'DoTA' card game 'Artifact' launched; watch teaser trailer

From its humble beginnings as a map in “Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne,” DoTA’s rise as one of the most popular online games is no doubt impressive. With a lot of loyal fans, DoTA has taken a step further by tapping into a platform it has never used before.

Valve has announced that it will be debuting “Artifact,” a DoTA card game. The big announcement was made in the recent International 7 matches in Seattle. The digital card game is set to debut in 2018.

Just like the popular computer game on which it is based, it will feature lanes that should be defended or pushed and will feature some of everyone’s favourite characters. Kotaku says that players have other cards such as barracks, which will work to push waves of minions to a chosen lane. This will essentially be a card game version of DoTA as the game mechanics are practically the same.

During the event, audience members were expecting another instalment of “Half Life” or a refined version of an existing game such as “Counter Strike: GO.” That is, until broadcaster Sean Plott introduced a 35-second video that featured a familiar logo. The teaser ended with the title “Artifact: The DoTA Card Game.”

Ars Technica reports that the big reveal was sadly not followed through with screenshots or gameplay clips. Plott did reveal that he already has played test versions of the game and briefly described it as a one-on-one card battle game.

Some would say that the drawback of DoTA was that it did not have an instalment on mobile, which is a rapidly growing market they could have tapped into. The game has grown popular indeed.

The money was sourced from player-and-viewer contributions as well as in-game purchases, which only point out how popular the game really is. For now, everyone will have to wait for more information on “Artifact” and see how it fares compared to “Hearthstone” and the undoubted king of the category, “Magic the Gathering.”

Artifact Teaser