George TsagkarakisWorld War II: TCG, the digital strategy card game that went offline in 2022, is coming back. Barcelona studio Games for a Living (GFAL) says mobile testing starts on 26th November, and an open beta follows on 28th November.
The closed test on 26th November is only for the GFAL community. The open beta on 28th November is on iOS and Android through the App Store and Google Play. GFAL says it will collect feedback on gameplay during the test and then wipe progress, so nothing earned in the beta carries over. A full mobile release comes after that.
What the game is
In the original game, players built decks of tanks, infantry, aircraft, ships and submarines. The cards were based on real units and equipment, such as Japan’s A6M Zero fighter and Germany’s Tiger tank. One deck could mix units from different armies, and their abilities combined with equipment and orders cards.
Each turn gave players three action points. They could spend them on deploying cards or on promoting units already on the battlefield. A promotion raised a unit’s stats and could give it new abilities. When a promoted unit was destroyed, it went back into the deck with its upgrades, so players could draw it again. The original also had historical missions, ranked multiplayer, crafting and cooperative raids.
Why it went offline, and why it’s back
FrozenShard Games first released World War II: TCG in 2014, after a Kickstarter campaign raised $18,001 from 199 backers. It launched on mobile and came to Steam later.
The game shut down when its backend provider, GameSparks, closed. In a 2022 notice, the developer said it had looked for other providers. It decided a move would be too complex, because so many of its games’ features relied on GameSparks. FrozenShard pulled the game from Apple’s App Store, Google Play and Steam in September 2022.
Two of FrozenShard’s co-founders now work at GFAL. Christian Gascons is GFAL’s chief operating officer and Marc Tormo is its chief creative officer, and that link led to the revival.
Web3 features and other platforms
Once the beta ends, GFAL says players will be able to own and trade eligible digital collectible cards on the GFAL Marketplace. The company says web3 is optional: players can build decks and compete without connecting a crypto wallet. GFAL has not yet announced a launch date for the marketplace or the rules for which cards can be traded.
GFAL also plans a PC version on Steam and the Epic Games Store.
The studio announced the revival in October, together with Legends, a football management game, and Diamond Jewels Solitaire. Its roadmap puts all three games into testing in the fourth quarter. Legends gets an alpha and Solitaire gets a beta.
