Sydney-based games start-up Deskflipper Studios has launched their brand-new trading card game Astera on Kickstarter. I got in contact with Deskflipper’s founder and game creator, Adrian Walker, who made the decision to create a studio during lockdown after the initial development of Astera had started. “I thought to myself, ‘Well if I’m going to make this thing a reality I may as well start a company,’” he said. “After having some fun thinking about different company names, I landed on Deskflipper Studios.”
According to Walker, working on Astera during lockdown had its ups and downs. “Not going to lie, it was slow going, but it did have its benefits,” he said. “Spending a lot of time inside with not very many distractions was a pretty good environment to just get stuck right into the design of the game, as well as doing all the graphic design work that needed to be completed. Luckily, as lockdown began to lift around early October, I mostly had the game fully fleshed out and was beginning to commission art, so I had more waiting to do as I’d already completed most of the hard work.”
Astera is a tabletop trading card game putting players in control of their own fleet of interstellar warships, where they will have their very own ‘star war‘ with their friends. Players build their decks with ship, tech and tactic cards that each have unique effects and abilities. These effects and abilities are influenced by the six base elements that exist in the game and are assigned to different cards.
In terms of the inspiration for the creation of Astera, Walker said, “It actually started with me thinking about the game mechanics first. I got the idea back in January about designing a game where players’ turns wouldn’t be just a frame that the game would live in, but used as a resource that could be managed and used in interesting ways.
“Shortly after that, the idea for a sci-fi setting came pretty fast and I quickly fell in love with the aesthetic and feel that I began to design for it. Following that, the time I spent starting to really flesh out the game was when I thought that I’ve got something pretty special on my hands here.”
Astera looks to be a tabletop game made with real love and passion for the gaming format behind it and is the first game coming out of Deskflipper Studios. More information on the game can be found on their Kickstarter.
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