I'm Lucid, and Steam Masters is my 2nd game on s&box. This is its very first post, so let me start with how it came about.

I've been playing on Steam for years, and like a lot of you, my library is a mix of games I love, games I bought on sale and never launched, and a few I'm a little ashamed of. When WikiMasters started blowing up in September, turning Wikipedia articles into collectible cards, I couldn't stop thinking: what if the cards were Steam games? I wanted to open a pack and pull a game I spent hundreds of hours on, or discover a small indie I'd never heard of.

So here it is: 5,000 real Steam games turned into cards. I'm really happy to finally share it with you, and a bit nervous too. This post explains how the game works in more detail than the store page, what I'm working on next, and how you can help me shape it.

Each card is built from the game's real Steam numbers. The more reviews a game has, the rarer its card: a hidden gem is a Common, a game everyone knows is a Legendary. There are six rarities, from Common to Legendary.

Attack comes from how positive the reviews are. Defense comes from how old the game is and how many people still play it. So an old game that's still loved ends up very hard to beat.

You get a free pack every 5 minutes, even when the game is closed, and they pile up to 10. Each pack has 5 cards and the last one is always Rare or better. If you go 40 packs without a Legendary, the next one is guaranteed. Packs also lean slightly towards cards you don't have yet, so duplicates don't take over.

When your free packs run out, you can buy more with credits.

 

Every card you pull goes into your album. You can filter by rarity, genre or what you're missing, and see how far along you are for each rarity. Duplicates can be recycled for credits, and your five favourite cards go in the showcase on your profile.

You can put any card up for auction, from 10 minutes to 12 hours. Bids have to beat the current price by at least 5%, and a bid in the last 2 minutes adds 2 minutes, so nobody wins by sniping at the last second. When your card sells you get the price minus a 10% tax. If nobody bids, the card comes back to you.

Credits are only earned by playing. There's no way to buy them with real money, and there never will be. You get them from the daily reward (it grows if you come back several days in a row), three daily quests, the Higher or Lower minigame, recycling duplicates and selling at the auction house.

The game is available in English and French. 

Right now the game is great for opening packs, but there isn't much to do once your packs run out. That's the first thing I want to fix. Here's what's planned, roughly in this order:

Every day, the game itself puts three cards up for auction for 24 hours: a Super Rare, an Ultra Rare and a Legendary. You can only win one of the three per day, so they don't all end up with the same player.

Instead of recycling five duplicates of the same rarity, you'll be able to fuse them for a chance at a card one rarity higher.

Each day, a condition like "a game released before 2010 with more than 80 attack". You dig through your album to find the card that fits, for a reward and a streak.

Send three of your cards on a mission for 1, 4 or 8 hours. Their stats and genres decide what they bring back. Your cards finally get to do something besides sitting in the album.

Duels, so you can actually play your cards against other players. More minigames (Guess the Game and What Year? are already planned). Achievements, which have a tab waiting for them.

None of this has a date yet, and the order can change depending on what you tell me. 

 

If you play Steam Masters, I'd really like you to leave a review. Good or bad, it's the best way for me to know what works and what doesn't, and to take the game in the right direction.

Please be honest. If something bores you, feels unfair or doesn't make sense, say it. I'm open to any criticism as long as it's constructive: tell me what bothered you and, if you have one, what you'd do instead. That's what helps the most.

You can also post in the forum tab if you'd rather discuss something in more detail.

 

Thanks for playing, and thanks to Facepunch for s&box. See you at the auction house!