Clank! designer brings digital card game Eternal to the tabletop with Chronicles of the Throne

Clank! studio Dire Wolf is bringing its digital collectible card game Eternal out of the virtual world and onto the table for real.

Eternal was launched on mobile back in 2016, and combined Magic: The Gathering and Hearthstone-style card-battling gameplay with a magical Weird West universe. A release for PC and Xbox One followed last year.

Eternal: Chronicles of the Throne is more than a straight remake of the app as a physical card game, instead translating the general vibe of the player-interactive CCG to a deckbuilder.

The standalone deckbuilding game plays with up to four people and has been designed by Paul Dennen, lead designer for Clank!

As in Eternal, players summon characters onto the field to battle on their behalf – much like Magic’s creatures – in pursuit of knocking their opponents’ health down to zero. Allies summoned onto the field remain in play (unlike other played cards, which are discarded in classic deckbuilder fashion) and don’t attack until the next turn, giving players the chance to defend against attacks. Blocked attacks result in both attacker and defender being discarded.

Some summons can also create token units, allowing players to build up a large number of weaker characters to attack with. The numerous token units are represented in-game by tokens rather than cards, with the option to use a ‘go wide’ strategy a key part of Chronicles of the Throne’s battles.

The switch to a deckbuilding format also means that the game will move away from Eternal’s use of collectible card game booster packs. Chronicles of the Throne’s Forge deck will come with 70 unique cards and 15 duplicated cards with two copies apiece, for a total of 100 cards to construct decks from.

Matches will take around half an hour to 45 minutes, with the game sharing the “six-gun and sorcery” universe of Eternal, where rival factions are competing for the throne.

Eternal: Chronicles of the Throne will be released in the US this August, costing $25 (£19).