Rush of Ikorr, a brand new buying and selling card sport from Higher Deck, broke cowl on Wednesday with a information launch. In a personal briefing forward of the announcement, director of leisure manufacturers Travis Rhea tells Polygon that the sport, which is designed round a novel 3v3 multiplayer format, was impressed by the corporate’s work with online game manufacturers in addition to the hit hero shooter Overwatch.
“[Upper Deck] was based in 1989 on the premise of How will we make a greater baseball card?” Rhea mentioned. “That premise of how will we do one thing higher has actually carried over into all the pieces we’ve performed over the three many years we’ve been in enterprise. And that’s no extra true than with our video games.”
Since “95%” of what Higher Deck does depends on licensed mental property, Rhea mentioned that the request from the corporate president was to “make the perfect TCG that the world has ever had” with out counting on a license. To that finish, Higher Deck elected to theme the sport based mostly on historic cultures, and the sport will launch with content material sourced from the histories of Greece, Egypt, Japan, and Mesoamerica — particularly the Maya civilization. Rhea mentioned that the corporate labored carefully with a number of consultants to ensure its strategy for Rush of Ikorr was each delicate and fascinating for contemporary audiences.
“We came upon a lot about these cultures that was (a) much more attention-grabbing, and (b) perhaps we had the incorrect concept on a few of these cultures,” Rhea mentioned. “We’ve all form of checked out one thing that perhaps isn’t popular culture and thought that perhaps that was traditionally correct. After which we received in class and we discovered that’s most likely not the best way it was actually supposed to be. Possibly Hollywood took some liberties after they created that.”
Rush of Ikorr was designed with cooperative multiplayer in thoughts. He mentioned that groups of three can deliver decks to bear with a number of design objectives, together with assault, protection, and therapeutic. The sport additionally performs properly 1v1 and 2v2, he added. In all modes of play the sport will permit for direct battle between opposing sides and the varied historic and fantastical characters on the desk, however to win gamers should “raid” to be able to collect a mysterious substance referred to as Ikorr.
“Primarily this mystical merchandise comes crashing down from the sky and begins to fold actuality in on itself and timelines begin to merge collectively and hastily you’ve got a platform the place all of those completely different cultures may work together with one another, they usually all are chasing that,” Rhea mentioned.
Solely by snagging 15 Ikorr can the sport be received within the 3v3 mode, whereas different modes play to a lesser sum.
One other novel side of the sport is a clear overlay referred to as an Infusion. Infusions will function alterations, perks, and different boons that may be added to straightforward playing cards to make them extra highly effective. Rhea mentioned that Higher Deck saved Infusion overlays particularly skinny, in order that they are often sleeved together with commonplace playing cards in such a method as to forestall gamers from dishonest by surreptitiously trying to find sure playing cards in an in any other case random deck. One Infusion will seem in each $3.99 booster pack, and can provide the identical form of chase expertise as different playing cards.
The rollout of Rush of Ikorr has been sophisticated by an ongoing authorized dispute. A lawsuit filed by Higher Deck in June 2023 claims that sport designer Ryan Miller stole components of the Rush of Ikorr design and used them in Disney Lorcana after becoming a member of the California-based buying and selling card firm Ravensburger. For the reason that lawsuit towards Ravensburger and Miller is ongoing, Rhea was not capable of touch upon the standing of the litigation past noting that “the unique designer for this sport is the topic of a lawsuit that [Upper Deck has] with Ravensburger for the time being.”
The corporate adopted up with an e mail assertion from Higher Deck president Jason Masherah: “We can not touch upon ongoing litigation however we’re very assured and pleased with our sport, and Higher Deck stands strongly within the creation and safety of its mental property.”
Following the reveal of Rush of Ikorr, Ravensburger famous that it has requested a choose for the present lawsuit to be dismissed. It additionally referred again to the assertion it supplied Polygon in 2023 in regards to the deserves of the case.
Rush of Ikorr is predicted to go on sale this summer time. The launch is predicted to incorporate a number of starter decks, retailing at $19.99.
