Friday April 08, 2016

At the GAMA Trade Show, Upper Deck�s Jason Brenner discussed how the company is adding original intellectual property to its portfolio of games (see �Upper Deck Teases 'Dungeon Draft,' 'Dingo Ate the Baby'�), and shared information on an upcoming miniatures game Deus Machina.

The game is designed by Carmen Bellaire. �He�s done a lot of work on old style RPG games,� Brenner shared. �He�s done some work for Palladium. He�s done a lot of sourcebook writing, he�s a really talented guy. He�s designed a pretty good system here as well.�

What differentiates Deus Machina from other games is the modular miniatures themselves. �What we�re trying to do is bring an element of visual changes to the minis as they play, meaning if someone�s playing, they roll a 20, they hit a crit, you knock an arm off of the mech, and that arm�s going to come off of the mech,� Benner explained. �It�s a very kinetic feel. As the battle goes on a lot of things are going to change on the miniatures themselves.�

The 3� miniatures will be customizable, with additional parts and cards for individual modification. Upper Deck plans to sell blind-package boosters to allow players to accumulate additional parts for their mechs. The mechs will be fully painted and playable out of the box, and the base set will include a limited amount of terrain to decorate the battle fields.



�This is going to be the biggest product we�ve put out. This is coming out hopefully at Gen Con �17,� Brenner said. �We�ve got a ways to go, but as you know, miniatures is not a quick endeavor. Because we�re trying to make this very modular, we have to do this right.�

There are possible plans to introduce the game via a Kickstarter campaign. �Not guaranteed, but I want to do it,� Brenner said.