Dragon Front, a collectible card game being developed by High Voltage Software exclusively for the Oculus Rift, will be the first virtual reality game that will look to challenge the popularity of other CCGs such as Magic: The Gathering and Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft.
The CCG industry carries a lot of potential. Magic: The Gathering shows longevity, having been in the industry for more than 20 years as it started out from a physical card game and has now branched into digital forms. Hearthstone, on the other hand, dominated the digital card game industry last year, which reached a value of $1.2 billion across smartphones, tablets and PCs.
Dragon Front will look to capitalize on this potential, along with that of the fledgling virtual reality video game industry.
In Dragon Front, players each have 30-card customizable decks which they use on a playing field, which is made up of a four-by-four grid, to battle the forces of their opponents and take down their health to zero. Players can choose from 280 cards in the base set plus 80 encampments to construct their deck, customizing it according to their play style.
Similar to Magic: The Gathering and Hearthstone, the cards of Dragon Front represent various objects such as characters, buffing and debuffing spells, encampments and powerful Heroes. Gamers have the option of playing against AI or against other humans, and can choose between four factions that each has its own strengths and weaknesses.
Being on virtual reality is the major advantage of Dragon Front over the two established card games though.
"We wanted to encapsulate the feeling of playing across the table from someone else ... being able to lean forward and look at the table top with a sense of immediacy you don't get out of a traditional 2D card game," said High Voltage Chief Creative Officer Eric Nofsinger.
In the game, players can see their own fortress underneath, with each card having different video and audio effects upon being played.
The digital card game has been in development for virtual reality for 18 months, and is expected to be released in the second quarter of the year after the launch of the Oculus Rift on March 28. In addition, three more add-on packs are said to already be in development.
