Dota 2 inspired collectable card game Artifact will officially release on November 28th, Valve has announced. Artifact will be available on Steam for PC, Mac, and Linux, while mobile versions of the game for iOS and Android should see the light of day in 2019.
The game is being developed in collaboration with legendary designer Richard Garfield of Magic: The Gathering fame and hopes to offer ‘deepest gameplay and highest fidelity experience ever in a fantasy card game’.
Borrowing heavily from its MOBA source material, Artefact game play mimics the three lane setup of Dota 2 and sees players battle on three rotating fronts from top, down to middle, and then bottom. To win, players must destroy two out of three of the towers on the opposite end of each lane, or otherwise destroy the Ancient hidden behind the towers.
The lanes are largely isolated, though certain cards and spells can have an effect across the board. Each lane also has a set amount of mana that increases after each turn and determines how effective cards can be. Cards will also respawn after a short timer in a similar fashion to when a hero dies in Dota 2
At launch, Artifact will feature 280 cards, 44 of which are hero cards. As with other collectible card games, sets can be supplemented with purchasable booster packs post-release and, further down the line, expansions. Players will also be able flesh out their sets by trading, buying and selling cards on Steam’s Marketplace. The game will not be free-to-play though
Valve is clearly eager to rival the likes of Hearthstone or Gwent and has already announced the first Artifact tournament scheduled for early 2019 with a 1 million dollar prize pool.
In the meantime, Artifact will be playable at PAX West latest this month in the form of a friendly gauntlet-style tournament with merch, copies of the game, and the chance to play on stage at the event for the most successful players.
