After a month in the wild, Valve has pulled away from their initial philosophy to not balance Artifact — the studio’s new TCG. This new patch also comes with the promise of more in the future. It changes cards like Cheating Death and adds a few new keywords as well
Artifact, Valve’s Dota-based card game, has finally received its first balance patch. Players will now be able to level up, earning tickets and card packs as they go along. But more importantly, the patch notes open with a long statement from the developers of Artifact. They explain why there’s a patch in the first place — something many players never expected to see.
It seems that Valve originally intended for Artifact to operate like a normal trading card game (TCG) — cards only get banned or removed in emergency situations. However, the studio has reconsidered after a month of live play.
“Our conclusion was that embracing ongoing card balance for a digital game has a lot more upsides for the game as a whole,” wrote Valve’s Brandon Reinhart. “Once we shifted over to this new mindset, it became obvious to us that it was a more natural fit with how we tend to develop games.
