Ukrainian indie studio, Monolith Mind, is looking for beta testers for the company’s new mobile CCG (collectible card game), Insilentium.
In a market saturated with titles eager to ride the coattails of Magic: The Gathering and Hearthstone, Monolith Mind has taken unique new twists to the genre.
As seen in the above image from the game’s Google Play Store page, Insilentium is played on a tic-tac-toe looking board. However, the 3×3 grid offers a lot more complexity than writing “O”s and “X”s. Players summon their cards on the forging lane, the row closest to them. The cards then have to make their way to the opponent’s forging lane to deal direct damage to the opponent. As a result, both players will forge cards to impede the progress of their opponent.
Besides the fresh new layout, another distinct feature of Insilentium is the lack of a mana or energy system. In many CCGs, players pay the cost to summon or play a card by paying mana, energy or the equivalent resource. Insilentium uses a level system and a set number of actions per turn.
Each player makes one action on the first turn, and two actions per turn from the second turn onwards. After every 4 turns, the game’s level system increases, allowing creatures with higher level cost to be forged.
In addition to this new system, the game has another noteworthy design choice. The extreme majority of CCGs feature some form of graveyard or discard pile for destroyed cards. In Insilentium, destroyed cards are shuffled back into the deck, meaning that they are never truly removed from play. To compensate for this, players also shuffle the cards in their hand at the end of the turn and draw a new hand. This creates an exciting and dynamic feel to each match, with every turn having different options than the previous.
Note that the game was added to the Play Store and App Store only recently. Insilentium can still see major gameplay and mechanic overhauls before leaving early access. Feel free to beta test the game and be part of its development (note that for iOS, the game is only available via Testflight on iPhone).
Source: gamasutra