based on the World of Warcraft raid dungeon of the same name, Naxxramas is divided up into various themed quarters: the Arachnid, Plague, Military, and Construct Quarters, and ending with the Frostwyrm Lair. Naxxramas’ Arachnid Quarter opened up this week and I brushed back the cobwebs to peek inside.

The three challenges of the Arachnid Quarter come in the forms of the Spider Lord Anub’Rekhan, Grand Widow Faerlina, and the giant spider Maexxna - sure to give anyone with arachnophobia a severe case of the creepy-crawlies. Each boss has their own special 2 mana “class” power, from summoning minions (Anub’Rekhan), to sending random minions back to a player’s hand (Maexxna), to firing randomly assigned magic damage based on how many cards the player is holding (Faerlina). There are also Heroic versions of the same fights, where the dungeon bosses start off with a massive 45 life to the player’s paltry 30 - while also sporting enhanced versions of their powers. Summoning a 4/4 minion for 2 mana? Yeah, that seems incredibly well-balanced. Good luck!

There are also two Class Challenges, where players are pitted against Naxxramas’ bosses with pre-built class-specific decks. Rogue and Druid are the two classes on offer this time, with the Rogue facing Faerlina while the Druid takes on Maexxna. Other Class Challenges will unlock as the weeks roll on, of course. It would be nice to see these with their own Heroic variants too, but in some cases that could get dangerously close to overkill.

All of the battles in this wing of Naxxramas feel fresh and interesting. The new graphics for the playing area feature fun little interactive elements and there's a ton of new voiceover work, including new lines for plenty of existing Hearthstone cards. In particular, the running commentary between matches from Naxxramas’ resident Lich Lord, Kel’Thuzad, is funny - almost at odds with the presumed tone of the new area. Then again, Hearthstone has never been afraid to be light and goofy. A lot of the new cards on display bank heavily on Battlecry and Deathrattle effects (SO many Deathrattles!). Also, with a number of new Beast subtype cards, Beast-themed Hunter decks have just received a huge boost.

The other wings of Curse of Naxxramas begin opening, one by one, starting next week with the Plague Quarter. Each wing costs $6.99 (with bundles available at a discounted price) or 700 in-game gold - but, sadly, no bundles), so you’d better start farming those daily Quests for gold now. However, keep in mind Quests only advance via Play or Arena mode - time spent in the depths of Naxxramas doesn’t count toward their completion. So what are you waiting for, adventurer? Get back out there and sling some cards!

Star Admiral is unlike other collectible card games on the app store. With gorgeous 3D space ships replacing cards, players can feel more a part of the epic space struggle that is Hardscore Games ' upcoming release.

It will have 3 Main Races (Moxxu, Radiant Empire, and the Shadow Network), 11 mercenary factions, and over 100 unique units to keep players involved in creating their favorite fleets. The game will be free, and players won't be able to buy units that others can’t, thus removing some of the frustrations that come with the free-to-play genre.

Star Admiral will be hitting the App Store next month on July 10.

Noble Nutlings developer Boomlagoon has announced Monsu, their upcoming side-scrolling collectible card game. The character design and gameplay has been in development for months, and as such the end result will contain dozens of characters and a 'rich' storyline.

In Monsu, players will have to battle their way through endless hordes of grumpy villagers in order to complete the task of retrieving stolen treasure. Each character players come across will have their own magical powers, which can then be collected and used to bash and smash their foes. The game also features multiple territories to explore, including the Woods and the Cemetery.

Antti Stén, CEO of Boomlagoon, had this to say of the game:

We’re focused on creating character-driven games that players love, all around the world. With Monsu, we’ve created a platformer that is easy to pick up and play, instantly rewards the gamer, and still provides nearly infinite ways to progress through the environments.

Monsu is set to arrive on the App Store sometime this Summer.

For a while we just had to sit back while PC gamers got to enjoy it. Then they teased us with a soft launch. Now the wait is finally over - Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft is available on the US App Store!

This is normally where I'd speak a bit about how neat it looks and how popular it is, but it's freaking Hearthstone. You deserve a medal for sticking around this long rather than going straight to the App Store to download it. But don't worry, I won't keep you.

You can grab Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft for the iPad now, for free.

Despite the fact that Hearthstone seems tailor-made for tablets, there were some challenges in bringing it to the iPad. Namely getting Battle.net to function and needing to tweak the interface a bit. But make it to tablets it did, and it’s coming to the US App Store “Soon™.”

In about a week US iPad players will be able to get their hands on Blizzard’s most desirous card game, but of course there’s more to it than that. Also on the “Soon™” List are Adventures, which are self-contained challenges where players square off against the AI and attempt to defeat special boss characters to win more cards. The first Adventure coming out of the gate (sometime in the hopefully near future, but no specific dates have been given) is the ‘Curse of Naxxramas.’ World of Warcraft players will probably recognize the name, seeing as it’s a fairly well-known raid dungeon.

Last but certainly not least (well, for me anyway) was the news that Hearthstone will also eventually be making its way to the iPhone. It’s going to be separate from the iPad version (so not Universal), but the fact that it’s in the works is enough for me!

Of course if you do have an iPad you can just grab Hearthstone once it releases on the App Store in about a week.

Developer Wizards of the Coast has announced that its new game for iPads, Magic 2015 — Duels of the Planeswalkers, should be available in summer of 2014.

The game is the latest installment in the Duels of the Planeswalkers franchise, and puts the player at the center of the mythical Magic Multiverse.

Fans attending PAX East in Boston this weekend will have the chance to be the first to demo Magic 2015 — Duels of the Planeswalkers in the Magic: The Gathering booth, #462. Additionally, visitors to the show will have the opportunity to earn an exclusive Garruk Wildspeaker Pinny Arcade pin (while supplies last) by demoing the new game or participating in other in-booth activities.

Blizzard's free-to-play online collectible card game, Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft, left beta not long ago. Now its mobile days begin, as they have soft-launched their online card-battling game in Canada ahead of its global launch. So I grabbed my deck and chatted up some pandaren for this edition of It Came From Canada!

The core gameplay of Hearthstone has players using an increasing supply of mana to play cards they've drawn: most are creatures that can be put into the arena, and only played on the next turn, though some have instant effects such as attacking immediately. Players also have hero attacks that cost mana but can be used to attack the other player or their creatures, with the ultimate goal being to take the opponent's hero down to zero health. Players can battle online with others via Battle.net, take on computer opponents in Practice Mode, and spend their winnings (or currency purchased via in-app purchases) on cards to outfit their deck. It's fast-paced, but easy to get into.

The game is simple enough that anyone can get into it after the first six tutorial missions, which cover the gamut of battling. Of course, this is where the game shows its origins as a non-mobile title: the tutorials take about 20 minutes or so to get through them before players can even battle online. In a mobile-first world this would likely be a lot shorter, but the slow pace does a great job at getting players to know how to play the game.

After the tutorial is finished players must register for a Battle.net account in order to play online, with this account usable cross-platform. Deck creation isn't explicitly covered, but it's possible to just go out with a default deck. Custom decks can be created as well, and there's a handy guided tutorial for creating a well-balanced deck, where the game recommends three cards of a kind - so players can choose and understand how to build a deck, versus the game just automatically making one.

Once into the online battles, the process is similar to the tutorial missions, except slower. Some players online can be slow to decide their moves, though there's only so much time that a player has before the game passes it along. Note that unlike mobile-designed titles like Ascension, players must stay in the battle; there's no jumping to other games.

And really, that will be the interesting thing to see as Hearthstone nears its global release. This is a game that isn't necessarily unfriendly to mobile, but many of the patterns that have defined mobile card battlers are clearly defied here. And the longer pacing could lead to more drop-outs during matches, which would not be ideal for the PC userbase. But still, this is Hearthstone on an iPad and that should excite many people.

Conquest of Champions is a pretty sweet-looking CCG from Kihon, and it's making its way to the iPad.

Think of it as a sort of hybrid of Magic and Warhammer, with a sprinkling of Hero Academy thrown in for good measure. You'll be collecting somewhere in the neighborhood of 130 cards, choosing between three factions, training heroes, and fighting against other players (or solo!) in asynchronous node-capturing strategic combat. Plus it looks pretty freaking awesome in motion.

Conquest of Champions is currently in open beta for the Mac and PC, with a projected App Store release of later this summer.