The next project from the creators of Magic: The Gathering won't be paper-based. It's instead being designed for the world of online, via Facebook and iPhone. Mind Twist is still very much just a codename to the public, but its developer, Mind Control Software, is squarely aiming its head-to-head, turn-based fantasy battle game at what it calls the 'thinking gamer'.
Edge sat down with Richard Garfield and Mind Control VP of Business Strategy (and fellow Wizards of the Coast alum) Randy Buehler to discuss what they believe is the still-untapped potential of computers to run the next generation of paper-baed games, and why there's room for games for the thinking player on the populist planes of social networking platforms.
GameZone writes: "It's rare that you get to interview a developer or publisher about a game that's still being kept under wraps. Typically they won't say anything until a zillion screenshots, fact sheets and press releases have flooded the Web.
Although Mind Twist, an online strategy game from Richard Garfield (the creator of Magic: The Gathering), has yet to be shown to the public, Randy Buehler was eager to hint at what's to come. "Mind Twist is a turn-based strategy game designed to be played multiplayer, which are two things it shares with almost all tabletop games," says Buehler, a former Wizards employee and now the VP of Business Strategy at Mind Control, the game's developer. "If you think about it, the idea of a single-player game barely existed until about 1980 – games have been multiplayer for millennia and now that Internet technology has finally advanced to the point where online multiplayer is convenient to do, we look forward to watching that trend continue."
Today, Mind Control Software and Richard Garfield, board and card game design legend and creator of the seminal Magic: The Gathering collectible card game, have announced a collaboration to produce Mind Twist.
This title, for which only a teaser website exists thus far, is a head-to-head, free-to-play strategy game to be delivered to iPhone as an app and Facebook via Flash, and supported by microtransaction purchases of player-controlled armies.
Garfield and Magic alumnus Skaff Elias have also joined Mind Control's advisory board, promising future collaborations with the developer on other products.
