It’s a simple recipe. Take one part tactical board game, one part deck building, one part Mojang. Add Penny Arcade writer Jerry Holkins (Tycho). Simmer in Sweden, render and serve up one of my most anticipated indie titles this year: Scrolls.
This new launch trailer gives us a solid glimpse of the unique blend that’s to come. The cinematics are certainly very indie, in that the production value is as high as it needs to be to get the point across, and no more. There’s a great variety of maps (though the map types seem to all be the same). The variety in decks or armies or what-have-you look to be very diverse, hopefully with enough strategy built in to keep the replayability at it’s max.
The aesthetics all around are good, but the gameplay is certainly the main attraction. I’m not entirely convinced it’s a game that’s entirely “missing from the market”, as this flavor of strategic board game play can be found in many places. At the same time, the market on high quality gameplay systems like the one Scrolls proposes isn’t full just yet.
The strategy to enthrall the player is there. The diversity in approach if not gameplay is there. The collectibility to make an addict of me sure is. The multiplayer aspects to make all this come together online is there. Now we wait for release…
A price tag has also been announced at £13/€15/$20. No release date has been set other than sometime in 2013. Fret not, the beta should be arriving soon, so keep yourself updated!
