Apparently the unique title and card back are achieved through procedural generation. Think names of random loot in Diablo/roguelikes, and images being made up of multiple overlayed shapes and colours.
There’s some suggestion that the decks aren’t purely random ie you can’t get a deck with zero creatures.
That said, I imagine the play experience would be similar to what you get with sealed deck leagues/tournaments ie a mish-mash of cards with questionable levels of synergy. The fact each deck focuses on three (of a possible seven) ‘houses’ (think MTG colours) may mean that the deck algorithm can produce more ‘sensible’ decks, but the jury’s out until we see more decks played.
Clearly there will be decks which are better than others. How the handicapping system works (I don’t really understand it yet) and whether it can make for competitive (in a balance sense) matches without resorting to “play a game then swap decks” is the big question for me.
I really super doubt that. They don’t just have to pick the names and art, they have to print it. 7 choose 3 is 35. So what I suspect is that there’s one deck for every possible combination of the 3 out of 7 houses; that is, 35 decks, each curated to be interesting and more or less competitive.
This doesn’t seem that different to me than the way pre-con decks work in Magic. Every set has, what 5 or 10 of these? The only difference is that once you’ve opened up a Keyforge deck, you’re stuck with it, you can’t pull it apart to make other decks.
Don’t bother using the manual to learn the game - its a fine reference - but not a great learning tool. Instead watch this official how to play rules video - it does a great job!
Well that’s unfortunate. I like game manuals for a little night time reading. Thanks for the heads up though. I guess I better schedule a… 41 minute video!?
Being in the printing business this is definitely doable.
It comes down to variable printing (think phone bills but with image layers overlapping instead of text). The complex part isn’t that actually because you’re just generating random combinations of images/text/card. The struggle is with the quality control process.
If at the end of the line you reject 1 card because of an issue, you have to replace it somehow. And this without screwing your production run or wasting everyone’s time.
The only way to do this is with a highly automated line:
Camera systems that controls print quality on every single card during printing with automatic rejection of bad cards
More camera systems that accounts for all the cards right at the final packaging process
All this linked up to a nice database so that missing/rejected cards can be sent pack on press with minimal intervention
Somehow each replacement needs to join back it’s specific deck
I find the idea neat for a card game but this stuff as been done for years with pharmaceutical packaging where quality control is even more strict.
How many different decks are you actually going to make? A thousand? Ten thousand? You’re going to generate all those names and all that art, no human hands are going to check that it doesn’t look like a penis? Or that the name is pronounceable?
No. That’s clearly nonsense. I don’t doubt that they have tools that helped them generate all that art, but there are going to be on the order of 100 decks, probably fewer. Each one will have been checked out by a human (deck list, art, and name), and probably the art will have been given a once-over by a human artist.
I could be completely wrong. Maybe this is a random product generated by an algorithm. In which case I have no interest in buying it. Would you buy pre-con magic decks that were 60 completely randomly chosen cards? No, it would completely suck.
I don’t really see any real reason to play Keyforge when it has even less in-game depth than MTG and also eschews deckbuilding entirely for something just as random.
Garfield was a one-hit wonder and honestly the closest thing to his vision coming to life was Meier’s Shandalar implementation.
I mean, it depends on what you mean by hit, but if you mean “one popular, well-selling game”, that’s factually incorrect as he’s designed quite a few very successful games (if none as money-printing as Magic). If you mean “one good game”, he’s designed at least three card games I think are vastly superior to Magic. I doubt this will be one of them, but still.
I don’t think it’s that unreasonable. Procedural name generation isn’t anything new and, judging by the two example decks I posted, it doesn’t seem they need to produce something sensible.
Art may be even simpler. Have ‘x’ number of locations within the printable area, with ‘y’ choices of art per location. Even a relatively conservative 9 locations and 10 choices of art for each would produce a billion permutations. I can imagine they’ve done a lot more than that given the art is basic silhouettes.
Given the number of elements making up the art is relatively small it would be fairly straightforward to ensure some kid doesn’t end up playing the penis deck.
That said, I completely agree that the decks themselves could suck from a gameplay point of view. My gut tells me that they’re going for an entry-level CCG ‘feel’ where newcomers can rock up to a cheap 'Friday Night Magic-type event without feeling thoroughly out-matched by the regulars. Seems like a very niche market though…
I agree, I also have hard time seeing how all this will create something fun. I mean, I’ve played MtG for years and the idea of buying a complete random deck that doesn’t fit in anything else sounds underwhelming at best.
But I’ve seen and worked with software that could definitely deliver what’s promised with next to no human intervention once you’ve setup your variables. It’s not creating unique cards, it’s a unique combination of cards with a unique back image and deck name.
I will say I would far rather a game that does like Sentinels of the Multiverse and just puts out precomposed, thematic decks on a regular basis. (And, y’know, tuned against each other if it’s a competitive game, which Sentinels is not.)
I watched the setup part by myself for 10 minutes, and then sat down with the other players to watch the remaining 30 minutes. Probably faster than trying to explain the rules the first time, and he does a great job explaining the rules!
Is Keyforge anything other than sealed deck with a procedural art card back gimmick, and no deck-building to make it more casual-friendly? It could be an interesting concept, if piloting the decks is any fun.
Hey guys Star Wars Armada got the Executor!! Sweet! Can’t wait to get it. It’s only…199.99!!!
I know that’s not unheard of in miniature games, but that’s a bit steep for me. I’m guessing it will be 150.00 online but still I think 89.99 is the sweet spot for that thing.
“Bad start, no chance of catching up” is the name of the game in Catan. Not “bad start” as in “early game”, but right at setup before anyone has taken a single turn.
I honestly consider it the “worst popular” board game out there.
