Allians: When The Player Becomes The Card

Allians is a card game with a difference, a card game that does not offer you great warriors or mages to play with, but invites you to become the hero, placing you in the position of both player and card.

Claimony's vison with this game can be seen clearly in their passion to deliver a player focused experience where customisable characters will represent real world people, giving you and your friends the opportunity to battle it out and finally settle who is the greatest gamer of them all.

This novel idea opens up a new avenue of play for collectible card games, as your strengths are updated based on your performance in different games, including both Allians and achievement based platforms like Steam, leaving the more dedicated among us possibly at a starting advantage, at least as characters in someone else's deck that is.

We recently got the opportunity to try out the game for ourselves and talk to the Swedish developer Claimony about their Kickstarter campaign for Allians and how it intends to bring innovation to the collectable card game genre.

Allians will be the first game from Claimony, according to CEO and Product Manager, Björn Torstensson, who said "Claimony started as a reward platform for achievement hunters in late 2014 and is still up and running. Claimony is also where the idea behind Allians sprung from when it became clear to us that we could go full circle and gamify player's achievements. Inspired by what we had done with Claimony, old-school trading cards, eSports fantasy drafts and competitive card games, we saw the potential in creating a game focusing on the player as much as the mechanics."

Claimony allowed us to have some time with the game in its very early alpha stage, although the core gameplay is in place. Allians has a somewhat simple system of mechanics on the surface, with players selecting the card they feel has the best attribute for the situation and then going 1v1 against the opponent's card to see who wins, in an almost Top Trumps style. Each card has five attributes, each one corresponding to a letter from the acronym PEARL, which are based on in-game performance in Steam game genres, representing your individual strengths in Planning, Endurance, Aggression, Reflex and Luck.

The real strategy of the game though comes in the form of powers that players select and the Gamble function that lets you bet on the outcome of the fight having various after effects if you win. This adds another element to the game where even if you are in a situation you know you will lose you can bet against yourself and still benefit from the encounter. These foreground mechanics are also were the hidden depth of the game is revealed.

Torstensson explained that as of now you will not actually be able to use your own card in the game to discourage cheating, but you can use your friend's cards and a host of players from around the world. As other players use your card you will grow in power, even when you are not actually playing. Torstensson also went on to suggest that they may write up backstories about player's cards who do particularly well in the first season and see a lot of use, giving gamers the "opportunity to become legends in their own right, making them in a way famous within the game."

Currently Allians will use your Steam profile picture as the artwork on your individual playing card, but in the future there is the possibility of card artists and DeviantArt content creators being commissioned to create art for in-game use. Torstensson stressed that the team wanted to make sure everyone felt included in the way they wanted, as they understand some minorities do not feel entirely represented in video games at times and wanted to make sure Allians offers everyone the opportunity to feel a part of the game.

The CCG will initially come to Android and iOS as a starting platform, but Torstensson suggested that eventually it may even see a console release. When asked if he thought a console release was likely he said, "Yes! Both when it comes to collection achievements and actually playing the game. But we have to start somewhere and Steam is the perfect match when it comes to card attributes. When it comes to supported platforms to play the game we will go for Android, iOS for first release, adding PC support as the first priority after that."

As with many currently popular CCGs, Claimony stated that they could see Allians being played at an esport level.

"Not only given the obvious fact that the esport stars themselves can be the actual characters in the game," said Torstensson. "But also due to the fact that we have listened to the feedback surrounding other card games and tried to remove some of the RNG factors, making Allians a more strategic game where you are encouraged to plan moves a couple of rounds ahead. You will have more access and control of the cards you want to use, but you will also have to read your opponent in a similar manner to poker tournaments and adjust mid match."

To further this creative push towards professional level involvement for the game there is also a separate esports mode planned where players gain access to special decks that are made up of only esports teams. As Torstensson put it, "This way, fans of Team Dignitas can try to manage their stars to a win over NiP for example. Using these pre-configured sets of cards in our Arena mode, you can easily access their preferred top tier cards and play, regardless of your own progression."

One of the interesting effects we found playing Allians is the fact it may encourage you to revisit old games from your Steam library, as you gain achievements to level up your card in the game. David Garpenståhl, co-founder of Claimony and a former CEO and owner of DreamHack, adds: "We see huge potential in making achievements more than simple collectables. Instead, using player and game data, we can create a truly unique and motivational experience that will push you to the next level." This unusual mechanic may make it worth digging through those old games you picked up in a Summer Sale, adding another dimension to Claimony's new CCG. Torstensson added that "achievements used to be a niche hobby for forum bragging, but we've really taken it to the next level as a fresh gameplay experience - a true meta-game."

It seems like Claimony are committed to creating a game with a strong community focus, much like their previous projects, where the community will have unprecedented control over how the game evolves and grows. Torstensson added: "In Allians, players can invite new characters and help each other grow stronger, independently of what our developers are doing. That makes it easier for us to focus on feature updates and events that are tailored to the community's progress." This could give the title a sense of freedom, allowing the players to expand the game and its content adding possibly infinite replayability.

Allians' Kickstarter campaign launched on August 23, giving backers access to the Alpha as well as a whole host of other rewards including card packs to boost their collection. If you are interested in the Kickstarter you can check it out here and if you fancy getting a glimpse of what your card will look like in-game check out Allians card generator here.