Mojang, the creators of the immensely popular Minecraft, have announced that the company's next project, the collectible card game Scrolls, will be heading into a paid beta phase in April.
The company plans to roll out the game in similar fashion to Minecraft, in that the first beta of the game will be sold at a discounted rate, then as the game becomes more complete the company will charge more for the game. Mojang cofounder and game designer Jakob Porser spoke to Polygon about his hope that Scrolls can attract the same type of fanbase that Minecraft has.
"We've been wanting to release it for awhile because we want to have the same sort of development as Minecraft. We'll release it early at a discount. With the help from our community, we'll take the game to the next level and see what we want to do and what they expect out of the game and you can work around that," Porser said.
Scrolls is a mixture of a traditional card game and a board game, with players building a deck of cards representing various warriors and creatures. Players then position these cards on the board and attack the opponent's cards or base. Players will be able to face off against each other, or go through a single-player campaign.
This news come on the heels of Blizzard announcing their own card battle game, Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft at PAX East. Porser is confident that both games shall be able to do well and benefit from each other.
"I'm a huge Blizzard fan, they make great games. But at the same time you can view this in so many different ways. This could potentially be something that could broaden the market. Also, if Blizzard believes in this genre then maybe we're moving in the right direction," he said.
Expect more news on Scrolls when the beta official launches next month on the PC.