Prismata isn't quite a card game and isn't quite an RTS, but at a certain point I stopped trying to label it and just wanted to keep playing. As Lunarch Studios' first project, it aims to combine the best parts of StarCraft and Hearthstone into something entirely new. Its Kickstarter campaign only managed to hit its goal yesterday, cutting it uncomfortably close before it ends tomorrow. To get a real grasp of how the game plays, watch the video above and watch me play a couple of rounds.
A more accurate description of Prismata is StarCraft without the RTS element. A confusing prospect, and one that had me very skeptical, but it does provide strategic depth without the necessity of mechanical skill. Prismata has boiled StarCraft down to its economy and its build orders. Micro and macro as we know them are gone and what matters now is the plan you make, not how well you can execute it. Without fog of war, you can always see what your opponent is doing, encouraging adaptation and flexibility. Honestly, it's everything I admire about competitive StarCraft made accessible to someone not willing to do finger exercises to boost their APM.
Still, Prismata has a lot more work to do if it wants to compete with the likes of Hearthstone. The early-access version I played featured an ugly UI and was still unclear in some of its visual language. One of the things that made Hearthstone such a runaway success was its incredible detail in the art, sound effects, and feedback that makes even the smallest action feel satisfying. Lunarch has done a great job making a complex game concept easier to approach, but a more casual audience might still be overwhelmed. I am genuinely glad that Prismata met its Kickstarter goal; it's a game with a ton of potential and I hope that the funding boost will allow Lunarch to give Prismata the polish it deserves.
