In Brief:
- Koin Games said the Steam demo for Origins TCG has passed 15,000 downloads.
- Ranked mode goes live in the demo when Steam Next Fest opens Oct. 19, and the Crimson Cup tournament follows Oct. 20-25.
- Cards earned in the demo become tradable on the Steam marketplace when the full game launches, which the studio has said will happen later this year.
Origins TCG’s Steam demo has passed 15,000 downloads, Koin Games said on X.
“We just crossed 15000 downloads on our Steam demo,” the team posted.
We just crossed 15000 downloads on our Steam demo
A big thank you from the whole team for trying OriginsOrigins TCGView on X ↗
The number comes a few days after the demo’s first big update and less than a month before the game’s appearance at Steam Next Fest.
Ranked mode arrives with Next Fest
Koin Games said it will be “turning on ranked mode with the start of Steam Next Fest, which will come with exclusive ranked rewards!” The studio hasn’t said what those rewards are.
Steam Next Fest opens Monday, Oct. 19, at 10 a.m. Pacific and runs until Oct. 26.
The demo update that shipped Sept. 21 added a new interface and board, a tutorial on collecting, test packs and a tentative card list for the Crimson Cup. It kept player progress. Anyone who played either the demo or the earlier playtest keeps whichever of the two saves is further along.
Crimson Cup runs Oct. 20-25
Koin Games calls the Crimson Cup its biggest tournament so far. It’s entirely online and played inside the game.
Regional qualifiers are scheduled for Oct. 20, 21 and 22, followed by playoffs and finals. Matches are best of three, and the grand final is best of five.
The event uses the Conquest format. Players submit several decks before the tournament that have to be different from one another, and each player can ban one of the opponent’s decks. In an earlier test run of the format, every deck needed a different legendary and at least nine cards had to change from deck to deck.
The studio has put the prizes at $10,000 in value. They’re split among an exclusive 1-of-1 tournament promo card, other promo cards, digital packs, Alpha booster boxes and cases, and cash, so the $10,000 isn’t all cash. Koin Games said it would publish the exact prize breakdown in the week after Sept. 24.
The card list is still tentative. The developers said that, barring upcoming balance patches, players can start building decks for the event. Sign-ups run through the official Discord.
Trading moved to the Steam marketplace
Origins TCG dropped its original plan for a separate on-chain trading model. Trading now goes through the Steam marketplace.
Demo players unlock exclusive collectibles by playing with several decks. Those items become tradable once the full game launches.
Koin Games calls Origins the first free-to-compete TCG. It said players “compete on skill alone (zero pay-to-win) for limited digitally graded cards you can buy, sell, and trade.” The studio sums up the pitch as “play like Hearthstone & Snap, rip and collect like Pokemon, and trade like Counter-Strike.”
How it plays
Both players take their turns at the same time. Matches last about seven to nine minutes across three locations, drawn from a rotating pool of more than 100 locations that change the board.
The setting is an original world built on characters such as Robin Hood, the Queen of Hearts and Winnie-the-Pooh.
The Steam page says the developers sometimes use AI-assisted tools for limited internal tasks, to speed up their workflow and for temporary placeholder material.
The team kept its post about the milestone short. “A big thank you from the whole team for trying Origins,” it said.
