Let's Check Out - Scrolls By Mojang

For this week's Let's Check Out feature Chris and I checked out the closed beta for Scrolls, the latest project (Among many) from the creators of Minecraft. Despite an initial learning curve, the tactical game is fun to play with a ton of potential depth focused on honing your deck, collecting and trading cards and a fun, visualized battle system centered around destroying your enemies totems. The game is currently available in an ongoing beta form on the official Scrolls website for about $20.



Following the release of Minecraft, Notch (Markus Persson) and his team of trusty Swedish developers became famous overnight and ushered a golden era for indie devs, cementing them as the key to innovation in an overly stagnant, sequelitis plagued corporate dominated games industry. There had long been rumors about the next Mojang project, one being a scifi title similar in feel to Minecraft currently titled Ox10C, a side scroller called Cobalt and an RPG of some sort.

The RPG turned out to be a tactical TCG (Trading card game), taking elements of Magic the Gathering, Pox Nora and Heroes of Might and Magic. Despite an overly negative reaction when the game debuted from some rather self entitled Minecraft fans demanding why Notch wasn't simply making Minecraft 2, the game has solidified itself as a labor of love by Notch and Jakob Porsser. Inspired to create a game nonexistent in the marketplace, they set out to make a game that combined their love of board games and TCG's: Scrolls.

Worth Checking Out: Death Inc. Kickstarter + Prototype Demo

It's been increasingly difficult to find games worth funding on Kickstarter. It's not that there's necessarily bad games, but the sheer amount of worthwhile projects would destroy your wallet in a moments notice. Even with the large quantity of quality Kickstarter projects, every so often a title popups that deserves a little more exposure; this is where Death Inc. comes in.

Developed by the small UK based studio, Ambient Studios, Death Inc. holds some interesting concepts that is definitely worth checking out. With a tight blend of RTS style gameplay, a business management style overworld, and an incredibly charming art style, Death Inc. is at the top of my must haves for Kickstarter initiatives. After spending a little bit of time with the Prototype it becomes increasingly obvious how dedicated the team is to putting out a quality title that won't disappoint. If you're on the fence for supporting the game I can't suggest more that you give the demo a try, while an early build, it definitely shows a lot of promise.

As it currently stands the Kickstarter has 12 days left with about £70,000 of it's required £300,000. Go take a look at the Kickstarter over here and if throw a few dollars at it if you please.