The Bazaar - a new card game / hero builder and auto-battler

2024-11-12

The Bazaar is a card game, a hero builder and an auto-battler. The game is free to play for PC and Mac and is developed by Tempo studio founded by ex-Hearthstone pro-player Andrey Reynad Yanyuk.

As of November 2024 the game is in closed beta available to players who either purchase a founder pack or get a beta invite code from one of the founding players. Open beta is expected in December 2024 and the game should launch in early 2025.

Bazaar Gameplay

In the closed beta, three heroes are available - Vanessa, Dooley, and Pyg, each with a unique playstyle and cards. Other heroes are in the works. You start with Vanessa while other heroes can be unlocked via in-game currency (crystals).

After selecting a hero the game starts, and you can select your free starting item

The goal is to build a board to win against 10 other players. The game is divided into days, each day looks like so:

Shop or event
Shop or event
Fight a PvE monster
Shop or event
Shop or event
Fight a PvP opponent

You get a set income of gold each day, and you get gold from PvE encounters and some events. You can then spend the gold in shops and events to buy items or talents to improve your board.

The game ends after you get 10 PvP wins when 15 days pass or when you lose all your prestige by losing multiple PvP fights. After which you can claim your rewards. Free-to-play mode has a free Ranked mode ticket at 10 wins, while Ranked mode requires a ticket or 100 crystals (in-game currency) to start. In Ranked mode you get coffers at set win counts - the more wins the better. Coffers contain crystals and cosmetics.

To get even or slightly positive with crystals count you need a bit more than 2 coffers per ranked run, but that can change in the future.

Kripp is here to showcase Bazaar basics

Asynchronous PvP - player ghosts

What's unique in Bazaar is that you aren't fighting a player board directly but rather it copies - the server makes copies of the player board for each run-day and then selects one you will fight from same-day copies. The player board you got likely fights some other board and not yours.

This approach allows the game to have no timers - you can do whatever you want, even exit the game and resume when you desire.

Example board

Here is an early board setup:

Katana is a low damage but very fast weapon so damage increases have more value

Large items take most board space but offer one of the best bonuses — Large items take most board space but offer strongest bonuses

Freeze, slow or item destruction is a form of counter-play

The game has direct damage, poison and burn over time damage, shields, and heals. Items on the board can be hasted, slowed, frozen for a time, or destroyed for a fight. Some weapons or tools, like the Harpoon, have a limited amount of uses per fight (ammo) but can be reloaded by other items or skills or upgraded to have more ammo.

Presented board isn't that good, but it's a good starting point for the Crow's Nest build paired with a better weapon.

Submarine, torpedo and Crow's Nest for the win

Dooley specializes in shield and burn builds but can also ramp direct damage in combat as well

Vanessa specializes in ammo weapons and aquatic items - poison, shield, heal and weapon synergies

Monetization

The game is free to play and the unranked mode is free. Ranked mode requires in-game currency or tickets. You get one ticket per day and a 10-win reward in unranked mode. Crystals, the in-game currency is a reward from loot boxes - chests - which you get from ranked mode wins. Actual rules/rewards are still an open topic and there can be a sort of a battle-pass - check the game discord for current discussion and changes.

In the closed beta the rank isn't MMR but sort of a counter of games played/won. Attaining ranks doesn't give any benefits aside from bragging rights.

The game has classical loot boxes with cosmetics and in-game currency

The Referral Link

If you want to sign-up you can use my referral link, which will give me few in-game rewards :)

Game reception

The game has been picked up by multiple streamers, including Kripparian - a popular Hearthstone player. Twitch view counts are also high - and the game is still in closed beta. Compared to Hearthstone is more friendly to play and even weaker runs won't end abruptly. The art style and music are also of quality.

I've played quite a bit of Vanessa and Dooley and the game looks really fun. There is a lot of balancing, and tuning during the beta period and when it goes live it should be fun to play while not being some competitive ultra-balanced card game. On the other hand, there is and will be a meta, so you may see more and more meta builds in later days and if you aren't ready you will lose more often than not.

Comment article