Gary Games had a demo version of their in-development game SolForge at their GenCon booth this year. After playing a handful of games, I’m on board 100%.
SolForge is a digital trading card game. You have a deck of 40 cards, and you draw 5 cards each turn, discarding any cards you don’t use. The player with the first turn only gets to play 1 card, otherwise each turn you can play up to 2 cards from your hand. When you play a card, you put a copy of it into play, then discard an upgraded version of the card. This means that there is a Rank 1 card in play, but a Rank 2 card in your discard pile. This becomes very relevant once 4 turns have passed (i.e. you have drawn 20 cards), when you shuffle your discard pile into your deck. On your fifth turn, you have a chance of drawing one of your Rank 2 cards, which are typically quite a bit more powerful than your Rank 1 cards.
The playing field consists of 5 columns, half of the field being yours and the other half your opponent’s. Cards attack directly across, so creatures will only attack creatures across from it, or the other player directly if there is nothing blocking the way. Each player has 100 health, and the objective is to reduce your opponent’s health to zero first.
As friend Dan put it, the demo consists of 2 starter decks that are uncustomizable, yet the game is already that cool. There is so much potential to a game like this once you factor in deck customization and card design space. The art is also beautiful.
SolForge is currently on Kickstarter, with the current goal, to fully fund the game, at $250,000. As of this post, $136,000 have been pledged. There is currently a GenCon special where donating at least $25 earns you an additional starter deck in addition to the starter deck you receive as part of the $25 tier. This special has been extended until 12 AM PST on Wednesday, August 22. I encourage everyone who reads this to check out the project and, if you are so inclined, donate some money to it! I’d be glad to answer any questions about gameplay and such in the comments to the best of my ability, otherwise checking out some of the videos floating around might help as well!
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