HEX: Shards of Fate Open Beta Coming

[Slycne]

HEX: Shards of Fate Open Beta Coming

Cryptozoic is working to get their digital trading card game, HEX: Shards of Fate ready for open beta sometime this fall.

At successfully funded [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/tag/view/gen%20con%202014] through Kickstarter last year. I got to see the latest version running the game and we chatted about what's coming in the next few months for HEX: Shards of Fate.

Utilizing improvements from the latest game engine patch for Unity, HEX: Shards of Fate is running better than ever. As Cory Jones explained, a lot of time has been used recently to clean and polish the game, increasing the quality of life of the whole experience. The latest client runs noticeably smoother than the existing closed beta, and a number of the UI elements have been tweaked and adjusted. There's still a few little lingering things to fix, as much as the new Unity patch made things better it also broke a bunch of things, but as a whole HEX: Shards of Fate stands up next to the likes of Hearthstone or Duels of the Planeswalkers.

The next step for the game will be the implementation of a comprehensive tutorial. TCGs can be a bit of beast to get dropped into, especially ones like HEX that skew more to the complex side of the scale. This is also an important milestone for the developers since it's the "gate to open beta". I couldn't get confirmation on a date on the open beta, only that it would be sometime soon. Currently the closed beta is servicing 2,000-3,000 players a day with thousands of games and tournaments in the few weeks it's been going. While I didn't get to see any at Gen Con 2014, PVE content is still in the works as well.

When asked about the HEX forums [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/134518-Wizards-of-the-Coast-Files-Copyright-Lawsuit-Against-Crypotozoics-HEX-MMO].




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[mrverbal]

What legal situation?

Ohhh the one where they utterly blatantly copied the game. Right.

Remind yourself again, which of these is the magic card:

4RRR

Creatures without flying can't attack you. Your life total becomes 5. Deal 5 to a creature or player each turn.

or

4RRR

Creatures without flying can't attack you. Deal 2 to a creature or player each turn.

 

[Absolutionis]

"...only had to add that it was ridiculous, frustrating and ultimately saddening, but that they are confident that it will come out in their favor."

They really should get the legal situation sorted out before they go into beta with their MTGO knockoff.

 

[Omnicrom]

They really should get the legal situation sorted out before they go into beta with their MTGO knockoff.

This rather. I'd have thought the response to being sent a C&D for copying a game would be to stop copying their game before they sent it out.

 

[Werlix]

They really should get the legal situation sorted out before they go into beta with their MTGO knockoff.

This rather. I'd have thought the response to being sent a C&D for copying a game would be to stop copying their game before they sent it out.

The legal situation is actually much more complicated than this. Turns out you can't copyright game mechanics (or else every first person shooter could be sued since they all involve shooting, reloading, running etc), you can only copyright art, sound, story lines etc.

Hex is a great game and although the very simple core of the game is similar to MtG (although the resource system is different) the PvE element they are building into the game will set it miles apart.