I opened a new browser tab and entered the address to the Survival-CCG website. The front page automatically started playing the game's trailer.
Survival-CCG was a virtual reality game with a mix between a survival game and card combat. The graphics looked to be made with the new Unreal 5 engine.
The survival mechanics looked to be a bit basic which I was okay with. I never got into those die-hard survival games where you needed to manage 12 different meters, double the number of resources and whatnot.
The CCG part looked interesting enough that I could kill a few hours with it. The trailer boosted different factions and unique mechanics with more factions to be released with DLC updates.
Below the trailer was a button “Apply for the Alpha test!”.
Clicking the button brought me to their signup form. The first line was telling me that I was applying for an Alpha version and that everything was still a work in progress and subject to change.
I read through the attached NDA which contained all the standard rules about how I’m not allowed to share any details or distribute any footage of the game. I filled in my name, Steam handle, email address, and my time zone. I was thanked for applying for the Alpha test and I’d receive an email if I were selected to participate.
I booted up the virtual reality game I was currently playing and went about the rest of my evening.
~3 days later~
Bzzzt bzzzt. My phone notified me about a new notification from one of the many apps installed on it.
“No mam, you’ll want to go to the Employee page and then click on the employee's name. Select Absence from the new menu bar and there you can process their outstanding absence requests.” I told the lady I was on the phone with. “Anything else I can help you with?” She had no further questions and thanked me for the quick service. “If you do have further questions be sure to give us a call. We’ll happily help you out,” and with that, I tapped my headset to end the call. I updated the call notes in our CRM program and grabbed my phone to see which app wanted my attention.
New email.
Congratulations Michael you’ve been selected to participate in...
The limited amount of space those notifications had cut off there. I tapped the notification and unlocked my phone to read the entire e-mail.
Congratulations Michael you’ve been selected to participate in the Survival-CCG Alpha test! Our Alpha test will begin Saturday, July first at 9 AM in your local time.
You can download our client via your Steam account with the key below.
We’re looking forward to seeing you in the land of Teraia.
A huge grin was plastered on my face after reading the email. It was currently Wednesday the 28th so only 3 more days till the Alpha started. I quickly opened my calendar app to see if I had any commitments for Saturday but as with most days it was empty. Most of Sunday was empty as well apart from the family dinner planned for the evening. Dinner should only be around 3 hours and after 2 days of hardcore gaming that might be a welcome distraction and breather before the new work week started.
Pling pling pling, Pling pling pling my headset sounded, indicating I had another call waiting for me. “Good afternoon HR software company. You’re speaking with Michael how can I help you today”? The rest of the week went by very rapidly after that.
~Saturday~
Beep beep, beep beep, beep beep, beep beep. I groggily opened my eyes and hit the snooze button on my alarm. I turned to lie on my back and rubbed my hands over my face and eyes staring at the ceiling for a few minutes. Turning my head to the alarm clock it was 8 AM. I had already downloaded and installed the Survival client the moment I got home on Wednesday. I closed my eyes for a bit and let my imagination wander.
Beep beep, beep beep. I startled awake 9 minutes later again. I turned the alarm off and made my way over to the bathroom. I planned to just game away the entire day but that’s no excuse to disregard my personal hygiene. The warm water poured over my body and started to wake me up. Stepping out about 15 minutes later I wiped my towel over the mirror. Blue eyes stared back at me. My physique was average. I went to the gym once or twice a week but that was that keep in shape and not to bulk up. I grabbed my brush and combed my dark blonde hair back. I recently decided to go for that Viking look. The sides of my head were shaved short and I was growing out the top. I stroked the sides and decided that I could wait another week before giving it a trim. I stroked my not beard that I might be trying to grow. I was still on the fence if that was the look for me but I’d at least give it a shot. I trimmed it short during my teen years since shaving it smoothly irritated my neck. Now in my mid-twenties, I was undecided.
I turned off the bathroom lights and made my way over to the kitchen. I glanced at the wall clock as I stepped into the living room. Showering always lasted longer than you thought it would as the clock read 8:48. I quickly grabbed two buns from the bag and cut them open. I picked 4 slices of ham from the fridge and put two in each bun. Already taking a bite out of one I made my way to my game room. It was nothing more than a side room but it was enough space to move in when playing VR games.
I quickly finished the two buns while my computer booted up. I placed my body trackers and put my goggles on. Doing a few last-minute stretches I selected Survival from the virtual menu. That start button was counting down the last minute until the game was available. As soon as the counter hit zero a static crash hit the screen followed by white light flickering by similar to those old Star Trek lightspeed effects.
Blinking that bright light from my eyes I found myself in a forest clearing. I looked around at the trees surrounding the clearing and at my virtual body and was very impressed with the graphics. I knew Unreal 5 had some bonkers graphics but this was next level. It looked almost lifelike. I could even smell the forest.
Wait.
I could smell the forest.
I tried grabbing my controllers but my fingers just touched my pals. In a mild panic, I tried to rip off my VR goggles but instead of goggles, my hand touched my head. “FUCK”!
I could feel the warmth of the sun on my arms and a calm summer breeze caressed my face. “Guess I´m not in Kansas anymore. I wonder where the yellow brick road starts”.
A tennis ball-sized orb of green light came floating over from the forest. It circled me a few times. I tried to keep track of it but it flew faster than I could turn my body. It settled in front of my face, slightly higher than my eye line so I had to look up to properly see it. With an explosion of green particles, the ball of light transformed into a pint-sized fairy. She wore a summer dress made of rose petals. Her skin was pale and she wore no shoes. Her round face was topped with red hair equalling the colour of her dress. It looked like someone had held a blow dryer in front of her face to get her hair to stick up. I rubbed my eyes to make sure I was seeing this correctly.
“Hey listen,” she shouted at me. This made me chuckle remembering another certain fairy.
“Stop laughing at me,” she said annoyed. She even made a pouty face with her hands on her waist. This image alone made me snort ‘damn, Tsundere much’ I thought to myself.
“I .. I’m sorry, you just reminded me of something funny.”
“Ahem. As I was saying, my name is Rose. I’ll be your guide during this tutorial. Feel free to ask any questions you have and I’ll do my best to answer them,” she said with confidence. A new game plus tutorial meant instead of VR this was now a live-action game.
“So we’re on the world of Teraia?”
“Yes and no. We’re currently in a simulated tutorial space of Teraia, but once the tournament starts you’ll be transported to the real one.”
If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.
“And with tournament you mean I’ll be competing with other players?”
“Correct! You’ll spawn in a random zone. The goal for each zone is survival and the last 2 player standing will go on to the next round of the tournament till we crown a winner!”
“Let me guess, the losers do not go home with a consolation price.”
“Good guess.” As she faced the horizon and with her finger pointing straight forward she yelled “Now on with the tutorial!” As if that was the magical trigger for the next part of this so-called tutorial a white-furred bunny hopped out from the treeline into the clearing.
Rose turned her body around to face me. “Your first opponent has arrived, let's go kill it,” she said with glee in her eyes. “To initiate combat you’ll have to be within 30 feet look at your vict.. uhm target and simply say initiate duel.”
I sceptically looked at the rabbit and let out a sigh. The clearing wasn’t that big so it was already within the required 30 feet so I simply said “Initiate duel”.
The world around me lunged and my insides felt like it just went through a roller coaster loop. Some kind of AR overlay was placed over the world. In front of me were two rows of five roughly 6.5 feet squares. The middle of this field was a single 3 feet zone connected to another two rows of 5 squares. The bunny was in the middle square of the row closest to the centre. Interestingly the last row on their side was comprised of the tree line.
“This is the battlefield. You can only play cards on the ten squares on your side of the field. And your opponent will play cards in their ten squares. You’ve challenged an animal and they mostly do not play cards. Instead, they will spawn a set number of animals on their side of the field. While such battles are generally easier and shorter, they will have a board advantage compared to you.” I nodded along to her explanation.
“Now hold out a hand like you’re holding a hand of cards and say draw to draw your opening hand.”
I held out of left hand like she instructed “Draw”. Four cards materialised in my hand. With a glance, I noted they all had a picture of a wolf on it.
“Great, there are seven sections on a card. In the top left is the card's name and in the top right you’ll see the cost of the card. Below that is an image of the creature you will summon to the board. Below the image is the creature's types. This is important when effects apply to a specific type. The bottom section lists any abilities a card has. And finally on the bottom left is the creature's attack and the health points on the right. If you want a better look or play a card take it into your other hand.”.
I picked the card closest to my right hand and pulled it out to have a better look.
Wolf
Beast - Wolf
Attack 1 Health 1
It was a generic one-drop.
“To play the Wolf card, keep it in your hand and mentally select the square you want to play it to. I suggest you play in the centre front square.” I did as the fairy suggested. The card flew from my hand to hover behind the square and the wolf jump out from the card onto the field.
“You and your opponent each play cards at the same time. When you’re done playing cards mentally select to end your turn. When you’ve both ended the turn it will be followed by combat.”.
I followed the mental command and immediately the wolf dashed for the rabbit. Just as it was about the chomp down that rabbit headbutted the wolf in the chest knocking it back. The wolf whimpered for a moment as it was down on the ground before turning into blue motes of light. Quizzically I turned my gaze to the rabbit. Its white fur is now marred with three jagged lines of red on its flank. It seems the wolf got a claw attack in before it was knocked away.
“Creatures that get damaged will not regain their health points unless they have an ability or get healed by the ability of another creature. To see the details of any creature on the field focus on it and think about seeing their status.”
After focussing for two seconds the rabbit's details came into view.
Murder Bunny
Beast - Rabbit, Furry
Attack 2 Health 2
“Hey Rose, is this just a special tutorial creature or will I encounter this Murder bunny in the wild?”
“While you could encounter it in the wild it did get buffed for this tutorial.” This was a good thing. If the tutorial was buffed that means the actual game would be easier. I would still have to look out for tougher creatures and appearance did not dictate power.
“Each round of combat will increase your crystal generation by one to a maximum of six. Any unused crystals will be lost at the end of a round. Creatures will always attack in a straight line. If it is not blocked it will attack the opposing summoner. If you’re facing a non summoner the attack will do nothing. When a summoner loses all their life points they lose the battle. Any life you lost will remain lost until replenished.”
That last part made my blood run cold and send a shiver down my spine. If random combat had this much impact it was a huge risk to face too many wild encounters unless I found out how to replenish them.
“So Rose, how would I replenish my health points?”
“Hmm, eating food replenishes a few, a good night’s rest, and if your lucky you’ll find a health potion. Now finish off that rabbit so we can continue your tutorial,” she said with glee.
I summoned another wolf in the middle square and just for science also one in the leftmost square. After ending my turn the leftmost wolf just stood there idle. My middle wolf charge the rabbit again but this time it bit down on the neck. While the rabbit was clutched in the wolf’s jaws it kicked out with both feet in a roundhouse and connected with the wolf's head. I heard a faint snap when the kick connected and the wolf’s head now bend at an awkward angle on its neck. It fell to the ground and both creatures vanished in motes of blue light.
Two trumpets played a short victory tune and a banner with victory spawned in the middle of the field. A post-combat message popped up.
VICTORY!
Exp gained: 0
Coins gained: 0
Cards gained: None
Additional rewards: None
Claim
I mentally clicked the claim button. It vanished within a few seconds along with the AR battel field overlay. The only thing that remained was the mangled corpse of the rabbit that was my opponent.
“Experience can be used to upgrade your cards and coins can be used in the Survivor shop. If you’re lucky you might get a card copy from a defeated enemy. Additional rewards can be numerous, but you’ll have to figure those out on your own.”
While not pleased with not getting a hint on the additional rewards they were most likely linked to some sort of quest or special conditions. It would be interesting to figure those out.
“After selecting your deck and deck box you can start editing your deck. A deck box consists of 3 parts. You have the actual twenty-four-card deck. An eight-card side deck. And a space for all the cards not in your deck. You can sell any unwanted cards to the shop at a low price or trade them with other contestants in the shop's trade section. But that will all be explained by Mr Richard when you find and enter one of his stores.”
“Survival is the second main part of the tournament. You’ll have to forage for food or you can butcher and cook your enemies remains.”
I wearily eyed the rabbit corpse. While having seen some of those survival TV shows, I had zero clue about how to skin and butcher an animal.
“Here, why don’t you give it a go.” I turned to Rose and she somehow was holding a knife out for me. I gulped as I grabbed the knife’s handle.
~5 minutes later~
The less said about that experience the better. Learning to butcher an animal would be a necessity during the actual tournament but for now I was glad for it to be over.
“Hmm, I hope you’ll improve because that was a hack job if I ever saw one.” The smug face she had when saying that was not appreciated.
“Another part of survival is to keep your hunger and thirst meters filled.” And with that, a red and blue meter popped into the right corner of my vision. When I didn’t focus on them they would fade to the background.
“Besides the normal effects of feeling hungry and thirsty staying in those states for too long will also cause your health points to drop. The first zone will only focus on those two aspects but the further you get in the tournament the more survival factors will come into play like having shelter and fire to stay warm.” Crap, so it is a meters game.
“Any final questions before we end the tutorial?”
Quickly going over everything I had just learned a few things came to mind.
“The battlefield is modelled after the current environment?” She answered yes.
“Will this terrain affect the battle?” Another yes, but she would not elaborate on how.
“Can animals initiate combat with me?” Another yes.
“How do I upgrade a card?”
“Hold a card and think upgrade. That will open up the upgrade path menu.”
A chime akin to a station announcement jingle echoed through the clearing.
“Well, that’s all the tutorial time we have. Good luck I’ll be rooting for you.” She waved at me with a toothy smile and the world went bright again.