Would you say that much of the strategy is in the deck design and that the play within a match is more short-term tactical, then? I view the deck-building game Ascension as largely a short-term tactical game, and I really love that one…
I would buy this as a retail game right now. F2P though… I’ll wait and see.
(Who am I kidding? I’ll play this the minute it is available, F2P or not.)
Hey JonC,
When we can play it?
Love,
The internet.
It’s not a Dominion style drafting game, there’s a lot more interaction with your opponent.
Dear internet - I have to be honest and say we don’t have a firm date yet, but hopefully beta later this year and release early next?
I plead small team and never having made this kind of game before.
very kool looking. hopefully with Garfield working on it, it will be more interesting and better balanced than other tactical games like PoxNora.
As long as it works, I’ll be happy :)
I haven’t registered on your forums yet, but I plan on doing so. I’m more excited about this game than with Battlefield 3 or The Elder Scrolls: Skyrim. (Can you see me looking for a quote on your advertising with that line ;) )
So in the meantime, chalk me down as another person who would love co-op play. My board gaming chums and I have been looking for some co-op play, both online and off. We gave DDO a go a while back, but never really got into it, the business model was a bit too new at the time for all of us to grok. They’ve been trying to get me into League of Legends and we have a couple of nights planned for that in the future. But a co-op computer game with heavy board game influence would be nirvana for us. We play a board game(s) or tabletop RPG at least once a week, and if we could get the same fix on another night without having the expense of the beers, munchies, takeaway and taxis it would be the best thing to happen in computer gaming in a long time.
When I first arrived to the RPG’s host’s place today, we went over the formalities, “How are you, how’s your family doing, seen Seán recently?” Then we both said at pretty much the same time, “Did you read RockPaperShotgun today?” I believe at that point one of us squeed. It may not have been me that squeed but it is certainly possible that it was I who had made a girlish sound. I’ve spent the day going over every site I can find that mentions Card Hunter and riding the wave of other people’s reactions. Don’t fuck this up, please.
Looks fantastic. I can’t wait to see more. I’m hoping the revenue model is centered more around introducing new “modules” that offer new environments, monsters, traps (are there traps?), etc. than better cards. I don’t mind paying for breadth, but depth is something that I think should be bound by skill not the depth of one’s pockets. I’d pay quite a bit for an Egyptian inspired environment with asps, mummies, and the like. Think Temple of Apshai -> Curse of Ra. I also hope that those “tiles”, monsters, etc. that are available can be randomly re-assembled in a Rogue-like fashion – I might have missed it but my impression was the modules were more static… Is that so?
Before I settled on trying to knock out what I’m working on I spent some time on a Rogue-like with a similar appeal to physical games and nostalgia. The map is like the 1ed AD&D modules – light blue and symbolic with numbers for rooms. Alongside that, generated text like you would find in a module and “hand-outs” (like in S1, S3, etc.), all contained in a module cover (I loved the Gamasutra shot of the “Forest of Souls” – I hope it is these modules that we’ll be able to buy). There is a definite approachability that results from grounding a computer game in board games, table-top RPGs, etc. It is a wonder we don’t see more of it.
The screen shot in the OP immediately pushed all the right buttons and I just want to play it. Now!
Next question- any chance for an XBLA release?
Dare I even hope? And there is a F2P with transactions already approved to come to XBLA, no?
That’s some good motivation for us right there :-)
I have to admit that’s not really on our radar at the moment.
If all it takes to motivate you is drunken Irish people shouting expletives, then I am very glad this game is being made in Australia.
JonC,
Thanks for dropping in to give us all some info on the game and the design process. We all greatly appreciate it. The game looks awesome from what I can see via the website and screenshots. I love that the game environment looks like a cross between a board game and AD&D, the cards have that M:tG feel and the modules look like old-school D&D covers. Nicely played, you guys managed to hit all the right nostalgic nerves. ;-) I’ll be there Day One, if not in beta.
Agreed. Interesting-looking project, Mr. Chey. Appreciate the updates. Please do keep us posted if you wouldn’t mind.
Lets face it, TCG’s are pretty niche, especially on pc. I think that going FTP is a great way of introducing the game and genre to a lot of people that would not give this kind of game a chance with a retail price attached to it.
I have never purchased a tcg on pc or otherwise, and I will be giving this a shot thanks to the FTP model. (and the familiar rpg-table top elements help a lot as well)
Based on the apparent success of Ascension on IOS (during it’s first week they saw 3 million turns submitted) I really think they need to look strongly at getting this out for iphone/ipad.
Prior to reading this interview I wanted to play Card Hunter. Now, I want to play Card Hunter, and I want John Chey to be my bestest friend. And he can come over to my house and we’ll play cards and boardgames and it will be so cool.
Tony
Cool interview. I also want to play this. Now.