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KeyForge news
Jul. 13th, 2022 08:15 pmFor newer readers, KeyForge is a collectible card game which I played enthusiastically right up until pandemic measures got serious in my part of the US. (Literally. The last place I went that wasn't my regular commute to work before nonessential gatherings shut down was the local gaming store for a KeyForge tournament.)
KeyForge's unique twist is that you don't spend ever-increasing amounts of money to build the perfect deck; you buy a deck, and then you can't modify it. If you get bored with it, you buy another deck. All decks are constructed with an algorithm which is meant to keep them balanced.
New releases were paused last year because the deck-building algorithm was found to be flawed... or at least that's what we all thought the announcement from the publisher said it was "broken" and needed to be rebuilt from the ground up. But a rather different story has emerged as the game has changed hands.
KeyForge was originally published by Fantasy Flight Games, but has recently been bought by Ghost Galaxy, which was started by the original founder of Fantasy Flight Games. And Ghost Galaxy's first post about what players can expect refers to "the excruciating loss in ’21 of the software engine that made it impossible for FFG/Asmodee to render new KeyForge decks.". Like it wasn't faulty, but rather got lost in some electronic meltdown with no backups.
Which, having seen employees at multiple game stores struggling with Fantasy Flight's tournament-running software, I could totally believe.
The net result is that Ghost Galaxy still has to rebuild the program from scratch, but the game is definitely being revived and there are no worries about old decks remaining legal for tournament play.
I am definitely taking my KeyForge supplies to Chicon and seeing if I can find an excuse to crack open a new deck.
KeyForge's unique twist is that you don't spend ever-increasing amounts of money to build the perfect deck; you buy a deck, and then you can't modify it. If you get bored with it, you buy another deck. All decks are constructed with an algorithm which is meant to keep them balanced.
New releases were paused last year because the deck-building algorithm was found to be flawed... or at least that's what we all thought the announcement from the publisher said it was "broken" and needed to be rebuilt from the ground up. But a rather different story has emerged as the game has changed hands.
KeyForge was originally published by Fantasy Flight Games, but has recently been bought by Ghost Galaxy, which was started by the original founder of Fantasy Flight Games. And Ghost Galaxy's first post about what players can expect refers to "the excruciating loss in ’21 of the software engine that made it impossible for FFG/Asmodee to render new KeyForge decks.". Like it wasn't faulty, but rather got lost in some electronic meltdown with no backups.
Which, having seen employees at multiple game stores struggling with Fantasy Flight's tournament-running software, I could totally believe.
The net result is that Ghost Galaxy still has to rebuild the program from scratch, but the game is definitely being revived and there are no worries about old decks remaining legal for tournament play.
I am definitely taking my KeyForge supplies to Chicon and seeing if I can find an excuse to crack open a new deck.
