Sadly I concur that it appears either abandoned or in development hell. I helped kickstart it (fml) and while it improved consistently right up until steam launch of early access it didn't improve at all as far as I could tell from that point forward. The developers got real quite right about that same time. Although maybe that's changed...I haven't even check in on it in some time though so maybe i'll give it another look. Edit....NOPE
Oh wow...quiet a shame too...seems to have players and its graphics are quiet nice....more like an updated "Duelyst" instead of Pox but still a blend of Hearthstone mechanics and Pox strategy... Shame...
I would say you are correct on that assessment. Though of course it's stuck in alpha and development hell so likely more abilities and complex mechanics were going to be coming down the pipeline at some point. I knew they had to be in trouble whenever they did an EA launch on steam and had something like 50 percent of the art assets missing (that's excluding the maps which were and are pretty polished). Whether they want to admit it or not EA for most indie developers needs to tease hard or climax right then and there of the gate. Trying to get in the game when your only half mast is rarely a good idea. Even if you do get it there eventually most people are going to be walking out the door for good having seen you Bane Shift all over the sheets straining to get to the finish line. It's also not the kind of thing anyone is gonna forget easily. I think the concept was originally to make it a relatively quick game to play in terms of individual matches (shorter than pox and probably even duelyst). However there was going to be another layer where all the shorter matches tied together in some regard, carrying bonuses and penalties for example, while tying it all into an MMO faction vs faction vs faction vs faction battle.
Why is this actually? i thought the same would go for card games but HS proved that wrong, some kids do like thinking to a certain extent. but i know chess is pretty big around the world. so why is it not that a well made upped up graphics version of a chess like game can not succeed? if blizzard were to make all of its HS cards into a chess game but with maps and such, could it work out? This shardbound game but with pox characters and maps is what i envision for pox 2.0... how hard would it be to take their client/engin or what ever, but poxes designe and champs and add it together? would i not need to just use builder(3D) to make pox characters and add animations for the attacks and such. but all of the designe side would already be done... after the 30th expac, just start with the new pox2.0 and make the new poxnora with the exact same champs from the first expantion so its like a reset but with that client... its like we would always know what champs will be comming out because its just expac for expec the exact same as pox. ofcourse the maps would be much bigger then the ones in the shardbound game and the amount of champs that could be had would be much more, it seems you only have 5 champs in shardbound
Card games are easier than tactical games Less art costs Less engine costs Less developmental/gameplay complexity Hearthstone is Blizzard It was under development for at least 5 years and has a globally recognized IP They are the masters of taking things and making them appeal to mass market via good design and marketing Pox and Shardbound are basically a hybrid of 2 relatively niche genres Most of these types of games are done by indie companies with relatively short runway or low funding Most end up having to sell or concede rights to a Publisher to continue to exist or get bigger (Duelyst and Pox, for example) Even Mojang couldn't pull it off with Scrolls
