Press Release
August 1, 2018 -- Artifact, the digital card game from legendary designer Richard Garfield and Valve (Dota 2, Steam), will be playable by attendees of this year’s PAX West in Seattle, WA (Aug 31 – Sept 3) in the game’s first public showing.
Players will battle each other in a continuous single elimination gauntlet for the right to challenge a champion on the main stage. Everyone who plays will earn Artifact merchandise, including signed prints of artwork and two keys for free copies of the game when it is released.
Targeted for release on Steam on November 28th 2018, Artifact is designed to give Trading Card Game (TCG) enthusiasts the deepest gameplay and highest fidelity experience ever in a fantasy card game. Offering more than 280 cards in the shipping set, players will be able to buy and sell cards on the Steam Community Marketplace.
Release Information:
- Desktop - Windows/Mac/Linux: November 28th, 2018
- Mobile - Android/IOS: 2019
- Price: $20 (US)
What exactly does $19.99 get you? The game maker didn't answer this in its press release, so we reached out to Valve's Doug Lombardi, who broke down the exact package included in that cost: two pre-made "base" decks of 54 cards each ("5 heroes, 9 items, and 40 other cards") and 10 sealed packs of cards, which each include 12 random cards, one of which is guaranteed to be "rare." Additional 12-card packs will be sold directly by Valve at $2 a pop at launch.
It's not dead by far.i need a TCG fix, with gwent dead I might have to mess with this
I know Brad [Muir] didn’t want to use the word “trading” earlier, but is that something you’ll be able to do with other players? Say I just got this card I know my friend wanted. Would I be able to send that directly to them?
BR: At launch, we’re going to focus on the marketplace. What we do from there is unknown right now.
Valve have responded to some raised eyebrows regarding a recently revealed card for their upcoming game Artifact by changing its name. What was once called ‘Crack The Whip’ will now become ‘Coordinated Assault’ to avoid connotations of slavery and racism when considered alongside the card’s text, which begins “modify a black hero.”
To be clear, ‘black’ cards do not refer to race, but are a gameplay classification alongside blue, green, and red. Nonetheless, Valve clearly agrees that it carried unfortunate implications and have adjusted it accordingly.
Valve’s Tweet announcing the card received a handful of feedback questioning the associations that came along with it. Alongside several reaction gifs and memes, the top response, from @MattFrasche, reads in part “You should REALLY change the name of this card. Having a card called “Crack The Whip” that says it modifies black heroes is not a good look, especially out of context.”
Others were concerned that the card could be willfully misused, which doesn’t seem especially unlikely considering the propensity of Twitch chat to twist otherwise innocuous things to their own, rather less innocuous ends. Take, for example, the ways in which people use the TriHard emote, which features a black man, Mychal “Trihex” Jefferson.
Valve’s response is low key in turn, simply reading “Crack The Whip has been renamed to Coordinated Assault.” The card’s art, which features a blue and white kobold wielding a whip over similar fighters, does not appear to have been changed.
Artifact is scheduled to release on November 28th.