Valve have announced a new game, but unfortunately, it’s not the game that some fans have been hoping for. What Valve did announce though is Artifact, a card game based on Dota 2.
Artifact: The Dota Card Game is a spin-off game for the hugely popular MOBA Dota 2 and will feature a selection of characters from the Dota 2 universe. According to Valve, Artifiact will provide gamers with a unique digital card game experience which isn’t like anything currently on the market. We’re not quite sure what that entails as only a brief teaser trailer was released alongside the announcement.
What we do know though is that the game will feature three different lanes with players being able to pick Dota heroes, like Bounty Hunter, or play cards, like Barracks. It’s clear there’s a lot of cross over with Dota 2, so it’s likely other similar concepts will be incorporated into Artifact.
Development of Artifact is being led by ex-Double Fine developer Brad Muir who tweeted that he was excited for fans to get their hands on the game.
I’ve been working on @PlayArtifact at Valve for a while now! Can’t wait for you guys to play it! :D!
— Brad Muir (@MrMooEar) 9 August 2017
Valve didn’t give any details about how the game will be monetized, although it looks likely that the game will be free-to-play with some form of microtransactions being included, similar to other trading card games.
While no official release date was given, Valve did state that they expect Artifact to be released sometime in 2018 for PC.