Our intrepid leader forwarded a press release onto me the other day and it piqued my interest enough to want to pass it on to you, our dear, highly intelligent and obviously beautiful readers…. It’s a card trading game called Coraabia and its out now. Jump to the cut for some info on this intriguing title.

Coraabia on the face of it is a simple ‘Top-Trumps’ style card strategy game. Highest number wins and ‘all that’, but underneath there seems to be a real attempt to create some extra depth, story and, well, character. Once the cards are dealt, you would usually just see who has the highest number in that stat, and then the loser, well, loses. In Coraabia the loser plays until they have no other moves. So tricks, abilities and other bonus moves can be played to help you win- once you’re winning the other side gets to go and so on until you’ve exhausted your options, or decided to ‘lose’ this battle. It’s quite an interesting take on the Top Trumps formula and could add a really nice tactical edge to what is already, lets be honest here, a fairly successful formula. It’s certainly made the list of titles i need to try before Xmass.

Here, have some promotional quotes:

THIS IS SCI-FI TCG WITH THE RICHEST MYTHOLOGY

The storyline of the game evolves according to actions the players take and which in turn become canon. The game offers story-driven events on a weekly basis, where players stand against each other by backing the interest group, ethnicity, or political movement they support. Each card in the game has its own backstory that is gradually revealed as you play with it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FLuCmYiFmDc

There’s an interesting attempt there to add a degree of permanence to your actions, which if nothing else sounds really interesting.

20 YEARS OF EVOLUTION

The case study of Coraabia is a crazy story about turning a childhood idea into an AAA title with no money. The project started in 1994 in the form of hand-made paper cards, and the last 7 years saw those transformed into a fully online game experience. What started as a dream of 7 friends is now a mission of 15 developers and 30 externists. All working for free, because everyone believes something unique is being born. No need for an investor when you’re driven by passion and wish to create something awesome and innovative.
http://gamesauce.org/news/2014/08/18/coraabia-from-childhood-idea-to-a-full-game/

This is clearly a work of love and dedication, which from what I’ve seen, shows in the game itself. There is an attention to detail that’s staggering! Especially with the card information, backstories and history. Each card has a detailed backstory that is unlocked as you play. There are 5 factions, and a universe as a’game board’.

NO OTHER ONLINE CARD GAME WORKS WITH MORE ARTISTS

444 Coraabia Artists from 63 countries are participating on the game as of now. Many of them are well-known names working on Hollywood spectacles and AAA game titles, others are illustrators for the pioneer of the TCG genre, Magic: The Gathering. With more than 1000 artworks, Coraabia has a unique, gritty and yet spiffy visual side.
http://coraabia.gamepedia.com/Category:Coraabia_Artists

This is one of the things that struck me first- the game is pretty- as you’d expect from a card game, but the art is sublime. Given the huge number of hugely talented artists involved in this, they’ve somehow managed to keep an overall aesthetic that works. That is no mean feat.

I’m mightily tempted with this. If I can carve some time out in my schedule i’ll give it a look, though I certainly think it’s worth exploring on your own if you’re into this type of game.