A multiplayer game shutting down is always a sad thing. No matter how small the community behind it, there was a community, and undoubtedly someone is going to lose their favourite game or - worse still - their favourite buddy online. As such, it brings a smile to my face to see that Mojang's ill-fated CCG/Hex-based strategy hybrid Scrolls has officially relaunched, albeit under a different name. In order to distance itself from that whole legal kerfuffle, it's now known as Caller's Bane, and better still; it's absolutely free, albeit partially fan-run now.
]]>Scrolls, the battling card game from Minecraft studio Mojang, will finally shut down next week, on Tuesday the 13th of February. The official servers will shut down and the game become unplayable, though Mojang are hoping--not promising--that they will soon be able to release server software publicly so people can run their own. We've known for ages that Scrolls would shut down one day, since Mojang said in 2015 that they could only guarantee the servers would be up until July 2016. It's gone a lot longer than that.
]]>These days, you're just not a proper RPG unless you've got a fancy card-game spin-off either in or out of world. Gwent. Hearthstone. Arcomage. Triple Triad. Legends of Norrath. Pokemon CCG. Now The Elder Scrolls is throwing its adventurer's cap into the ring with The Elder Scrolls: Legends, as announced aeons ago, but only just going into closed beta. Quite a gold-rush, especially given that historically, these games haven't done particularly well in digital form, even when backed by a big name or license.
]]>When Minecraft made a squillion dollars, rather than plough into a sequel, developers Mojang Specifications realised they could fund making whatever games they jolly well pleased. Scrolls [official site] was their first whim, a battling collectible card game. And, since Microsoft bought Mojang, it might be one of their last too.
The most recent Scrolls content update 'Echoes' will be its very last, Mojang have announced, and it sounds like the servers will shut down eventually, though not for a while: they'll keep going until July 1st, 2016, at the very least. The game only officially launched out of beta in December 2014.
]]>Well then, here it is: the second game from Minecraft developers Mojang. Scrolls officially launched yesterday, after almost two years in paid beta. The virtual collectible card game/board game was never going to be the next Minecraft, and they never intended for it to, so hey, let's forget all that and talk about what it is. It's out, for starters, at a new lower price of $5 (£3.20-ish).
]]>It's probably, let's be honest here, not a major part of why Microsoft put down All The Money to acquire Mojang earlier this year, but Minecraft follow-up Scrolls remains a going concern. Next week, the digital CCG/boardgame shall finally be shorn of its long-held 'beta' title and become a fully-released videogame.
]]>Fans of collectible card games have a lot of games to choose from lately, but this is an incentive for getting involved with Scrolls. The Magic: The Gathering inspired game by Minecraft-creators Mojang is offering a Christmas gift: if you own the game, you now have a free copy you can gift to a friend.
]]>Mojang's fantasy card-deck battle game thing arrives next week! Scrolls, as it is so legally called, has been impressing a wave of beta-tester people with its tight production and carefully poised strategy mechanics. There's a good chance that this will be the deck-building strategy of 2013. Not that there's a lot of competition there, but you get the idea. Yeah. Anyway, it makes it official debut next week.
Fancy launch trailer below!
]]>Mojang's collectible digital card / turn-based strategy game Scrolls has been fairly quiet, publicly at least, since sort of winning, sort of losing their battle with Bethesda over the right to use a common English word. No longer, though - after an extended private alpha period, they're going to put the beta on sale late next month. As with Minecraft, it's a chance to pay less but receive an unfinished game - though it will of course receive all the updates right up to (and presumably beyond) full release.
]]>We sent Rich Stanton to the exotic location in front of his keyboard to play Scrolls, the next game from Minecraft maker's Mojang, which is currently in the throes of its alpha test stage. Needless to say, the deck-based card game has some familiar influences.
I'm going to tell you about Scrolls, the new game from Mojang, but first it's confession time. This is the opinion of a loser. And not just an occasional loser. I've played twenty five games of Scrolls and, while there have been chinks of light in the darkness, I've been getting absolutely stomped.
]]>Mojang's card combat game, Scrolls, enters its alpha state today, with a random selection of those who signed up due to receive email invites. Alpha accounts supply a full set of scrolls, access to the deck builder, a basic single player mode, multiplayer and a tutorial. That sounds like a decent amount of things to be getting on with. I'm hoping the single player campaign planned for the final release will be decent. I can't be the only person who enjoyed the slightly wonky MicroProse Magic: The Gathering, with its huge, random maps.
]]>Scrolls, the collectible card game in development at Mojang, will soon be in closed alpha state and once stable enough will switch to a purchasable beta. The alpha will have AI opponents, allowing for the single player to test out his decks, but it won't include the campaign mode, a world through which the player travels, picking fights to add new cards to his/her collection. Scrolls' website has also been updated with the first footage of the game in action, which makes me think of a cross between Magic: The Gathering, HOMM and a two player version of Plants vs Zombies without the zombies or plants. It does seem to have tracks onto which creatures and powers are summoned though, and idols to defend at the end of those tracks. Watch it below.
]]>Initially reports suggested the turf war between Minecraft-makers the Mojangs and Skyrim-makers the Bethesdas over the former's forthcoming online card game Scrolls had been settled broadly reasonably. However, Bethesda's own statement on the matter yesterday revealed that it isn't as simple as Mojang getting to make Scrolls unhindered and Bethesda ending up with the trademark for a common English word.
Here's a new kicker: "The terms of the settlement bar Mojang from using the Scrolls mark for any sequel to the current card game, or any other video game."
]]>Because we, as a species, have allowed our reality to become so ridiculous that people can own the rights to a noun, there has been an ongoing battle between Bethesda and Mojang over the right to use the word "Scrolls" in a game name. Bethesda's very long running The Elder Scrolls first-person RPG is utterly indistinguishable from Mojang's card-collecting Scrolls. Wait, is it the other way around? I'm so confused! But the good news is, their lawyers have finished spending each other's money and there's an agreement!
]]>Here's the first part of a documentary following the making of Mojang's new game Scrolls. It's a shame that, as with most of the discussion elsewhere, so much of this concerns the name rather than the game, but it's still worth a watch if only to see the legal issue being discussed by the lead designer. Especially because he's looking rather dapper while discussing it, with a bottle of Staropramen his only prop, suggesting that this is a man who has better things to do and better places to be than a courtroom. Do we actually learn anything about the game? Not really, beyond the fact that there will be 'dust puff' animations, among others. You can see the puffing of dust for yourself, below.
]]>Notch tweets: "We won the interim injunction! We can keep using the name "Scrolls". ZeniMax/Bethesda can still appeal the ruling, but I'm very happy."
]]>As you are likely already aware, Minecraft-makers Mojang are currently embroiled in the first stage of legal proceedings brought about by The Elder Scrolls-makers Bethesda, in a dispute over whether the name "Scrolls" can be used for the title of the second game. Keen to find out a little more about what it all means, I had a chat with Alex Chapman, an intellectual property lawyer at Sheridans Solicitors in London, who is advising Mojang on the case. Read on below for some elucidation into what's going on, and what to watch out for when you are naming your own game.
]]>Or should that be Mojangian? Probably, as this is information from exciting Jakob Porser, rather than boring old Notch. And will it still be called Scrolls after the Bethesda lawyer-machine is done with it? I don't. I just don't know. What I do know is that details have emerged about how the game will work (via VG247). Speaking at PAX the Scrolls designer explained that the game would allow players to sign into a persistent character from a number of formats, including a browser. Although exact pricing hasn't been settled, the game will apparently feature a subscription that delivers new scrolls to you each month, while unwanted scrolls can be auctioned away, microtransaction-style in the game's auction house.
Confused about what it all means? Have a read of our preview. (New Scrolls teaser video below!)
]]>Markus "Notch" Persson, creator of Minecraft, is currently in dispute with Bethesda over the trademark for "Scrolls". Mojang's next game is called Scrolls, which Bethesda says is too similar to The Elder Scrolls. A lack of hilarity ensues. Except now Notch has struck upon a potential solution. A Quake 3 match. He suggests three from Mojang take on three from Bethesda, pick a map each, and compete for the name.
]]>While Minecraft creator Marcus 'Notch' Persson remains an avowed fan of Bethesda games, the legal argy-bargy between the Elder Documents publisher and Notch's company Mojang over its forthcoming second game 'Scrolls' doesn't look like dying down any time soon. In fact, the big B has stepped up its efforts, announcing its intention to sue Mojang in a Swedish court, as well as a demand for money. In a blog post explaining a little of his side of things, Notch reveals that this all happened shortly after Mojang tried to trademark 'Scrolls', which rang alarm bells for the rights-holders of The Elder Rolled-Up Papers. Common sense has had us all thinking the situation is simply ridiculous - one word within a title hardly equals the same title, right?
Well, it may not be that simple. In other words- Bethesda might well have a case, regardless of how you might feel about it.
]]>Alleges Minecraft-maker Notch on Twitter: "Just got a letter from Bethesda's lawyers. They claim "Scrolls" infringes on their trademark and everyone will confuse it with Skyrim."
]]>You there! You look like a Minecraft player to me. Well, how do you fancy maybe being one of the first to try out its developer's next game, Scrolls? There's nothing certain quite yet, but if you opt-in to the Scrolls newsletter you now also have the option to register your interest in helping test (and have early access to) the fantasy card-battler.
]]>With exclusive access to Minecraft creators Mojang, I spent a day with Markus 'Notch' Persson and his team in their Stockholm offices, from the first meeting of the morning to the Friday afternoon's booze and gaming relaxation. With kebab in between. Notch talks to us about how he came to be in the position he's now in, his intentions for Minecraft and Scrolls, and the philosophy behind his game development. I also speak to his colleagues Jakob Porser and Carl Manneh, find out how the team deals with player feedback, their passion for transparency, and Notch's plans for games after he's completed Minecraft.
]]>It's an RPS ultra-news. There’s a new game from Minecraft creators Mojang, and we can tell you what it’s called: Scrolls. We can tell you what it is: it's a collectable card game-meets-board game. And more than that, we can tell you a great deal about it. I travelled to Mojang’s headquarters in Stockholm to meet Markus "Notch" Persson and the team behind this new project, including Jacob Porser and Carl Manneh, and below you can read our exclusive coverage. We learn how Mojang's open development philosophy will apply to Scrolls, quite how strikingly different the project is from Minecraft, how it plays, and some of the more ambitious plans they have in place if it proves to be a success. And we all attempt to avoid attack from Markus and his dangerous collection of Nerf guns.
]]>While we may have the best information on Scrolls on the internet, what we don't know much about is what it looks like. At this early stage, what we've got is some concept art by their resident artist, Junkboy. If you want to see it full size, just click on any of the images below. It's also the first four cards of the game revealed, giving you an idea of what sort of characters you'll have in your deck.
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