During the Mojang Panel at Minecon, Mojang co-founder Jakob Porser and his team gave us a first look at their new game, Scrolls. You may have heard some buzz about Scrolls due to a recent lawsuit brought upon by Elder Scrolls developer Bethesda. The team explained that they just develop the game and let the “lawyers do the lawyering”, which seems to have worked, as Mojang won the rights to use the name Scrolls. Jakob went on to give us some details on the gameplay and even when we can expect to get our hands on it.
Scrolls has been in development since March. It will debut on PC and Mac, but the team is striving to get it on smartphones, complete with iOS and Android compatibility. The game will have a closed beta to focus on squashing any bugs followed by an open beta similar to Minecraft where players will gain access to the beta if they prepurchase the game at a discounted rate. Jakob put an estimate on availability at first or second quarter of 2012.
What is Scrolls
Scrolls, as Jakob describes it, is a “competitive turn-based multiplayer” game with gameplay similar to physical trading card games. The name, Scrolls, refers to what is the equivalent of cards in a deck. Two players battle by casting scrolls from their hand. Four types of resources are generated by sacrificing scrolls, and once a resource is obtained it regenerates each turn. The scroll types featured included units, enchantments, walls, artifacts and spells that are cast into a hex tile play area. Scrolls can then move one tile each turn. The object of the game is to destroy a majority of your opponents’ idols located on the opposite end of the play area. Quite a bit of strategy will be needed as both your opponents’ and your own location on the board and the wide variety of abilities available in the scrolls all come into play.
Player avatars in-game are basically flat side shots similar to a versus screen in a fighting game. There were just two avatars on display, a male vs a female, but Jakob assured us that there will definitely be more customizable avatars. Each scroll has their own 3D representation and different animations depending on the interactions with other items on the play area. Animator Bomb Boy expressed his dedication to keeping the reciprocal action interesting and lived up to his namesake—promising to add many more explosions.
Scrolls will have an in-game marketplace where you can purchase scrolls either through a store or an in-game auction house. Players will be able to auction off their scrolls for in-game currency that they can then use to purchase others. It was indicated that all scrolls would be available via in-game currency that you could earn by playing. It is all very similar to a lot of micro transaction games out there. One unique offering was a lifetime subscription option, giving a player a “pack” of scrolls every few weeks.
All Minecraft attendees will receive Scrolls as soon as the beta is available. This game has me excited so keep an eye on Icrontic for updates and news as they are released.
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