Richard Garfield Working on New Game

Mind Control Software and Richard Garfield, the legendary creator of Magic: the Gathering, have just announced collaboration on an upcoming digital strategy game called Mind Twist.

Mind Twist will be supported by microtransaction purchases of pre-constructed armies. These armies can be customized to the player's liking just like a deck of cards in a TCG. It will be a head-to-head, free-to-play strategy game available on iPhone as an application and on Facebook. And of course, all players will start the game out with a starter Army so that you can explore Mind Twist and potentially get addicted.

Garfield is also joining Mind Control's advisory board, with promises to work on future products.

As a big Magic fan, I'm personally excited about this announcement. Particularly because it's free to play and putting it on Facebook will make it widely available. Should be an interesting game to follow...

Teaser site:
http://www.mind-control.com/mindtwist/

More info from Gamasutra:
http://www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/news_index.php?story=24498

Missing Magic

I just realized how long its been since I played Magic: the Gathering. Wow.

I used to play a ton back in High School and early College and had amassed a very large collection. I think the main reason I stopped was because I've moved away from all of my ol' Magic buddies after college.

The other big reason is because I think I just got overwhelmed. I was a bit obsessed with Magic and bought a lot of cards... tried to keep a pretty massive collection and acquired cards from each new set. But they kept releasing so many cards, so many sets, so many new card types, and a wide variety of zany abilities... it just became too big of a hassle to try and keep up with it. By the time I managed to collect a good amount of cards from one new set and learn their abilities, it seemed like TWO new sets would be released.

Either way, I've always been very passionate about Magic. It's a great game, and even though I don't actively play, I consider myself a pretty big fan. I had jumped into Magic Online a few times... maybe I'll sneak back in there for a little bit and see what I've been missing. And perhaps I can reconnect with some of my old Magic buddies through there.