New CCG/RPG/Board Game hybrid- Duels of the Runemasters -w/ weekly development update

Realms Apart Studios (link) and Mind Juice Media (link) are pleased to announce that they are joining forces in the creation of games for the Apple iPhone and iPod Touch platform. The first title currently in development is called Duels of the Runemasters, a groundbreaking new take on the CCG, RPG and Board Game genres.


In-Game Character Portrait - More in later posts in this thread!

Mark Sanges of Realms Apart had this to say about the partnership, “Realms Apart is a new game design and development studio, but our team has been around and designing games for nearly a decade. Our work has always been as private consultants or designers for others. Now we’ve decided to not only design, but develop a game under our own brand. Initially we conceived the game for table-top play but quickly realized it would make an excellent iPhone/iPod Touch based game.

“Duels of the Runemasters will be a turn-based, fantasy-themed, head-to-head strategic game for two players, but it’s difficult to categorize the game,” Sanges commented. “We’ve always been big fans of Collectible/Customizable Card Games (CCGs), sometimes referred to as Trading Card Games (TCGs), as well as board games and, of course, Role Playing Games (RPGs). We set out to create a game that used some of the best elements of each of these genres to form something entirely new. Something no one’s ever seen before. We think we’ve done just that.”

One of the biggest complaints casual gamers in the Collectible Card Game genre have is that the games they love to play are incredibly expensive to keep up with. “Constant new expansions with incredibly rare cards distributed unevenly across booster packs of 8-15 cards at $5 a pop can get expensive fast,” Sanges agreed. “One of our guiding principals in designing Duels of the Runemasters was long term affordability for the players. Sure, we plan to have plenty of expansions, but in our system, nothing is collectible and nothing is rare. Every player has access to the exact same components as every other player. It’s all about customization and strategy, not about who can afford to buy the most boosters or the rarest cards on the secondary markets.”

As far as development for the iPhone goes, “When I met Ken from Mind Juice Media, things just started to click,” Sanges said.

“Having recently completed and released the iPhone puzzle game Charmed, it was time to find our next major project, and as luck would have it Mark and I stumbled across each other on the online forums of TouchArcade.com.” said Ken Carpenter, President of Mind Juice Media.

Mr. Carpenter believes that Mind Juice is uniquely qualified to develop Duels of the Runemasters. He elaborated, “When I first spoke with Mark regarding Duels of the Runemasters, I knew right away that this was going to be a complex and challenging project. Fortunately my years working for Electronic Arts as a Senior Software Engineer and as a Technical Lead at a smaller game studio, Helikon Technologies, have provided me with the opportunity to learn and excel in many areas of game development. These areas include network protocols, server and database processing, artificial intelligence, 2D and 3D graphics.” Mr. Carpenter expects that all of these areas and more will be required in achieving the goals of Duels of the Runemasters.

“I am greatly looking forward to meeting the challenges that Duels of the Runemasters will present, and delivering a AAA quality title. I really cannot wait to be able to play our creation!”, concluded Mr. Carpenter.

The team is releasing little information about the details of the game thus far. For now, the only details they will divulge are:

“The game is set in the fictional world of Moridia. There, two characters, controlled by human players or AI, meet to do battle using the equipment, weapons, magic and runes of the realm. Turn by turn, players develop their attacks and defenses as they attempt to overpower their opponent on the path to ultimate victory. ”

As for what the game itself compares to, “It’s like a CCG without the monumental expense, but with all of the customizable goodness. It’s like an RPG without the intensely complex rules, but with all of the role playing, character building fun. It’s like a board game without the boring repetition and childish simplicity, but with all the strategic opportunities of the best games in the category. It truly is a whole new kind of game.”

For more information, visit:

Realms Apart Studios - http://www.realmsapart.com

Mind Juice Media - http://www.mindjuice.net

Facebook - http://www.facebook.com/pages/Realms-Apart/167584208421

Twitter - http://twitter.com/RealmsApart

Media contact: media@realmsapart.com

More information: info@realmsapart.com

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About Realms Apart Studios

Realms Apart Studios is a game design studio based in Atlanta, Georgia whose goal is the design and development of unique, exciting, strategic, customizable games set in fantastic, rich, new worlds.

Realms Apart will release Duels of the Runemasters in 2010 as their premiere title. The game is currently in development for release as a table-top game as well as digitally for the iPhone/iPod Touch platform with plans for expansion into other platforms to follow.

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About Mind Juice Media Inc.

Mind Juice Media is a software development company whose goal is the creation of innovative new games and apps for the iPhone and the iPod Touch platform.

Mind Juice was founded by industry veteran Ken Carpenter. Mr. Carpenter is an experienced software developer and team lead whose credits include work on several EA-published games including NCAA 2009, Tiger Woods 2008, Madden 2009, FIFA 2009, NBA Live 2009, and others. Mr. Carpenter also manages the business and promotional side of Mind Juice.

Mr. Carpenter is joined by long-time friend and collaborator, Patricio Arce. Mr. Arce is an incredibly talented graphic artist who creates in-game art, website graphics, and promotional materials for Mind Juice.

Mind Juice has so far released two puzzle games, Charmed and Charmed Xmas, both of which have received rave reviews from the industry press and fans alike.

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Last edited by Quorlan; 08-01-2010 at 04:06 PM. Reason: Change post title!

Wow! I can't wait to find out more. From the moment I played Charmed I was impressed with the amount of polish. This is definitely something I'll be keeping my eye on!

Thanks for the interest! We'll keep everyone posted as development progresses. We're all very excited by this project.

Not a big fan of TCG's but with that combined with RPG and board games could be an amazing game. I too will be following this along.

Woah this looks really good.

Looks like this is gonna be good! Will be watching this one

Thanks for the support and encouragement guys! We'll be sure to keep you all posted as things progress. Development for the iPhone is just kicking off. As things progress we'll post artwork, more about gameplay, etc. to our site and blog. Plus, our lead developer is planning a weekend Dev Blog to talk about the coding progress and things move along. It's an exciting time and we can't wait to get this game into your hands!

Don't hesitate to ask questions or make comments. We love the feedback and we love to talk to our potential customers as often as possible! Have a great day!

Q

So how far in development is this game in? Any projected submission dates?

Sounds very interesting, gonna keep my eye on this!

Follow'd!

Hey guys,
To answer a couple questions we've received:

1) Do you have a planned release date?
A: Not yet. We're still early in the development process for the iPhone release. Our intent is to keep everyone updated as things progress. We'll put out concept art, have polls, and have tentative plans for a card design contest when things get a bit further along. We've purposefully left about 1% of the cards un-created to give fans a chance to compete to get their own card ideas into the game. This will happen once we've released more info about the game and everyone has a bit of a clearer picture as to what the cards should contain

2) Do you need beta testers?
We will when we get close to release. For the moment we're not signing anyone up. When the time comes our "early follows" on both Twitter and TA will be the first ones we offer our beta to.

3) Will we have to buy booster packs?
This is answered on our website, but it's been asked more than a few times in PMs here. We have a unique approach to the CCG aspects of the game. First off, nothing's collectible. Players will have the option to purchase the full card set from day 1 for a very reasonable price. We'll probably also offer a version with a base set of cards which you can add to with DLC. In the end, it probably won't cost you more than $5 to get every card in the game (all 288 of them!).

Hope this answers some of your questions. Please feel free to ask anything you like. We love to answer questions for our fans! Thanks everyone for the support. Sorry we don't have a release date yet. We wanted to get our name and game out there and begin building an audience early. We'll try to keep the new information coming on at least a weekly basis!

Q