Valve's Brad Muir answers your Shacknews Chatty questions about Artifact
The former Double Fine Productions staffer answers our queries about Valve's upcoming card game.
Valve Software made waves last year during the Dota 2 International tournament by announcing Artifact, its first new game in more than five years by way of video teaser. The studio behind Half-Life, Portal, Team Fortress 2, and Left 4 Dead remains incredibly popular with PC gamers, despite the lack of new games. Artifact is an all-new card game that is being designed by Richard Garfield, the man who brought the world Magic: The Gathering. The Shacknews street team got a chance to speak with Valve Gameplay Programmer (and former Double Fine programmer) Brad Muir at Pax West 2018 and toss him some questions directly from the Shacknews Chatty.
Muir goes on to explain why Artifact offers opportunity and value to card gaming fanatics, the structure of the game’s business model, card variants, and more. He expressed optimism that the team hopes to have a solid, balanced game with a usable marketplace for end users. Muir also touches on the resurgence of board games in recent years and making sure Artifact is easily playable with your friends.
Valve expects to launch Artifact by the end of 2018. For more videos, including gameplay and interviews, visit the Shacknews and GamerHub.tv YouTube channels. You may also want to check out our 2018 video game release date guide for a list of upcoming games and the dates you can expect them to arrive.
-
Shacknews
replyChris Jarrard posted a new article, Valve's Brad Muir answers your Shacknews Chatty questions about Artifact
-
-
It is no different than most of the other card games. And the Steam market might actually end up saving people money depending on how common/expensive rare cards are.
-
Your opinion bores me. The TCG community at large is excited for this game. It appears to have a high skill cap with tons of money on the line at the biggest tournaments. Can't wait!
-
-
Basically, people who play card games are used to buying packs.
Artifact is actually quite generous by genre standards b/c they only have three levels of rarity: common/uncommon/rare, and a rare is guaranteed in every pack. MtG has Mythics, HearthStone has Legendaries, etc, and those extra rarities dramatically increase what it takes to build play sets, specific decks, etc. That combined with a single marketplace to dump your excess duplicates (and eventually trading!) will keep singles prices down. Artifact will be dramatically cheaper to play than most of it's competitors, which is a big part of why I am promoting the game so hard.-
huh, that's interesting, I didnt know that.
-
That sounds pretty cool. I always wanted to get into a TCG, but I've always been put off by the amount of money that goes into it. I was definitely one of those groans when when I saw the reveal trailer, but I'm kinda getting on board with it.
-
-
Predatory? How?
-
Degrees matter. Here's Richard Garfield's thoughts on the model:
https://m.facebook.com/notes/richard-garfield/a-game-players-manifesto/1049168888532667
-
-
-
That's fine! I just took exception to it being labeled a cash grab.
-
-
-
[deleted]
-
-
Im skeptical any of the cards will hold value over a few pennies expect top tier rare cards. Itll be interesting to see though
-
-
-
A solid seven minutes of that consisted of just my questions, including the joke question I didn't expect you to read! Glad you got a laugh out of it though, Asif. :)
-
“Let me reword that!” lol
-
lmao!!
-
I love how Brad immediately said, “I’m not going to answer that.”
-
While laughing, no less! I hope it was a little cathartic for him lol...
-
-
-
-
-
Artifact looks genuinely marvelous from a strategic perspective. So many top CCG players are gushing about the depth offered by the game.
I've watched beta testers do replay analyses from games at PAX, and the most striking part is how often they feel there isn't a single correct move on any given turn.-
It's going to be glorious. :)
-
I saw it at PAX live, it was interesting to see that valve is trying to add depth via "laning" and what not. it definitely is adding some new layers to CCG.
one night I was watching good ol' kripp play hearthstone. I didn't know there's overlays that effectively automate the game. I wonder what/how valve will deal with that.
-
-
In other Artifact news, Valve has started doing daily card reveals in the run up to the beta and game release.
https://twitter.com/PlayArtifact/status/1041795476956180481
People in the beta say Duel is one of the best cards in the game, and Gank looks to be similarly powerful. Anything that lets you engage in combat prior to the combat phase is extremely powerful. The best case scenario with Gank is you execute a 2-for-1 trade in a single round, eliminating an enemy hero from another lane before your opponent can react. That means when the game shifts over to that lane, they may be completely locked out of playing any spells.
https://twitter.com/Savjz/status/1041022668282068993
Tidehunter's signature spell, Kraken Shell, is the first card we've seen that manipulates initiative. This card sort of breaks the rules of the game. Initiative is a system wherein after you play a card, you pass initiative to your opponent. If they play a card in return, you regain initiative. You can then pass and guarantee you play a card first in the next lane. Kraken Shell makes it so you can both be the last player to play a card in your lane and the first in the next lane. Initiative can be game deciding as it lets you play removal spells like Gank or board wipes like Annihilation before your opponent can reacct. -
-
-
isn't he just a contractor? I don't think he's an FTE for anyone, he's got another new physical card game coming out this winter
-
-
<3 Brad. He's a class act human being
-
-
Wasn’t Brad Muir with Double Fine? Didn’t know he’s at Valve now.
-
That is correct.
-
-
Great interview, nice to hear from Valve.
-
[deleted]
-
"so I don't... um... see why this is a game that needs to exist?"
This is one of the most tiresome arguments on the internet.
Not everything is made for everyone. If something popular isn't for you then whatever, move on. Twilight isn't my thing but I don't begrudge the Twihards at all for their fandom, whatever. "I don't like a thing so I don't see why it should exist" is such a narcissistic view of products.-
[deleted]
-
[deleted]
-
-
-
[deleted]
-
-
-
[deleted]
-
