Hex Vault

DragonCon 2013: HexTCG PVP Design Panel

HexVault

August 31, 2013

Card Spoilers,Convention,Cryptozoic,From the Vault,Hex Vault,Hex: MMO/TCG,Hex: Shards of Fate

DragonCon 2013

9

The DragonCon 2013 HexTCG PVP Design panel featured Cory Jones (President & CCO, Cryptozoic), Ben Stoll (Game Designer [PVP Lead], Cryptozoic), and Chris Woods (Magical Creature, Cryptozoic). I’ve posted the RAW and UNEDITED audio from the panel to SoundCloud. You’ll find quite a few card spoilers, and lots of new info about CZE’s plan for the game, including the news that Alpha will last for “months” before it switches to Beta (rather than the oft-repeated “3 weeks” comment that Cory made during the Kickstarter).

You can also see all of the slides (thanks, Cory!) Cory and Ben talked to in the slideshow above this blog entry – they are displayed in the correct order starting with the HexTCG Key Art slide and ending with the HexTCG logo. Sometime tomorrow I’ll upload a video to YouTube marrying the audio and the presentation to make it even easier to follow along.

After the panel I had the chance to catch up with Cory. He provided a couple of additional interesting tidbits. There are well over 20K backers at this point with more than 14K unique – that’s definitely higher than I thought given our perception of how many multi-pledgers there were. Also, Alpha access will be granted in phases. However, there won’t be an appreciable time difference (no more than a couple of days) between the different phases. They’re still working out the details on who gets slightly earlier access – some combination of level of Kickstarter tier and when you made your pledge most likely.

Remember to enter our iPad giveaway!

Audio Highlights (thanks, Shadowelf!)

0:00:50 No 3D World
0:01:45 AIDA
0:05:35 Sets Balanced Around Draft
0:12:38 Set 1
0:24:55 Shard of Fate
0:28:40 Gem Socketing
0:31:15 Transformation
0:36:05 Alpha end of September
0:36:10 4x every card in Alpha
0:36:32 Beta Several Months After Alpha
0:39:05 Policy/Plans of Banning/Nerfing
0:41:15 Emulating Print Sheets
0:42:00 Boxes-RNG
0:43:50 Differences With MTG (Resource System)
0:48:00 Tournaments (Hobby Retailers)
0:55:50 Security
0:58:35 Tablets

DragonCon 2013: Kickstarting Videogames Panel

HexVault

August 31, 2013

Convention,Cryptozoic,From the Vault,Hex Vault,Hex: MMO/TCG,Hex: Shards of Fate

DragonCon 2013

1

The DragonCon 2013 Kickstarting Videogames panel (AKA “How we Kickstarted Hex with special guest star Chris Avellone”) featured Cory Jones (President & CCO, Cryptozoic), Chris Woods (Magical Creature, Cryptozoic), Ben Stoll (Game Designer, Cryptozoic), Chris Avellone (Creative Director, Obsidian Entertainment), and Chris Polk. I’ve posted the the RAW and UNEDITED audio from the panel to SoundCloud. No HexTCG card spoilers or new information, but worth a listen to relive the first 30 days or so of HexTCG’s introduction to the world through Kickstarter, explore the teams’ motivations, and get their views on their relationship with their backers.

I’ll create an edited version later in the week with just the HexTCG Kickstarter-related questions and comments!

DragonCon 2013: MMO Design 101 Panel (featuring Cory Jones)

HexVault

August 30, 2013

Convention,Cryptozoic,From the Vault,Hex Vault,Hex: MMO/TCG,Hex: Shards of Fate

DragonCon 2013

4

Luckily I got my DragonCon 2013 badge in time to make it to the MMO Design 101 Panel featuring Cory (as well as Eric Bakutis [Game Designer, Elder Scroll Online], Jonathan LeCraft [Senior Game Designer, WoW], and Alex Mayberry [Lead Producer, Diablo III]). I’ve posted the the RAW and UNEDITED audio from the panel to SoundCloud. It’s not necessarily specific to HexTCG, but there are a couple of interesting points made by Cory that definitely relate to HexTCG.

DragonCon 2013: MMO Design Panel

I’ll create an edited version later in the week with just Cory’s HexTCG-related soundbites!

Hex Vault is at DragonCon 2013!

HexVault

August 30, 2013

Convention,Cryptozoic,From the Vault,Hex Vault,Hex: MMO/TCG,Hex: Shards of Fate

DragonCon 2013

0

Hex Vault is at DragonCon! I’m planning to post interviews with the CZE folks, audio recordings of the Hex-related panels (MMO Design, Kickstarter, PVP, and PVP), and anything else that might be of interest to the Hex community…

Stay tuned…

Card Mechanics: Divide // Combine [Proposed]

HexVault

August 29, 2013

Article,From the Vault,Hex Vault,Hex: MMO/TCG,Hex: Shards of Fate

No tags.

5

Greetings, and welcome to my guest “Card Mechanics” article on Hex Vault! Colin asked me to write up a more thorough concept design of a mechanic I proposed on the forums. It was going off of an idea vickrpg had of a “splitting” troop.

The idea around this mechanic is to help make a traditional “slime monster”, though it could be used for any number of unique creatures – including vickrpg’s original idea of a “band” troop where the band splits off into its individual members.

The idea involves adding 2 keywords – Divide and Combine.

Divide X [Quick Action] – this troop splits into X <name> troops, with the original attack and defense evenly divided (or unevenly, if it’s not an even division) among those X troops. The divided troops will also have and abilities the original troop had, and they share their “state” (attacking, blocking, exhausted) with the original troop.

Combine [Quick Action] – combine all other troops in play under your control with the same name into one troop. All attack and defense from each troop is added for the new troop’s defense, and any abilities any one troop has are retained on the new troop.

Crack the Vault

Hex Vault will be featuring weekly giveaways once Beta starts! Each week you’ll need to do an online scavenger hunt for the combination to the Vault. Of course, the best way to stay informed about HexTCG and hunt down fragments of the combination will be to keep up with articles posted on Hex Vault. The first person to crack the combination each week will win a prize! Anyone who cracks the vault after the weekly winner will have an opportunity to enter a drawing to win another prize.

From the Vault – the Comic

BossHoss will be authoring an original comic about HexTCG and the Hex Community. Each issue will be a great story with wonderful art, as well as an opportunity to learn something about Hex (and maybe even spot cameos of CZE employees and community members!).

Hex Hero

Hex Hero is a series inspired by the FNM Hero series. As such, the concept will be rather similar – the Hex Hero is a new player with no cards, no friends, and a limited budget. However, he has a goal – to accomplish what is thought to be the holy grail of TCG: Going Infinite. You can see a full description of Hex Hero here.

Card Mechanics

If you’ve been following Hex Vault, you’ve already seen the first 2 Card Mechanics articles! Myself or a guest contributor will be covering existing or proposed Hex mechanics in a series of articles that you can expect to see weekly on Hex Vault. I’ve already been inundated with ideas for mechanics – definitely worth keeping an eye out for whatever we dream up next!

HexTCG Limited & Constructed Videos, Streams & Analysis

Once Alpha starts we’ll be posting gameplay videos, draft videos, etc. For many of the gameplay videos we post raw footage of, we’ll also be posting edited versions with analysis and commentary (including showing both sides of key match-ups). We’ve started a PVP Team and many of our members will be streaming frequently so that you can follow along as we refine constructed decks and get ready for the larger tournaments. You won’t want to miss this content – most of the guys on the team have significant TCG experience and have already shown an intricate understanding of what it takes to win at the highest levels in both Constructed and Limited.

HexTCG PVE Strategies

In addition to our extensive PVP coverage, we also plan to provide PVE strategies too. Hints, tips, walkthroughs – whatever you need in you quest to conquer all the HexTCG has to offer.

Convention Coverage

Hopefully our GenCon 2013 coverage gave you an idea of what to expect when we visit conventions where HexTCG has a presence. We’ll be making it to as many Hex-related conventions as possible and brining you reports, pictures, interviews, and videos that will be of interest to the Hex community.

Thank you for visiting Hex Vault! I hope you’ll come back in the future to catch up on everything that’s going on in the HexTCG community!

Colin

HexTCG Extended Art Redux – Future Possibilities

HexVault

August 26, 2013

Article,From the Vault,Hex Vault,Hex: MMO/TCG,Hex: Shards of Fate

No tags.

8

A recent article here on Hex Vault showed a somewhat forgotten image of the Set 1 art for the Wild PvP troop “Pack Raptor” (rather than the Kickstarter Exclusive Alternate Art version). Perhaps more importantly this article also showed the Extended Art and sparked a discussion about this rarely discussed feature within HexTCG.

As a brief interlude, I am Hammer, and I have been playing TCG’s and dTCG’s for more than 10 years. I am an avid collector at heart; loving alternate art, extended art, foil and any other promo card! It shouldn’t be hard to understand why my $500 pledge for the kick-starter went against 2 of the collector tiers This is my first article focussed on HexTCG and I am excited to start expanding (no pun intended!) on the original Extended Art feature.

Each card in HexTCG has a “Double Back”, listing a set of challenges that enable the unlocking of a Foil effect, Extended Art, or both (i.e. an Extended Art Foil Effect card). It appears that every piece of card art for Hex has either been drawn with the Extended Art in-mind, or with the full art being cropped, to hide an element of the art to allow the art to fit within the card frame. The complexity and difficulty to unlocking these art features isn’t known yet, but based on the full art revealed on the HexTCG.com website we do have a pretty good understanding of how some of the Extended Art might look.

This article will take a look at the images we have seen so far and, hopefully, spark a discussion on whether it will be desirable to unlock the Extend Art and the type of “Easter Eggs” we might expect to reveal within the larger piece of card art.

Disclaimer: the cards below have been mocked-up using the full-art images taken from the HexTCG.com site and overlaid on the card. For reference, the mockups have been overlaid on to the un-extended art version of the card. This is for illustrative purposes only – the exact look of the Extended Art cards will likely vary.

I mentioned previously that I had backed the Kickstarter for HexTCG: the Extended Art Urunaaz in the Dragon Blood Starter caught my eye early on, and memories of this were jogged recently by the news and spoiler from the Dragon Lord Dinner of the Sapphire Dragon “Zeedu”. We also got to see the full art version of the wonderful Jadiim. The first image below shows how the Extended Art is likely to reveal Jadiim’s lower body, the rock out-crop which Uranuuz is wrapped around and the stunning scene that Zeedu is swooping over.

Dragon Extended Art Cards?

I then went in search of other full art images and I was amazed at just how many of these had been used to promote the Kickstarter and/or were included in Art-Feature articles on HexTCG.

Cast your eyes over these images below and get a feel for how many of the Extended Art cards might look once you have taken the time and effort required to unlock them.

Extended Art Cards?

It is likely (as seems to be the case from the Pack Raptor spoiler) that the art will extend both at the top and the bottom, revealing new things about the card and the character. Who knew that Sensei of the Milky Eye is balancing on one leg?

Extended Art Cards?

PvE cards are also set to have the Extended Art feature – I’m sure the race will be on to acquire a play set of Extended Art Princess Cory. The Lady Cassandra full art looks incredible.

Extended Art Cards?

We might also have the option to unlock PVP Champions or for tokens to be Full Art too:

Champion Extended Art Cards?

The art in HexTCG is mind blowing, and I personally love the potential of the Extended Art and the chance for us to see more of the rich images created by the artists working on Hex.

Will we be able to trade Extended Art cards or will they revert to normal on trade? If so, will they be desirable? Will you be actively looking to unlock your cards?

Let us know what you think in the comments below or on the Hex Vault forums.

I hope you enjoyed this look at the potential extended art cards – until the next time!

Hammer

Proud Member of The Unnamed Council

GenCon 2013: Funktion’s Video Wrapup – Part 2

HexVault

August 26, 2013

Convention,Cryptozoic,From the Vault,Hex Vault,Hex: MMO/TCG,Hex: Shards of Fate

GenCon 2013

0

Here is Part 2 (of 2) of Funktion’s review of everything Hex-related at GenCon:

Some of the topics discussed:

Hex Vault Announcement
Initial Impressions of HexTCG
Standout Decks & Cards
Portensio of Avon Giveaway – subscribe to FunktionFails on YouTube!

Enjoy! Enter our iPad/HexCon and Jadiim Sleeves giveaways!

Card Mechanics: Infected [Proposed]

HexVault

August 25, 2013

Article,Card Mechanics,Columns,From the Vault,Hex Vault,Hex: MMO/TCG,Hex: Shards of Fate

No tags.

4

Hello, I’m Gage “HyenaNipples” Lawhon, and it is my pleasure to be this week’s guest contributor to Hex Vault’s “Card Mechanics” column! For my contribution, I have something completely new. This idea bounced right out of my brain, so this definitely isn’t something the Cryptozoic team has up their sleeves.

My concept is a new Keyword, but unlike any of those already in the game, this one is a detrimental Keyword. I call it ‘Infected,’ and here’s what it would do:

‘Infected: at the beginning of each turn, the controller of this troop takes 1 damage.’

Before I go deeper, let’s take a look at the two cards featuring this new Keyword. The first card is essentially a Wild version of the Blood card, Zombie Plague, except that it works a little differently.

Fungal Infection

Audio Highlights (thanks, Shadowelf!)

Crack the Vault

From the Vault – the Comic

Hex Hero

Card Mechanics

HexTCG Limited & Constructed Videos, Streams & Analysis

HexTCG PVE Strategies

Convention Coverage

‘Infected: at the beginning of each turn, the controller of this troop takes 1 damage.’

Top Posts & Pages

Recent Posts

Recent Comments

Archives

Categories

Meta