Draconis 8, an Epic New Trading Card Game! Preview and Playthrough from Spiel Essen 2024

0:06 we're here with Rob backstage at WISE wizard gamer stand at Spiel 2024 my word Rob's been a busy busy couple of days oh yeah this has been crazy busy show we were slammed on Thursday and slammed today yeah it's been busy busy best possible scenario though right best scenario yeah we sold out of a couple games it's been you know it's been nuts so it's good and even more exciting than that we are showing off a new game right yeah we've got our newest game draconus 8 this is coming to kickstar right after I get back from Spiel we're launching on uh Tuesday October 8th uh and straight away yeah straight away uh and this game is really cool we're doing h a bunch of of awesome new stuff uh with this Gomen you gave us a little bit of a an overview beforehand and it's kind of like it's a trading card game concept right yeah it's a trading card game but it also plays like a board game and spending a lot of money on it is completely optional like uh the the game play you get out of a small package is amazing um which you know as people know from like Star Realms and hero alms and uh epic Etc we tend to make big games in a small package so uh so with draconus we have a we'll have a starter set which is uh uh $25 um and that'll be one of the options on of backing on the tier and that will give you four decks for the game and a bunch of uh beads for keeping sto score enough beads for two players to keep

1:37 score during the game um in this game each pack of draconus is a complete deck so these four piles of cards these are like a pack after you've like opened it up out of the pack so when you when you open your pack you're going to have a dragon card so every pack has a dragon and then you're going to have seven uh Champion cards um now your dragon is your most powerful piece and uh and then you'll have your seven dragons and then you have a Terrain card now on the back of your terrain card you're going to have a scannable QR code this will take you to uh a website where you can get the rules and whatever language but it also if you have the draconus 8 app you'll be able to scan uh this into the app and you'll get an exact copy of your deck for playing online that's so awesome so you can play the digital version of draon a with exactly the deck that you just bought exactly so you could like uh you know buy a pack and uh scan it in and play battles with that online you can play versus the AI we even have a campaign that you can play through with your pack and in the campaign your pack has a certain amount of life and if you lose games you'll you'll uh you'll lose life and your so your pack can successfully complete the the campaign or maybe it dies in the course of the campaign but then you can enter the campaign with a uh with a new pack but then there's there's also going to be online tournaments uh Etc and all

3:09 this unlocks through your physical packs that you got um and the individual packs are going to be $5 or the starting set is 25 and it comes with a four packs plus uh the glass beads and the pouch uh all in a nice box that'll uh uh that'll hold cards with or without sleeves um and uh when you're playing the game um you and your opponent you you Shuffle up your uh the train and you randomize which players's uh terrain goes out and you p uh place your terrain card uh on the board and then each player shuffles up their deck and they get a a two card hand so um okay so basically so let's so my deck shuffled I draw my two card hand and then I'm going to choose one of my two card cards to play so let's say I uh chose this one I want to save my command ability for later in the game so I'm going to choose this one I'd Place face it face down my opponent would uh would choose a card and place it face down and then we would reveal the cards uh that we were playing and then you would compare the initiative the speed of the card for initiative so you have an initiative check higher speed is going to uh is going to win initiative and that player is going to get a yellow victory Point bead and this is going to be a permanent Victory point that they uh they would keep next to them but then they they have to play first and when you place a card you're going to place

4:39 it anywhere on the board next to a card that's in play can be diagonal or orthogonal um and when you uh when you place your card you can if your number uh is larger than the number that you're paired up against so for example this example right here yeah so I've got an eight versus a three so uh so this player would be um winning that battle and they'd put a uh Victory Point beat on there now these are not points that you've scored their potential points potential points okay cool yeah they points it's points that are uh um like at the end of the game you're going to count up the beats that you have on the table um but the situation on the board can change okay um and then the other player would uh would place a card on the board now this card card every card has a special ability this card has uh has flight we got a little uh list of abilities uh here um when a card has flight if it wins a fight by 10 or more it's going to score a bonus victory points see so uh for example you could do 48 versus 33 right and you'll notice how on the terrain here you got two numbers with regular Shields and two numbers with larger Shields these larger Shields are high ground High Ground is worth an extra Victory point if you take it so if we went here then we're defeating The High Ground so that's two

6:11 points and we're we have flight and we're winning by more than 10 so that's three points so combos there as well great yeah so then you'd get uh uh you'd get three points there three points for red yeah um as I mentioned these points are not final so for example let's say um later in the game um my opponent plays uh this uh card with stomp so giant yeah there fire Giants uh uh G to come down and with a card with stomp you can play it normally or you can play it on top of an opposing card and then you can slide that card orthogonally so for example uh um they could stomp uh they could stomp uh here like so and slide this card this way and now um the Giants losing to the train but you don't Lo the train doesn't score any points it's a neutral piece and winning here so he's get scoring a victory point there and now this Harpy H is no longer in combat there so these these points go away so uh so they uh so the board is constantly changing quite Dynamic yeah based on the cards you're playing um so the game is fast you're going to you're going you have an eight card deck you're going to be playing Seven turns so you'll see every card in your deck uh during the course of the game so it's not like you're buying something that you're never going to see you're going to see

7:41 it straight away in that game you're going to see every card in your deck you will see and once you've made Seven plays you you're building out a 4x4 grid once there are four cards in in a direction that is locked you can't go beyond that same thing in the other direction in a three player game it's a 5X Grid in a four player game it's a 6x6 grid there's more terrains in the multiplayer games but in the two-player 4x4 grid and there will be exactly one empty space at the uh at the end of the game so there's always there's always options on where potentially slide something or put something in exactly um and uh and then players count up the points and the highest number of victory points wins amazing so that you say this can play up to four players so it can play uh it can play up to four players um out of the starter set you'll have enough for but if you have your own beads or other widgets you can use to keep score you can play four players straight away because you have enough cards for four players and then it's a then it's just a matter of having enough tokens to keep track of score now the cards in this game are really cool in that they are individually generated so it's kind of like rolling up a character we have a there's a point formula behind the scenes and every card uh common card starts with the same number of points and it spends point it special abilities cost a certain number of points some cost more some cost less um the speed cost points and then all the remaining points on the card get randomly distributed around the around the edge of the card so there are millions of

9:11 possible combinations of the the abilities the speed and the and the and the individual stats as they as they go around the cards so um so your cards are fair because they're all built off the same number of points but they are uh unique in that compl now your most powerful card in your deck is going to be your dragon so dragons are built off of more points than the regular cards dragons have three special abilities so they have uh they have the flight ability we talked about they have uh they all have the range ability because all dragons have a breath weapon and so the range uh cards score points um on the diagonal so here's an example of a of a common card with range so basically they fight normally on the sides but if they are pointing toward an enemy card on the diagonal they're going to score a point without having to compare numbers it's just a free big distance just pinging away exactly now the dragons have range on all four sides so they can score on all far diagonals um uh they have that flight ability so if they win a side by more than 10 they're getting that extra Victory point and in addition the dra each color of dragon has its own special ability so for example Red Dragons the fire breathers they have the stop effect basically people running from the Flames um the uh blue dragons have the aura effect where if they win on two sides they get uh two bonus victory points uh it's kind of like the

10:42 chain lightning thing going on there the uh um the white dragons breathe ice and create ice walls and they have the enforced power where basically there's no fighting on this side and they're immune to effects coming in from that direction um the brown dragons have the rooted effect where they can't be moved or manipulated by uh enemy cards the black dragons have fear that rotates a orthogonal enemy uh and the Green dragons have the confuse which rotates diagonal enemy so um so basically by uh you'll you'll be able to tell by the look of a card uh what it does when you've been playing the game for a while and there is a ton of artwork in this game for every every creature type the the the flying The Stomp etc for each one of those there's 20 different pieces of Art and it matches the speed so every time every uh if you have a speed five with stomp it's going to have this artwork but if you have a uh a speed uh six uh stomp it's going to have this artwork Etc so basically the art will be uh when we sort of roll up your card the uh the art will be determined by the speed 20 different uh pieces there and for each Dragon same thing they all have speeds on them and there'll be uh 20 different pieces of artwork one for each speed uh available uh in there um so there are hundreds of pieces of of artwork in the

12:13 game and and a near infinite number of actual uh cards as far as the combinations in there this is a tremendously exciting project well I can't wait to dig in and give this a go how long does it play in if you was going to play one by so uh like a one twers game is really fast like 10 to 20 minutes uh to knockout a game and uh and of course you uh on the back of the train you can scan that in and get your digital version and digital games are even faster of course because there's no setup time ET and you'll be able to play versus the AI play versus the campaigns play versus PVP challenge friends Etc and then the four player slightly longer I assume Yeah Yeah so basically the you the the time length goes up uh with the number of players in terms of complexity cuz like I'm already getting a feel for what he could do and it's super exciting would you put this more complex in Star Realms less complex somewhere the same fairly the same area so basically if you the the the actual gameplay very fast to learn okay we're placing cards check the speed win the initiative uming cards compare the values but the uh the strategies are um get really get really cool like as the board evolves right as the board evolves and you can like plan ahead you can be like okay I'm going to place this here and I'm losing this particular fight but I know I have this card in my deck that has Stomp and I'm going to use on this guy and push him there and now I'm going to push him into the side of my card where where I'm going to win that fight later and of

13:44 course your opponent might do things that mess with that you know that plan but you can uh so a lot like a you know a game like chess you okay there's these simple movements but you get uh you get these Advanced uh strategies that you can uh you can apply evolve out of theame but basically learning uh learning the game itself super simple easy fast I guess you can build the deck as you as well right yeah you can build it build your deck to a draw Yeah so basically when your first deck you just open a pack and that is a deck and that deck is tournament legal basically the the constructed rules uh the C pack creation process follows those so if you just open a random pack you'd be able to play in any format you can play it in a sealed pack uh event where it's just okay bring a pack to it or you could play in a constructed event where people could build their own decks and you could just be like okay I'll just take this build and then if you do want to build constructed decks um you your rules are you have one Dragon you have seven Champions and a maximum of four champions of any one uh with any one ability so I could have you know four up to four Champions with range and then the others could be uh you know flight or whatever you you can mix them however you want or you can focus in whatever Direction yeah or sometimes people like to have a diverse strategy so they'll have a card that can handle whatever situation comes up so uh so you can uh there's a lot of opportunities to to build the exact deck you're looking for you can also like search out for a pack that really meets your play style like oh I'd love to have a pack that had a a

15:15 red dragon because I like that stomp ability but I'd like its initiative to be low so its combat numbers around the edges were big and like or and you might want numbers in certain areas based on like moves you like to make during the game so uh so there's a uh uh the cards aren't better than other cards but they might be better for your and how you oh yeah exactly or how you want to construct so this is coming to Kickstarter Kickstarter and uh on uh on Tuesday October 8th uh we're going to be uh kicking off at 10: a.m. eastern time so get ready get your backing finger ready to click the back button for draconis 8 and when are we expecting to maybe finish the process and maybe get so one of the the coolest thing about this Kickstarter is right after the campaign ends so basically it takes a couple weeks for Kickstarter to process pledges and verify stuff once we get that verification from Kickstarter okay here's all the backers that uh did it we are going to be sending invitations to the digital app for doonis immediately and you will have one digital pack in the beta for every physical pack in your reward so let's say you back at the very basic level and you're getting five packs um then when that you'll get the digital app with five packs pack in it if you decide you're getting a display box with 24 plus the starter sets and you're get like 30 packs okay you're digital you'll get the app with 30 packs in it uh so whatever level you back at you'll get that many packs you'll be able to start playing immediately on the digital app right then um we'll be playing through uh uh the beta will be

16:49 available until we fulfill physical rewards then we'll shut down the beta and bring up the actual uh uh the final version of the app and then of course you'll be able to scan your packs in to get your uh to get your cards there so players will be able to play uh the digital version November next month uh um they'll be the app will be live with uh digital packs in Forever one digital pack for every physical pack in your reward in the campaign fantastic Rob thank you so much for showing us Tri on say it's a tremendously exciting project we can't wait to get a game in uh and get us some packs so we can battle each other at home Rob thank you so much thank you I appreciate you cheers are you feeling confident mat no and I'm not particularly lucky all right and then go uh and then draw two cards um and then um you're GNA look at your hand and you're going to choose the card to play now I would recommend so cards that mess with other people like confuse fear and stomp not great to play in the in the First turns um car command which corrects your own pieces not so great uh cards like flight ranged uh rooted Aura make great early game plays you might not have any of those and you do your best you can yeah exactly

18:20 exactly that and so uh we each choose uh a card to play okay and then uh and then s ously reveal I have an 18 initiative you have a 14 now this is going to work out well for you in that um this is usually winning initiative is nice because you do get a free Victory Point okay but the fact that I won initiative means you're going to get to go after me with yeah exactly that's that was my hope I know this is coming but I'm gonna go ahead and I'm gonna go uh uh actually you know I'm gonna go here okay and I'm gonna score uh a uh I'm in theory GNA get me getting a point uh here and I uh I got I won so this can't go away but the points on the board can so all right so now you can make your play so in my gay I'm going to stomp you push you this way yeah so I'm getting a red one and a red one here you don't get M goes away exactly okay because this speaks this value in this so This car's got two and uh then it's the next round so it's one more card yeah one more card and same thing we look at our hands and we choose a card that we want to play um syn I'm going to go with this guy

19:50 here right and then uh we reveal all right so I've got a 10 initiative so I am scoring no I've got four initiatives so uh so basically the higher number higher win so but I mean there's a downside to winning you have to place first which can uh uh which can be uh which can be a disadvantage um so I'm gonna go ahead and let's see where is a good place to drop this card I'm going to go so um I'm actually going to go here with the 12 now I could get a bigger number and win by 10 or more and get that bonus Victory point but since this dragon has stomp I'm not going to count on on keeping my position here so I'm just gonna I'm just gonna go ahead and take my minor Victory and see what you do F uh I'm going to go here pushing this one down giving me one Victory here yeah and one Victory on this yeah and so here you're getting a diagonal point from the range and here you're beating me so you're getting a point there so and you are also shooting this terrain the terrain is Yeah so basically terrain is anybody

21:21 can score points against oh cool so the dragons ideally if you've got own sides you in the middle of something to just knock everything out like point that way now uh that dragon's really powerful but of course I have a dragon too my so that uh so that might come up and uh and save me at some point uh in the game all right

21:46 so all right so I'm gonna play this guy cool and then we reveal 18 oh 18 you got me so now you get one of those permanent victory points that's that's a quick one jeez and I go fly so if I go this side yeah I get in the double Victory point you sure do nice yeah all right so um see I'm going to go over here um and uh I'm gonna be uh commanding using my command ability my piece here rotating it let's see I guess we'll go that way so I do lose this one yep and I'm gonna gain a point here and I'm gonna gain a point uh nice all right now get another card

23:03 okay I like it like it I like it now you'll notice the we have four here so the the board is now locked in this way one of cool yeah so the board is dynamic all right I've got a seven you've got a six now if the initiative happened to be tied the tiebreaker for initiative is the highest stat on the car highest St and then if that happens to be tied next high stat ex um so um I won the initiative so I'm getting a point here and I've got a big old Dragon coming down um so I'm gonna go here right and uh so threeway banking right so two points here I'm going to be beating High Ground here by more than 10 so I'm going to score three points on that side and then also am hitting you on the diagonal here so right now got a lot of points coming in but obviously that could change what a turn nice so what was the two points here for Rob uh um I have the flight ability so if I win by more than 10 that's right that's an extra point nice and here we had flight on so on this side ically flight creatures were flying can come into the battlefield on positions where the opponent's not ready for them really

24:35 you know cause some extra Carnage so that's represented in the game by nice amazing all right let's say then then I put my spider here nice nice so I get to rotate you anything so so basically since this card is being rotated temporarily it's it's all coming off ah okay we can reassign it so I can go like this where you're not winning here you're not winning here brilliant and well you're getting this one and you're getting this one and still you're not so you've taken a ton of points away from me here uh and given a point to yourself over there now you notice this card got played and isn't involved in the combat at all right now it was just affecting with the ability but you set it up where your powerful numbers are facing into the board making it uh more difficult board that was this ability right that was the confused ability right there that's so good all right so I'm going to be drawing

25:40 nice right and then we reveal I've got a 17 I got 11 so you go first oh this is not I work out how I Want It All right so let actually going first is yeah depending on what deck you play sometimes the losing initiative now these victory points we're getting from the initiative are a big deal so they will yeah still like a lot of points they do and unlike the points on the board those stick around and I guess he balance out PL first or PL second the end you have a perent points so I am my commander is going to go uh here I'm gonna uh and I'm GNA command my dragon um so I'm going to be getting uh a victory Point here and I'm going to rotate this guy back to where back where he belongs uh so back where he belongs and so we're getting the two points on this side one point on this side points side from The High Ground and and the diagonal there nowag there however I'm I suspect that might be a shortlived uh I'm not getting any point on this but I'm definitely going to now keep in mind you are facing me here so you might want to come in with a stronger number as much as I like that Mo that placement but I think uh I think yeah that makes more yeah this 15 I just don't want to

27:12 get my yeah let's say this I one one of the the lowest one and I assume he goes back exactly where was Dragon is getting dizzy h on all sides all right so uh absolutely SP goes down back here like this yeah all right so uh so I'm but I'm I'm I'm not feel ter because I I am still scoring my my three points on the Range so uh not as awesome as that pile of beads I had there and don't forget you did win this uh win this battle here so we've got we've got two turns left uh in this game so as you can see the boards starting to tighten up as the as the great game progress potentially making the impact of your placement even bigger right more things happen all right has a natural Arc as well a escalation all right time for this guy all right um and then I have a 14 and an eight okay all right so I I've got this initiative let going here um and I am uh going to drop this fear piece here and I am going to rotate like that so uh so those points are going away and we're going to be

28:44 storing a point here and uh and a point here and then uh it is uh it is your turn to stomp so now I can not stomp this cuz I can't send it anyway right so so the stomp is good at the start so like early mid game stomp is incredibly powerful as the game comes to a close it gets less powerful early in the game powers like rooted where you can't be manipulated by your enemy amazingly strong at the very end of the game not you know so each seases but its own timing like there there's a timing uh and uh I want to do something like I'm not going to win this one so I stomp this push it back maybe this is going to give me the I'm going to give you points here but I'm getting a point here and I'm getting a point here oh no uh there yeah you pushed me right into your dragon right into the fire right into the flame dude all right so now we draw our final card and now you'll notice you've drawn every card in your deck so there so you'll never have where you didn't see every you don't get to play them all there's one you don't play but you chose not to play it yeah you never like having to fish for some you know like well maybe not yeah right

30:15 um I'm not loving my choices here at the end uh I think I gotta go with this right let's try this and it will reveal I'm going first yeah uh I'm going not like the idea of you commanding somebody at this stage let's see what you can do so this one's going to give me double points so we five willot say 33 oh I think that work out really well so uh I'm going to go with the 36 up I'm going to command this to go this way so it's going to give me double points here and one I know this is 21 yeah yeah but the double points there okay uh and then and I've got a 36 CSR I feel relative so unfortunately I'm not going to be able activate my aura so I'm going to be coming in here and I'll just but I I defeat your last one but uh sadly so Aura if you win on two sides so like when this Dragon if it was winning two fights it get two points on top of all

31:46 those other points it was scoring earlier so basically you you know we can this only scoring one point here but if I W on one more s I'd be scoring Four Points with it um so now we uh um so we our game our board's complete um and we count up our points so on the board 10 12 points so and I have one two three four five six seven eight nine 10 and then