As announced earlier this month, players of the Star Wars Galaxies MMO will soon have a new way to game, with an online Trading Card Game that pits players against each other. A preview of the game will be available on site at Comic-Con International at the LucasArts booth. One of the game's developers, Tom Lischke, recently fielded some questions from StarWars.com.
How did the Star Wars Galaxies TCG come about? When did it start?
It began in the Spring, but it's been an idea that's been on our mind for a while. At the Denver Studio, our expertise has traditionally been trading card games. We were brought into SOE (Sony Online Entertainment) a couple of years ago to take advantage of that expertise and provide additional value to MMO games. Our first experience was with EverQuest, and it's been very successful so it just kind of a natural next step to support the other MMOs.
Yes, definitely. It just progressed from one to the other. There's a lot of lessons learned as we go through these games, how you support it for the the MMO audience, and their reactions to it. You listen and involve them. Definitely the idea was as we developed the EverQuest one was to make sure we gave players a good experience because we knew we would be looking at the other MMOs.
For those folks who are familiar with TCGs, let's describe some of the things they can expect. Do the cards in the game have a rarity like you would find in a regular cardstock TCG?
The booster pack model of 15 cards -- one rare, three uncommons and the rest are commons -- is a pretty traditional model. The difference is because we're hooked into the MMO, we insert what are called "Loot Cards" which are not TCG cards per se, but you do redeem them in the TCG game for items that you can then turn around and take into the MMO. It's a very traditional TCG package with something special inside.
Do the Loot Cards not necessarily have play in the TCG structure?
They don't. They're separate for the MMO. They don't replace a rare. If you get a Loot Card, you'll still get your rare. There are different levels of rarity within the Loot Cards. Some of the Loot Cards are more common than others.
What do you think is the prize Loot Card?
We can't talk about that just yet. Stay tuned. It's something we're all really excited about. The Star Wars Galaxies team in Austin, who we've been working very closely with on this project, had some great suggestions. We rolled some feedback to them from our experiences on the EverQuest TCG, like what kind of loot cards players responded to. There's one in particular that I'm thinking about that's pretty spectacular.
Can you tell me about the mechanics of the gameplay? Most TCG players are familiar with the concept of ground battle with cards fighting against cards. Is that comparable to this game?
The point of view of the game lets you choose an avatar, and the avatar will be one of four groups: Sith, Imperials, Jedi or Rebels. You choose one of those four, and you'll have one hero for your deck. One of the cool things that's different for our TCG is that you build your avatar from ground-up. We ask you a series of questions that, based on your answers, will translate to some unique mechanics on the card. You then take that avatar and build a play-deck around them. Say you build a Sith avatar, there will be Sith archetype cards that you would add on that avatar, to build the deck, as well as neutral cards. Guys like bounty hunters and smugglers fall in the middle, and will be available to all the archetypes.
Are there further game mechanics waiting in the wings to come online as people get accustomed to the way the TCG works?
We start making sure we're accessible to everybody. We know that our crowd is not necessarily the hardcore TCG crowd. We want to make sure the MMO players who want to sample this alternate type of gameplay have a good initial experience. That's something we'll build on. You establish that foundation, give everybody a taste of it, get their feet wet, and we'll build from there. But we do definitely want to provide as much depth as we can for the hardcore TCG player.
Can you comment on the art of the cards? The few that I've seen are really dynamic and look just great.
We're really proud of it. We have a couple of illustrators in-house, and we're working with some of our favorite illustrators from that have worked with us in the past. There's just some gorgeous work coming in. One of my big responsibilities is to take the art from the art guys and send it to Lucasfilm for approvals, and it's fun to watch the pieces come through as we build up the approval package.
In addition to the 250 cards of this first slate, are there any other special cards in play?
We don't include in that count cards that fall into an AI category. One of the more fun things you can do in the game is playing in heroic encounters, and that's four human players that get together and take on a big AI boss. It's really a neat experience. The AI has its own cards that aren't available to the players.
There are also AI cards that are reserved for scenario play, which is really how you experience the story of the set. There will be 10 scenarios at launch, which tell the story of a search for a holocron. It varies in perspective from both the light side and the dark side.
That's actually another difference between us and a lot of traditional TCGs, is that we feature single-player experience. There's a lot of content there for people to play through. It's a great way for people to get their feet wet. The scenarios definitely ramp up. They start pretty easy, something you can comfortably do, but they get tougher as you go up the ladder.
Another key aspect of the online TCG is that the player base is always available. The player base is all in one place. If you want to game, you don't have to search it out. Just click on your computer, and you're ready to play.
What do you have planned for Comic-Con?
We'll have a playable scenario at Comic-Con at the LucasArts booth. You'll choose one of those featured avatars from our starter decks and you'll play against an AI opponent. You'll get to experience pretty deeply one of the light side archetypes and one of the dark side archetypes.
Will it be a full representation of what the gameplay is like, or a customized experience specific to Comic-Con?
We'll feature cards that are pretty accessible for a first-time player. We're not going to put the most complicated cards in there, to make sure people have a good experience learning the basic mechanics of the game. There will be somebody there to help walk people through it if they haven't played.
