Artifact card game dota. Amazing Artifact: what is Valve's new card game

Streamers, players and commentators will rush to broadcast the game. Already on November 19, those who obtained the key at The International, PAX or in the depths of the Internet will have access to it. But while ordinary workers have not been able to touch the new card game from Valve, they have already managed to come up with many myths and conjectures.

Myth 1: I have to pay every time I want to play

Valve made a big mistake when, during the release of the first ArtiFAQ, it was not very clear in the paragraph about the available competitive game modes (they are called "competitions"). All that was known was that the goal of the participants was to win a certain number of matches, and they could get there with a special ticket. This started a rumor that without throwing an extra penny into Gaben’s pocket, he wouldn’t be able to play with anyone other than his friends and bots. But already during the introductory tournament, the developers corrected their mistake.

First of all, free modes exist. The first is "Call of Battle". Players are offered a choice of one of six decks that the developers compiled themselves. The task of users is to win as many matches as possible in a row. However, it is not necessary to own all the cards. You don’t even have to open your bags for this.

The pitfall: the regime risks getting boring too quickly.

The second entertainment option is a regular game. Build your deck and press the search for an opponent button. If Valve has not made a mistake with the wording again, then you can play in the usual “global search” mode (against a random player) or in the “competition” mode, when opponents will become stronger with each game. In this mode, you control your own deck and must have usable cards in your collection.

After the announcements, rumors began to circulate about a free draft (a mode from an introductory tournament, when a player gradually selects cards for a deck), but so far they have not been confirmed by anything.

If everything is so simple, then why are there so many dissatisfied people? The fact is that all these modes do not offer rewards. That is, you can actually play by paying only $20 for . But it is impossible to get cards, packs or other rewards this way. To do this, you will have to participate in “expert competitions”, which require an entrance fee (you will be given five of these when you purchase the game). And as experienced players suggest, it’s almost impossible to constantly get into them plus or at least 0. That is, unless you are a genius at card games and marketing, then you will have to pay to expand your collection. And the free modes still resemble playing for the sake of playing. It’s difficult to feed this to users.

Myth 2: I'll spend all my money on packs!

Valve suggests that you spend your money not on packs with cards, but on entrance tickets to various competitions. When you purchase the game, you will be given 5 tickets that you can use as you wish. At the start, there are three ways to spend them.

The first is to build a deck and start a "competition". The players' task is to win 5 times while losing less than 3 times. If you manage to win three matches, you will get your entry ticket back, and after 4 wins you will also be rewarded with packs of cards.

The second option is a phantom draft. The developers presented this mode at the introductory tournament. Players select cards from different sets, build a deck, and compete. But these cards are only given to you to “hold”; you cannot take them for yourself. Also, after 4 wins, a set with cards will be given as a reward.

The third option is the most tempting - a complete draft. The same selection process, but you can keep the cards for yourself. However, to enter the competition you will have to pay 2 tickets at once and sacrifice five personal kits. If you manage to win 3 victories with your assembled deck, then in addition to it you will receive an additional pack and your tickets will be returned. For five matches won, you will be given 3 sets of cards at once. Some Reddit users thought this was the most profitable way to spend a starter kit.

For those who want to minimize their costs for the game, but still have fun, players recommend immediately mastering the trading platform. It will be possible to sell cards and buy additional ones. Usually at the start their price is greatly inflated, so those that are rare but not very needed can be sold for a higher price. Players participating in beta testing suggest that at first this strategy will be much more profitable than buying kits. Moreover, many sites already have card strength ratings, and streamers will have time to demonstrate the strongest heroes and their combinations within a week.

Myth 3: complete randomness!

Random is the main topic of discussion of any card game. No one who has already tried Valve's game says that the game is completely free from the influence of chance. Even the spectators of the introductory tournament managed to understand how much the distribution of creeps on the line and the initial arrangement sometimes decide. What can I say, items from the Secret Shop that appear randomly won entire games for some participants.

However, players who have spent several months in the game are ready to convince us that the number of randomnesses is balanced by various mechanics. For example, for Naiman the randomness is leveled by three lines.

“Let's take Hearthstone, for example. If the randomness did not work in our favor, then we are behind in the game situation. If random did not play in our favor in Artifact, then it did not play in our favor on one of the lines. Therefore, we can take advantage of the failure and strengthen the remaining lines,” he said in an interview.

The developers remind you that the player can balance the process using different abilities and items. Some spells can help allies on the other line, but teleport and Blink are a must-have. Otherwise, it's a regular card game with its pros and cons regarding randomness. Yes, it will also light up if the required card does not arrive.

“On the maps themselves there is almost no randomness at all. There are, of course, a couple of random cards, but, in principle, I don’t see any problem in this, because basically everything is very competent. I recently played a game: I have two red and one green heroes, and my whole hand is filled with green cards - just green ones, I can’t do anything,” Maria harleen Kobzar said in an interview with Cybersport.

Myth 4: I will never be a pro player, everything is already taken there

Naturally, on the wave of universal love for eSports and the announcement of a tournament with $1 million for first place, everyone began to worry about the question of how to become a pro player. And looking at the fact that all the avid “gamblers” from MTG, HS and Gwent are already competing with might and main and registering for tournaments, ordinary hard workers give up. However, there are a few “buts” here.

Let's start with the fact that in any eSports discipline there are players who started playing during the times of the mammoths. But this does not prevent talented guys who have never seen mammoths from now lifting championship cups. Of course, not all at once, but there is a chance.

Secondly, already while watching the introductory tournament, even viewers in the chat noticed obvious mistakes of professional players. They may have several months of experience behind them, but not all of them play flawlessly. In addition, beginners already have so many educational materials at their disposal that they can become experts just by watching videos on YouTube.

Thirdly, now there are not only invitational tournaments for A-list stars, but also for ordinary hard workers. For example, the site Brainscans.net plans to hold championships for small cash prizes and card sets. Anyone can take part in them. And enthusiasts are already creating websites that will collect information about various championships.

Moreover, Valve itself and Valve offer tools for creating different tournaments. So there will obviously be competition where and with whom.

The main problem of those wishing to get into eSports is the lack of a ladder. The developers want you to have fun and enjoy yourself, not suffer for every step up the stairs. At least for now. So the hardest thing will not be to learn how to play better than a pro, but to get noticed.

Myth 5: It’s so difficult, I’ll never figure it out

At first glance, it looks like some kind of madness, especially if you start getting acquainted with the game by watching matches of pro players. They throw cards, buy some artifacts, and also these circles next to the towers! But in reality, understanding the basics is not that difficult.

The game will include training, which the organizers of the introductory tournament have already shown. Alexey Lex Filippov commented on it in detail.

Users of other card games may at first be unfamiliar with the presence of three lines, which implies skillful distribution of resources. But, for example, Gwent players can relate the lines to the usual rounds, and those coming from Hearthstone will have no problem understanding mana management.

Believe it or not, even Dota 2 players can gain a slight advantage. While those who have never seen Valve's MOBA are intensively memorizing and memorizing the heroes and their signature abilities, you already know most of their skills. You won't be surprised when Bounty Hunter puts Track on you, and Sven deals damage not only to the target, but also to neighboring units. In fact, dota players are already familiar with almost every mechanic of the game, but only in Dota 2. So they can simply skip this difficult memorization stage.

Moreover, there is a game mode with bots, which can be given any possible cards. You can study with virtually no damage to your pride.

If you are still in doubt about whether it is worth spending 1,400 rubles on and who knows how much on kits and cards, then just watch the streams before the official launch of the game. You still won't receive any additional bonuses for pre-ordering. But you will understand how much the process can captivate you. Surely, there will also be streamers on Twitch who will log into the game for the first time and will not have a complete collection on hand.

And remember that if something goes wrong, Valve can always come up with new free modes or add rewards. The main thing is for Reddit to complain louder.

The other day Valve showed some lucky people their game Artifact. A variation on the theme of card entertainment being developed in the studio was announced at The International 2017 and, as you might guess, is dedicated to the next showdown of heroes from the Dota 2 universe.

The first and perhaps the main news of the presentation is that Artifact will be paid. I mean, not free-to-play. The fact that additional sets of cards will ruin happy gamers is known to everyone immediately and in advance, but probably only great experts on Valve’s internal politics expected to see the fee for the “entrance ticket”. The mobile version of Atrifact, accordingly, will also be paid. Exactly how much buyers will have to pay for the game key has not been announced.

But players will be able to sell their cards! The main platform for exchanging cards for relatively real money will, of course, be the Steam Marketplace.

Artifact itself, suddenly, is trying to copy the rules of Dota 2 in its own way. For example, the general game board is divided into three sectors, symbolizing “lines” familiar to any MOBA fan. A doubly sudden moment - along these same lines, gamers will have to distribute five heroes. Three times suddenly, faceless creep minions will also appear on local lanes.

Every turn, your heroes, creeps, and other comrades in arms will attack enemies directly in front of them. Usually. The joke is that absolutely every first move Artifact additionally fills up the empty corners of the game board with “road” cards that change the rules of attack and, for example, force units to hit diagonally to the right.

Another big surprise: on each of the sectors there is a tower with 40hp. To win the game, you need to either break two of the three towers, or first break the tower on at least one of the lines, and then break apart the main building with 80 HP left without cover. Thus, victory in Artifact is achieved in very different ways, depending on the strategies chosen by gamers.

At the same time, the above-described layout sharply distinguishes the new product from the same Hearthstone and its numerous clones. Mana crystals, however, are in place and work exactly the same as in the hit from Blizzard. One move - plus one crystal. What HS doesn't have as a resource, but Artifact does have, is gold. It is obtained according to the Dota 2 tradition by killing enemies, and is spent between turns for artifacts and other items of equipment. The latter, by the way, are used just like that, without spending mana.

Local cards are divided into four colorful types: green, blue, red and black. A regular Dota 2 player might think that the distribution is somehow related to the well-known agility-strength-intelligence system, but it seems that this is not entirely the case. The main strength of “green” cards is in creeps and various amplifiers, blue ones are more about cool magic and relatively weak heroes, red ones are, on the contrary, about strong heroes and weak spells, and black ones are about focused fire on one target and displacing cards from their cells .

In general, if you look at the big picture, Artifact is more similar to Magic the Gathering than Hearthstone. In addition to dividing cards into colors, Valve's game invites gamers to create decks of much larger sizes than HS. The standard maximum for computer card games is 30 cards - this is not for Artifect with its minimum decks of 40 cards and an unlimited “ceiling”. Yes, by the way, you can also hold as many cards as you like in your hands at the same time. And on each line you can place as many units as you like. An eyewitness reports that during the demonstration, as many as a hundred (hundred!) fighters once crowded on one single line. In such conditions, thick sets of hundreds of cards from MTG exotics can turn into one of the gaming standards.

In addition to the obvious integration of Artifact with the Steam Marketplace, the developers want to immediately launch the project in the Steam Workshop so that, for example, third-party artists will draw unusual illustrations for cards. Entire significant mods, however, will not be supported at the start, but in general Valve has plans to introduce custom everything in the world into Artifact.

The game will not have any different single-player campaigns or other individual entertainment. A few training tasks, and go straight into battle with live opponents. Only multiplayer, only hardcore.

Also, apparently, gamers will have to abandon the idea of ​​blitz games, where the outcome of the match is decided in just a couple of minutes. Clearly, Valve believes that the public has already thoroughly experienced the concept of digital card games and no longer needs the simplest entertainment with minimalistic decks of cards, a lot of randomness and the simplification of everything that can be simplified.

The time for serious, thoughtful computer games will come at the end of 2018. Mobile clients of Artifact should only catch up by 2019. At that time, various people involved tell us, Valve will hold the first (or maybe not) major tournament for the game with a prize pool of a million dollars.

There's definitely something to look forward to for card game fans.

Valve is a large private company that has released games such as Left 4 Dead, the Half-Life series, Portal puzzle games, the Counter-Strike (CS) series of first-person shooter games, and probably the longest-running multiplayer project, Team Fortress 2. All of them left a solid mark on the industry. For the last seven and a half years, Valve has been busy reworking existing ideas, turning them into long-term projects that can bring Valve hundreds of millions of dollars. Not only that, Steam also brings the company about 30% of all sales on the service.

Valve makes a colossal amount of money. The exact amounts are not known, because Valve is a private company and is not required to publish financial reports. If we take into account game sales through the service, the audience of Dota 2, TF2 and CS:GO, the company should receive quite large amounts of money, approximately one and a half billion per year.

Part of the funds goes towards operating expenses. The other part is for modernization and experiments with VR, development of prototypes and other futuristic hardware. More for reinvestment and other developments. A fairly reasonable (logical) question arises - how much money is left for games?
Judging by Valve's latest announcement - a card game based on the Dota2 universe, Valve has little money to produce games. Not enough that Valve is ready to grab the market for card games, which have been released by everyone in recent years.

Against the backdrop of news that veterans are leaving Valve, in particular those who worked on scripts, such news raises questions about what do game developers do at Valve itself? Not engineers, artists and modellers, but those people who directly come up with game design,

New card game Artifact from Valve is the right decision. Unexpected, but completely meaningful. Especially since Valve brought in Sean Plott, aka Day9, to host the streams. Sean is known for being watched by a large number of Hearthstone players. Not only do they have a cool host, but they also have one that is watched by the audience of a competing card game. The most important thing is that the Dota card game will be played. Why? Because this game has a large audience, and also good lore.

However, this is the industry - arena multiplayer, card games, e-sports-e-sports-e-sports. The industry has found a gold mine and is hammering it until the picks are worn out. And Valve is also investing in a potentially revolutionary technology that could become an analogue of Dota in the 2020s, when new sensations will replace the bulging eyes from masterful combos.

While the Dota audience is spending hundreds of millions on cosmetic improvements and other goodies, Valve will be involved in Dota. Card games, comics, figurines, hats, cups, posters, trinkets, videos, you name it. After all, the main goal of any successful company is not to earn a lot of money, but to earn all the money from the product it has invented. And Valve has no plans to end it just yet.

Forget Half-Life. For the coming 5-7 years. Perhaps never. Because now is the time for franchise shooters, and not stories about portals and other worlds like Zen.

At the beginning of this year, we talked about the five most anticipated ones. Among them was Valve's new card game Artifact, about which there was very little information. But on March 9, the ban was lifted and immediately screenshots and videos of gameplay began appearing on various social networks.

Artifact

It’s worth clarifying right away that Artifact is not a full-fledged Dota 2 game; it only took the idea of ​​​​this multiplayer game as a basis. Artifact will be released in late 2018 on Windows, Mac and Linux. The game will also appear on Android and iOS, but in 2019. At the same time, the game will not be free, but the cost will be symbolic, around $10. Before the game is released, there will definitely be stages of closed and open beta testing, which both players and the press will be able to access. Recently, card games have become very popular. One of the reasons for this popularity is the short match sessions; in Artifact, matches will last approximately 12 minutes. But one of the players, who had already played, noted that his first match ended very quickly, but the second, on the contrary, lasted quite a long time. Valve is still working on the gameplay and will solve such problems.

New Hearthstone?

Artifact has been compared to Blizzard's most popular card game, Hearthstone. But this is not so and the Valve project is seriously different from Hearthstone. From the published screenshots of the game, it becomes clear that the battle will take place not on one table, but on three. In this case, there is a clear reference to Dota 2 where there are 3 lines and it is these 3 tables that represent the 3 lines. The game will completely abandon game randomness, that is, having the rarest cards in the game, you will not defeat everyone. The cards themselves can be sold and exchanged on the Steam trading platform. The gaming community will also offer cards. The most unexpected news was that at the beginning of 2019 a tournament for the new game will be held with a total prize pool of $1 million. The release of the game, according to Valve CEO Gabe Newell, will be an impetus for the development of the company. Valve will be more active in releasing games and Artifact is far from the last project we will see in the near future.