Practically three years after its doorways closed, collectible card recreation Duelyst returned in December 2022 as Duelyst 2 (opens in new tab), an up to date model of the sport created by a staff of followers who got a license to make the sport from authentic developer Counterplay Video games. Now Counterplay is increasing that chance to everybody: The studio introduced in the present day that it’s making the Duelyst supply code and property free for everybody to make use of in no matter manner they’d like.
“The reality is, to today we nonetheless look again fondly at what our little recreation achieved, and reminisce with our neighborhood on Reddit and Discord,” Counterplay Video games lead producer Richard Heyne advised PC Gamer. “We’re even following some Duelyst impressed video games and initiatives! By means of all of it, one thought strongly resonated inside our minds—individuals are nonetheless speaking about Duelyst.
“We’re experiencing some main modifications in our business: new applied sciences and consoles, and even huge consolidations which have occurred over the previous couple of years. Whereas solely time will inform how these modifications will alter the panorama, these shifts can probably hit indie builders the toughest. That is why we need to acknowledge that these builders, be they sole people or small groups, are important for the expansion and variety of our business.”
Heyne mentioned that one comparatively easy (but additionally uncommon) manner that established studios can help aspiring builders is to launch the supply code from their older video games, so newcomers have the chance to experiment and “construct their very own dream initiatives and video games.” A few early initiatives based mostly on the Duelyst supply are already within the works, and Heyne expressed explicit gratitude to Dream Sloth Video games for its work on making Duelyst 2 occur.
We appreciated Duelyst fairly a bit when it debuted in 2016, calling it “beautiful ways card recreation that is easy to choose up however has vital depth” in our 84% overview (opens in new tab). It had a fairly good run over the following 4 years, however the CCG style is a troublesome place, and in January 2020 Counterplay introduced that the servers had been being taken offline (opens in new tab)—and since Duelyst was an online-only recreation, that was the top of it. The fan-developed return of the sport as Duelyst 2 was nice information for gamers who miss the unique, however the launch of the supply code and property may probably open the door to much more fascinating issues sooner or later.
“There are not any strings hooked up,” Heyne mentioned. “All of the supply code and recreation property are so that you can use and for the neighborhood to leverage how they like. There’s no approval or permission from us, and you’ll develop, maintain, and monetize it nevertheless you want to. Get pleasure from and have enjoyable!”
If you would like to take a poke round to see what’s what, the Duelyst supply code and property can be found now from Github (opens in new tab). To maintain up with the state of Duelyst’s open-source future, and possibly become involved with a challenge or two, head over to the OpenDuelyst Discord server (opens in new tab).