We're very pleased to announce that we've partnered with DropForge Games to bring Card Hunter to tablets. I'll be back to answer questions but, right now, if you have any, join me, Richard Garfield and David and Joe from DropForge on reddit for an AMA. http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/20f1dn/we_are_richard_garfield_creator_of_magic_the/ Here's the full press release: http://dropforge.com/category/press-release/ DropForge Games to Bring Multi-Award Winning PC Game Card HunterTM to Mobile Blue Manchu’s acclaimed PC game is ideally suited for, and coming to tablets March 13,2014 – DropForge Games, www.dropforge.com, the newly formed Seattle-based mobile games company announced today that, in partnership with Sydney-based Blue Manchu, they will be developing and publishing a mobile version of Card HunterTM(www.cardhunter.com) for release on tablets. Card Hunter, a unique hybrid role-playing game (RPG) and card collection game (CCG), has been extraordinarily well received by both players and game critics alike. Its awards and recognitions include being in Game of the Year lists published by PC Gamer, The Artery, Digital Life, Gamezebo and Yahoo Games. Card Hunter is also nominated for a Game Developers Choice Award as Best Debut Game in 2013. “The number one request from the Card Hunter community has been ‘when will this be on my tablet?’” remarked Jon Chey, founder and CEO of Blue Manchu and the game’s principal designer. “The game’s design screams out for a tablet experience.” Card Hunter was the result of a design-collaboration between Jon Chey, Richard Garfield and Skaff Elias. Garfield and Elias were, respectively, the original designer and business manager for the pre-eminent hit, Magic: the Gathering. “We think card games will be huge,” commented David Bluhm, CEO of DropForge and 14 year mobile games veteran. “And we aim to bring a new, exciting hybrid game genre to more than 200 million tablets.” About DropForge DropForge was founded in Seattle by former game industry pioneers and is focused on building world-class games for a worldwide audience. About Blue Manchu Blue Manchu was formed by Jon Chey after leaving BioShock developer Irrational Games, of which he was a director and co-founder. Chey started Blue Manchu, a self-funded studio, as a vehicle for creating unique and original games. The studio’s first game, Card Hunter, was released in 2013 and has been both widely acclaimed as highly innovative and exceptionally well-received by the game community.
You know, I had a feeling that you guys were building up to this. While I don't have a tablet, I'm glad that you're going to be able to get to a wider customer base so you can keep improving this game.
So will the ipad version allow me to log in with my current account and keep all my stuff? ie. Is this a CH client? or a new version?
From the AMA: Unfortunately, the tablet thing is entirely separate. It's even being made by a different developer (DropForge), although at least one the original CardHunter team (Joe McDonagh) is apparently high up at the studio.
Yep, we certainly considered just making a tablet client that logged into the same servers as the browser one. The big problem is release scheduling: we just don't have the control over new client versions released through the app stores that we do online. So, we decided to work with someone else to develop a tablet version that stands alone. How similar it is going to be to the browser version is very much up to Joe and his team. The fact that he's worked on the original version is obviously a huge plus. I'm confident that they will do a great job and re-creating (and improving) the Card Hunter experience on a new platform.
Would it have been possible to just delay browser updates until the app version goes live? And when Twitter feed says "desktop client", does it mean what we're using now, or an offline version? I'd still like to see an offline board editor, or even a separate online editor client; there's just no reason to try to share code with the game client.
Pretty much every update to an app client has to go through validation - so the devs have less control on when they want release patches et c.
Not suprised or dismayed by the need for a stand-alone version for tablets. It's an environment that is more behholden to the gatekeepers of those particular walled gardens than devs might like. I know that it is early days, but is there anything the devs can share about pricing? Personally, I have not spent any money on the desktop client (Although that may change soon with the loot fairy and the likelyhood that it will start to show up on treasure hunt quests), but I would be very likely to spend money on the tablet client. PS. Please don't make the mistake of releasing for iPad with a vague promise to get around to Android 'whenever.'
"Desktop client" means a downloadable installable client. It would still have to connect to the game server to play though, should such a thing get released
This kind of stuff is all going to be up to DropForge, although I'm fairly certain they intend to support Android up front.
Thanks for such a timely reply. Looking forward to playing CH on the go. Somewhat dismayed by the Reddit AMA being so heavily focused on Mr. Garfields previous efforts, as I think CardHunter is a fantastic synthesis of some of the more interesting aspects of CCGs, tactical combat and F2P from the last few years. Please keep up these profile-raising efforts. You guys deserve to grow and prosper.
I think it's awesome that he still plays CardHunter with some frequency. Odds are that I have beaten, or at least lost to, Richard Garfield at a game he helped design! Also, now we all have to guess his username. >_>
Oh come on. I haven't seen anyone asking for this, but even if they're out there they definitely don't outnumber the people asking for co-op. I don't want to be a wet blanket, but that isn't even close to true. Edit: Man, I already feel bad. Shouldn't be complaining, should celebrate new stuff. I just read that and it struck me as such a bizarre statement. There are probably at least a few people out there who care about tablets.
There's been a lot of requests for Tablet support (you should check out the forum threads were people are jury-rigging it to work et c), coop is a lot harder to get done within the current game- and doesn't really bring in as many new potential customers as a brand new playerbase I guess?
Tablet and co-op are pretty much the #1 and #2 requests - though admittedly the order is debatable. Probably would have been a bad idea to issue a press release stating that "the number one request is co-op support, but tablet is number two and we're going to do it first" though
