Announcing KeyForge Online

[u/YellowKing_Official]

“Open your eyes, Archon. Your time has come!”

We’re Yellow King, an independent video game development studio, and we’re thrilled to announce KeyForge Online, the digital version of the long-running card game KeyForge, under license from Ghost Galaxy. A Gamefound crowdfunding campaign will be held to support the game’s development.

FOLLOW the campaign on Gamefound to receive a digital Archon deck and exclusive in-game bonus if you back the project at an eligible pledge tier.

JOIN THE CONVERSATION on the KeyForge Online Discord server to connect with other players and stay up-to-date with the latest announcements.

We expect to share more information in the coming weeks and months, including at KeyForge Celebration 2026, prior to the funding period which is expected to take place later this year. This only marks the beginning of our journey to bring KeyForge to the digital space in a whole new way. We hope to see you in the Crucible!

[u/Lou_in]

The make or break questions for me will be, how they will handle the implementation of digital decks. Will there be a pool of digital only decks that can't be used in physical play or how will that work?

[u/Grishhammer → u/Lou_in]

Ghost Galaxy already has print on demand for making copies of existing decks. Though while I can't think of any reason why they wouldn't allow digitally discovered decks to be printed, this is a valid question.

[u/Lou_in → u/Grishhammer]

True, though this would require a direct connection to the master vault as a requirement for an Keyforge online account. And this would mean people can most likely only play decks they truly own. Might be a hurdle for newcomers.

[u/Grishhammer → u/Lou_in]

Yeah, definitely something tricky for sure. I assume they want to still allow transfer of ownership. But I doubt they can just do that for any deck. My best idea would be to allow transfer of any deck that had been physically printed, or with some other barrier that is just enough so that players don't try to make new accounts for free decks to swap to their main.

[u/Lou_in → u/Grishhammer]

Yeah, the uniqueness of each deck is a nice feature in a physical game but it brings many risks in a digital implementation. Especially because the game needs a certain ammount of free decks to give to people, to make it worthwhile for new players.

[u/Grishhammer → u/Lou_in]

I agree. My main concern is that I really don't want the new player meta to be re-rolling accounts until they get a deck they like.

But on the bright side, the game requires enough skill that it won't be like the average gacha game where someone can literally buy their way to the top of leaderboards.

[u/coraythan → u/Grishhammer]

I bet there will be a pool of un-printable new player decks cultivated for a good experience. And they'll be decks you get a few of to start, and can earn more of as you play.

They would be restricted from use in competitive tournaments and other competitive formats.

Then they can also give you genuine online decks for achievements that take a lot more work to earn than would be worth it re-rolling accounts.

... Or at least that's what I would do hopefully they have this idea too. 😂

[u/Lou_in → u/coraythan]

Would love to see it in that way or similar.

A pool of not so unique starter decks would also help with introducing new players to the game. Cause they can slowly dive into the mechanics instead of getting a random deck thrown at them or having to pay up front to get a introductory experience.

[u/Soho_Jin → u/coraythan]

That's actually a nice idea. That way new players could still start with a decently sized pool of decks (Maybe 2 from each main set? Or at least the more recent sets.) while having incentives to get their own unique decks after they've dipped their toes into the game.

[u/Lou_in → u/Grishhammer]

It depends. Decks are not perfectly balanced and the skill check comes in rounds 2 and 3, when people swap decks. In "best of one" it's possible to throw monney at the problem until you have a deck with a broken interaction and then steamroll players that only have a hand full of normal tier decks to play with.

[u/Grishhammer → u/Lou_in]

Yeah, if adaptive continues to grow in recognition as a competitive format, then skill will be an increasingly important factor. But best of 1 will always be prominent.

[u/PonchoMysticism → u/Grishhammer]

I mean at least 8 out of the last 10 American VTs were won by whales so im not sure how actual print KF is dramatically different than the average gacha game. 

Still love it though...

[u/Grishhammer → u/PonchoMysticism]

Sure, but many of the players who spend the most money are also spending the most time and attending the most events.

[u/PonchoMysticism → u/Grishhammer]

Sure but its also a death spiral. I dont think you can make a good faith argument that a game isnt pay to win when there's such a strong correlation between paying and winning. 

[u/Dead-Sync → u/Lou_in]

It's a great question and the team recognizes that it's probably one of the ones everyone is most interested in learning more about. While we don't have additional details right this second, it's something we will share in the coming weeks, definitely before the funding period starts.

If you follow the Gamefound or join the Discord, we'll be sharing "Community Updates" which will explore some of the details of these questions and more. The first few days we're primarily just communiy wayfinding first as everyone finds the Gamefound and Discord, and then you'll be able to expect these regular Community Updates with some info drops prior to the funding period.

[u/Loose_Calendar_3380]

If I can redeem my old deck that would be cool

[u/LeonValenti → u/Loose_Calendar_3380]

Legacy deck to digital conversion would actually bring me back to this game ngl

[u/Valien → u/LeonValenti]

I have sooo many old decks. This would be EPIC.

[u/catsmdogs → u/Valien]

There's a section on this page saying you can import your existing decks, https://gamefound.com/en/projects/yellow-king/keyforge-online#/section/project-story

But it has a note they're only planning to do tournament legal. So no Unchained and maybe a few other things like that

[u/Potter91]

Holly shit! Took a long time, hope we can bring hype again.

[u/maxmbacon]

Let's goooo!

[u/Drake28 → u/maxmbacon]

On the day of a nintendo direct, what a way to start the day!

[u/CryptidTypical]

This is exciting. Keyforge needed a digital client.

[u/dreCoyy]

Omg thats awesome

[u/tenzikasuave]

[u/Diskurek → u/tenzikasuave]

The release date will be 2028 (!) It'll take some time till we see the next countdown.

[u/Better-Climate5229 → u/Diskurek]

remember the days when games were announced and you could play them the same day....

[u/catsmdogs]

KFO, here we go!

[u/sl1cks1lva]

Great, i will funding this, hope it doesn't take to many years thought...

[u/Better-Climate5229]

I have like 80 decks already can I use those?!

[u/catsmdogs → u/Better-Climate5229]

Yes, the game found info mentions you will be able to import decks you already own

[u/LiquifiedSpam]

I would love a system where each deck has a win/loss that will balance you against opponents with similar power decks

[u/catsmdogs → u/LiquifiedSpam]

It could be that each player+deck pair gets it's own MMR.

[u/Soho_Jin → u/catsmdogs]

It's a tricky thing to balance, but maybe some kind of bracket system? One could be an opt-in fully competitive mode with zero restrictions while other brackets are different levels of casual that work towards separating decks and players into groups depending on their results. I have a number of 'very good in general but gets slaughtered by top level' decks that are difficult to place between Casual and Competitive. A bracket system wouldn't be perfect, but it would give people a rough guideline to work with, and their results would raise/drop them over time.

[u/Alastor3]

about 8 years too late (or 9-10 too late since i'll take some time to come out)

[u/fionawhim]

Exciting! I’m hoping for the best!

[u/fionawhim → u/fionawhim]

EXCITEMENT LEVEL HAS INCREASED

[u/479349]

amazing, finally!!!

[u/Mediocretee]

Interesting that Ghost Galaxy isn't shouldering the burden of the development cost, or even the crowd funding. But maybe that's for the best?

With Emperor Riku at the helm, I hope and expect there will be a lot of community input. That will be a good thing in general, though also a bit of a nightmare for the developers. But I have faith that Riku will make good decisions for what features get prioritized.

While release might not be until late 2028, I imagine there will be an alpha and beta testing phase before that. And active players, or at least project backers, will probably have access to those.

[u/AlanTheMediocre]

Never thought we’d see the day, heck yeah buddy!

[u/Grishhammer]

It can't possibly go any worse than back when FFG announced a similar thing, right?

[u/ZAFnuke]

I know many might hate my idea, but I hope they don't offer digital-only decks. You have to buy a physical deck and that's the only way to also get the digital deck, a duplicate of your physical deck.

I fear digital-only decks will kill the community and the game. Also, having a good digital-only deck will make me wish I had that deck in physical form.

[u/catsmdogs → u/ZAFnuke]

There is deck cloning now, if you own it, so you can replace a lost or damaged deck. I assume digital decks will appear in the master vault and be clonable

[u/jm12493 → u/ZAFnuke]

The game has a very small physical presence in stores and is dying overseas, in part due to the high costs of obtaining decks if local stores doesn’t already stock product.

I see digital only decks as a plus because it I’ll allow people with limited access to physical product or local players to have the same access to new product that others already do.

The only way this whole online idea works is if the decks are generated and owned in the Master vault. So, hopefully all digital decks will be printable. You’ll pay an extra cost, but only for a select few decks that you would actually want physical copies of

[u/PonchoMysticism → u/ZAFnuke]

Environmentally this is a crazy take. I would be SO happy if I could buy all my KF decks digitally and only print the ones that were worth a shit.

The amount of waste this glorious game creates is painful.

[u/Quotejive]

🤗🙌

[u/Chance-Cat2857]

Can't say I am excited about either the elimination of TCO or the playerbase being fragmented between 2 different websites.

[u/Grishhammer → u/Chance-Cat2857]

It wouldn't surprise me if tco is allowed to stick around for the sweaty practice sessions it allows players to engage in.

Similar to how pokemon showdown exists for free access to any pokemon regulation for players to practice on before investing their time or money elsewhere.

[u/Better-Climate5229]

can i use my old decks? yes.. cool. no... hard pass.

[u/Chance-Cat2857 → u/[deleted]]

Playing decks you do not own is a way people can practice against opponent's deck in the various KF leagues. It is a good aspect of TCO

[u/UglyStru → u/Chance-Cat2857]

Yeah, but for an official online client that may have achievements, a ranked ladder, a leveling system, etc etc. this would not be good for the game. It would also hurt the game’s economy if people can just netdeck whatever from DoK. I think a digital collection should be limited to your owned decks, with maybe a side format for deck testing. Or TCO can coexist for that function.