Valve has shared an approximate roadmap of updates and features it hopes to bring to Artifact in the coming weeks and months. The team has also set out where it wants to be in terms of the development process before it commits to an open beta for Artifact.
What's coming to the Artifact beta in the next few weeks?
This news comes via a post on Artifact's official Steam page. In the post, Valve says it's not quite ready to "enter a major growth phase of the game yet" and lays out several features it wants to implement before an open beta starts. These features include a clear tutorial for new players, better bot play and single-player content, and more consistent gameplay stability, as well as finalized card art and more game modes.
Most importantly, however, Valve says it's getting ready to ship what it calls "Tutorial Beta 2.0" to existing Artifact players "early next week". Valve will test the beta with the current player base, then it'll start inviting new players who signed up for the beta but didn't play Artifact 1.0. The team says it's still "a few months away" from a more stable gameplay balance state, and that it would be "a disservice" to try and pin down a date for final release at the moment. However, in the coming weeks, you can expect the ability to invite your friends, balance changes to the cards and gameplay, and UI and UX improvements, among other things.
Alongside the update, Valve also shared concepts of some features it's working on. Here's a concept screenshot of "an informational and actionable hover state" for cards, along with concept art for boards, towers, and other features in the background:
Here, you can see Valve's vision for cleaner card typography and ability recognition, represented in the Hero and Creep cards:
What is Artifact?
Artifact is Valve's DCCG (digital collectible card game) developed in conjunction with legendary Magic: The Gathering and Netrunner designer Richard Garfield. Its original launch had a rocky start, with some outlets declaring the game dead in mid-2019. However, in March this year, Valve revealed that Artifact was still alive, declaring the new version of the game "Beta 2.0" and sharing some placeholder art to tease fans with. This latest reworked version of Artifact promises reworked unit placement, more powerful heroes, and new game modes, among other things. It's currently in closed beta stage, with an open beta coming at some point in the future. We'll bring you more on the game as soon as we get it.
Are you playing Artifact Beta 2.0? Will you be checking out some of the new features when they land? Let us know in the comments below!
