Artifact, Valve's DotA-based card game, announced

[johnhoftb]

https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2017/...tal-card-game/

Rather than wait until the end of The International, the major Dota 2 tournament taking place in Seattle all week, to announce major Dota news, Valve surprise-announced an entirely new video game on the event's second, early-rounds evening.

"It's not Half-Life 3," broadcaster Sean "Day9" Plott said, and he insisted that the game was not a re-release or a fine-tuning of an existing game à la Counter Strike: GO or Dota 2. Then, he introduced a vague, 35-second teaser video that prominently featured a triangular logo. It ended with the phrase: Artifact: The Dota Card Game, which Valve says will publicly launch sometime in 2018. (Technically, Plott wasn't lying, but gosh, did he come close.)

Sadly, Artifact's reveal was not followed with anything in the way of screenshots or gameplay. Instead, Plott described having played test versions of the game already, and his brief description hinted at a one-on-one digital card-battling game, like Hearthstone, only with a Dota-themed three-lane system and other Dota-like tweaks.

"I played a game where I was getting my ass kicked in two lanes," Plott told the bemused crowd. "I kept building barracks in the third [lane], and I kept flooding the lane with creeps." What Plott didn't tell the crowd was that this is the game developer Brad Muir has been leading at Valve since he left Double Fine (where he previously led development on the tactical RPG Massive Chalice and the co-op tower-defense game Trenched).

We'll have to wait for more information on Artifact's card-based systems, like spells and movement cards, and whether or how players will juggle the Dota series' hundred-plus roster of heroes. We're also still waiting to hear about Valve's other games in the oven, especially following promises of three bespoke virtual reality games in development.

[Wildmoon]

Good news. More competition likely means I am getting more free packs in HS.

[dope_danny]

That live reaction was not great, but i guess some people really still expects valve to make new games when they make far more on 'micropay freebuys'.

[Spryte]

That live reaction was not great, but i guess some people really still expects valve to make new games when they make far more on 'micropay freebuys'.

I dont think the live crowd is really a great place to judge, after all the people there probably only care about Dota 2, and not a card game (even if its based on Dota themes).

Anyway, I wont make any judgement on it until I see some gameplay or something, but it seems like a lot of companies are trying to jump on this card game bandwagon.

[smackyslap]

I am not optimistic about this game but I Do hope it is good and brings some good ideas to the online card game format. But this just comes off as a weird choice for valve but I guess it makes sense with how card games are on the rage right now and they also like to make money from the games they do own with randomized lottery like systems loot boxes skin crates card packs and the likes.

I might just be a little salty due to the current state of TF2 but yeah I wish valve would divert some of their money ocean to improving that game.

[Deleted]

And the crowd goes wild!

[Hisholyness]

everyone trying to cash in on the hearthstone card horse

[Zeta333]

Fantastic, more fucking trash from valve, next we will get another left for dead or hey a new way to monitize CS. Grats valve your literally becoming EA.

[Verdugo]

next we will get another left for dead

I wish, we wont even get that.

[Gourmandise]

This is so late to the card game scene. Not to be mean, but do people even play other online card games in any sort of moderate population?

[Post]

Making another card game at this point seems like making another MOBA. Sucks for the people who spent years of their time to get this reaction though.

[LilSaihah]

It is only natural. Blizzard stole Team Fortress 2, and Valve wanted revenge.

[zito]

another HS cash grab?

lol

[dope_danny]

another HS cash grab?

lol

Kind of funny considering heroes of the storm was kind of the opposite situation.

[zito]

Kind of funny considering heroes of the storm was kind of the opposite situation.

I also think HotS was a cash grab train

It's just stupid that these company's can't put their dicks away and gotta make the most money off another idea instead of trying to make a gem that would also make money and a cult following

ya know something like half life.... oh wait

[Ausr]

I'm sure people will praise the ever living fuck out of this Valve game like they do every other Valve game.

[dope_danny]

I also think HotS was a cash grab train

It's just stupid that these company's can't put their dicks away and gotta make the most money off another idea instead of trying to make a gem that would also make money and a cult following

ya know something like half life.... oh wait

You sell a game once, but whales and consumer whores buy micropay freebuys forever.

[StrawberryZebra]

I'm sure people will praise the ever living fuck out of this Valve game like they do every other Valve game.

Valve do tend to make very solid games though. Portal, Half Life, Left for Dead etc. All very well made and recieved games, and not just because they were Valve titles. Hell, even my Dad who'd never played a video game in his life, loved Portal. They may not be to your tastes, but they do have wide appeal.

They've also had some of the better free to play models in the industry with Dota and TF2. Getting into the card game market might be a debatable move, especially given how many of them are flooding the market at the moment, but I don't see any particular reason as to why a Dota themed card game wouldn't work out. Having a board split into three lanes opens up lots of ways to add strategic depth to the game without adding over the top levels of complexity that can come with MTG.

[Eleccybubb]

I'm sure people will praise the ever living fuck out of this Valve game like they do every other Valve game.

Considering their previous games and attitude to the F2P model then good.

Valve actually make some half decent games.

Portal series, Left 4 Dead, CSGO, Dota 2 and Half Life.

Look at Dota 2 and CSGO. One is F2P with a cosmetic cash shop and no P2W and the other is B2P with loot crates that are purely optional.

[Ausr]

Eh, I think they're a bit highly overrated. I'll give them Portal 1 and L4D1 and Dota. I think CSGO, Portal 2/L4D2, and Half Life are exaggerated very much with how they are praised.