You can already carry the spaceships from the space MMO around in your pocket. A German police officer makes it possible.
Thomas Eberhard”s eyes light up, as you would expect from someone who talks about his passion. The dream that took six years of Eberhard”s sweat and tears.
Six years in which he worked on his space card game Squadrons, sometimes until 2 a.m., almost exclusively alone. Thomas, who is a policeman by profession, put a lot into realising his dream. And more: “It”s been a huge balancing act and a huge cost to the family, we”ve sacrificed a lot for this.”
His eldest son grew up with Squadrons, he”s virtually part of the development. How fitting, then, that as we talk on his day off, Thomas is listening with one ear for the second squirt playing in the next room. I wonder if he”ll get to play with daddy”s cards one day?
What Squadrons are all about
Squadrons is currently an analogue card game for two players, but it”s based on one of the most exciting and talked about MMOs at the moment: Star Citizen. The original names and images of the spaceships from the Chris Roberts game are printed on the cards, and Thomas Eberhard has the official, non-commercial usage permission from developer Cloud Imperium Games – “signed by Erin Roberts”, the Squadrons creator proudly tells us.
As squadron leader, you duel for victory points with spaceships (your hand cards) by placing them face down on extra-large location cards laid out at the beginning of a round. These are worth different amounts of points depending on the location. If one of these locations (which are based on the official planets and space stations of the Stanton system, the only star system currently included in Star Citizen) is claimed by both players, the ship cards are revealed and battle ensues.
The gameplay is unusual because there are no resources or life points in Squadrons like in Magic: The Gathering. You don”t have to play lands to generate mana, instead it”s instant action on the first turn.
“Hard action,” promises Thomas, who worked on the balancing with over 40 test players (including two Magic Pro tournament players). A die comes into play when dodging; the only random element in the game. “I want to see people playing Squadrons tournaments at some point,” Thomas hopes.
With UEE, Vanduul and Pirates, three factions exist so far, with a deckbuilding option built in for the future. While the Vanduul aliens rely on all kinds of tricks, the privateers specialise in disabling ships via EMP and looting them at the end of a successful battle. The UEE Navy, on the other hand, relies mainly on its firepower and armour. The first stage from the rulebook can be downloaded from the Squadrons (website); simply print out cards and start playing. Squadrons are not yet available for purchase. But that”s only a matter of time.
Soon at a shop near you
“The chances [of a commercial version, editor”s note] have never been better,” Thomas Eberhard tells us in an interview. There are currently negotiations going on in the background, and a large board game publisher with experience in the implementation of licences is interested. This is no coincidence: in the past, Squadrons was able to win over large parts of the Star Citizen community.
At the so-called (Citizen Spotlight), a platform for the presentation of community projects, Squadrons has repeatedly received a record-breaking number of upvotes from Star Citizen players. In the meantime, three different contributions have already made it into the top 10, and a fourth Citizen Spotlight on the new community trading card is planned for August 2022. Real filming even took place for the upcoming trailer. Thomas Eberhard is again assuming a top position in the rankings.
“These were important signals,” says Thomas today, looking ahead to the upcoming commercialisation. It would then probably be six to twelve months before you could buy Squadrons – a belated satisfaction for the game designer, who often had to grit his teeth during the long development period. “There was so much bashing of the game,” he says today in retrospect.
“Developing the game by feel was at the same time the most beautiful and hardest part of the development”
In the end, besides pursuing his hobby (Thomas has already developed a huge prototype for a board and card game for Star Wars: The Clone Wars, whose game plan he printed on a truck tarpaulin at the time), the main thing for him was “to develop myself personally. […] I learned so much about development, production and distribution. And also to never give up. “
Thomas once slipped into the Star Citizen scene out of interest in the MMO”s development, which was unusually transparent for the industry, with frequent updates. The community, which he got to know as extraordinarily friendly and helpful, kept him involved. To this day, he only owns two medium-sized spaceships in the game.
The turning point for the project was Con42 near Frankfurt am Main in 2018, where Thomas Eberhard presented his project to the Star Citizen community for the first time. The reactions are overwhelming. In 2019, together with Cartamundi, Europe”s leading playing card manufacturer, they print a small edition of the Squadrons prototype through their German subsidiary ASS Altenburger. Thomas will be handing one of these over to Erin Roberts, brother of Cloud Empire Games CEO Chris Roberts, on the sidelines of gamescom 2019 at a pub meeting called Bar Citizen.
Erin, who is leading the development of Star Citizen”s single-player campaign Squadron 42 in England at this time, seems heavily impressed. An unmistakable sign of this: Thomas had already received the non-commercial use permit – signed by Erin Roberts – in 2018.
But there are conditions: Thomas Eberhard is not allowed to crowdfund Squadrons or make money from it. The future of Squadrons is nevertheless hopeful.
What the future holds
Over 1,500 physical trading cards of Squadrons are already in circulation, so-called early supporter cards. Fans come from all over the world; Thomas sent two cards to the archipelago of French Polynesia in the Pacific. Currently, the chic, reflective cards with “foil” effect are being traded on Ebay for around 40 euros each. Later, their owners will be able to exchange them for exclusive and very rare playing cards.
Four spaceships have been available so far as Early Supporter cards, and Thomas plans to introduce the fifth card in August 2022. We could already see it and promise: Star Citizen fans can expect a special treat, because the spaceship depicted on it is a luxurious fan favourite.
If everything works out with the commercialisation deal, the Squadrons starter set will initially be released with a premium box and hardcover manual according to Thomas” vision – the limited and numbered special edition will then include all cards as a foil variant. “That”s my dream,” Thomas reveals to us in the interview.
Squadrons is modular, so if Cloud Imperium Games unlocks the long announced pyro system in Star Citizen, Thomas Eberhard can simply add a corresponding set of 15 new location maps. The same applies to new spaceships or factions, where there are hardly any limits to the imagination. Among other things, the game designer wants to introduce a salvaging squadron next, i.e. scrap collectors who can recycle destroyed ships and bring them back.
If the stars align, Squadrons could even find its way onto PCs from all over the world. Concept graphics show how this could look:
However, many space battles will have to be fought in living rooms at home before this could one day happen. The author illustrates the accessibility of squadrons with an example:
“One of my test players tried Squadrons with his almost 60-year-old father-in-law. He didn”t have any Star Citizen expertise beforehand, but then gambled with him several times a day for the whole holiday and otherwise tinkered with his squadron on the sofa “
It takes an audition with an experienced player, then you are fully in it, says Thomas Eberhard. “By now it really feels like Star Citizen,” he says. His eyes light up.
