Silberheim Evolving Card Game launches on 30 October – expectations, features and a rollercoaster ride

It has now been more than six years since a certain company called Beyond Worlds was founded. And after all those years of hard work, the moment has come for the fruits of that work to become visible to the wider world. Silberheim Evolving Card Game launches on Steam on Friday, 30 October. At 3:51 pm, of course.

If you think you’re excited, you should see our fingers trembling and our knees shaking.

We would like to take this opportunity to talk about everything you can expect. As usual, we have taken on rather a lot and come up with far too many overambitious ideas – so many that some of them might be news even to the dearest of dear souls.

We should also say this: we are on the brink of a cognitive meltdown in just about every respect. So if anything seems unclear, it is probably down to a) our growing inability to see what is obvious to everyone else or b) the clapping monkey in my head. It is unlikely to be c) you. If you have questions, come and give us a telling-off on Discord – we’ll come running to help :)

Before we give you an overview of Silberheim ECG, sometimes in more detail than others, the usual reminder applies: nothing here is set in stone. We welcome your feedback and criticism, because that is the only way the game can grow with you and for you. Please also bear in mind that this is our first time doing this – Silberheim ECG is our debut game. Most of us are at the start of our careers, and none of us came from the games industry. So please tell us if something is completely rubbish. We’ll learn from it and make it better. Promise.

Now, let’s finally get started!

At release, you will get to know Silberheim ECG’s first edition. Like our novel, it is called “Daemonion”. It contains 485 unlockable cards and three main factions. As you can see in our roadmap, more cards and factions will arrive over the coming months. The “Moritura” edition in particular is rather substantial, bringing reinforcements from Bruck in the form of the Streamstriders.

Each of the three starting factions has a saga spanning three chapters. In them, you will explore Silberheim’s lore and accompany members of each faction on a rather dangerous adventure. The new “Sagas retold” also contain the odd puzzle for you to discover. They let you explore Silberheim through its stories, away from competitive duels against other souls. If you took part in our beta test, you will already know the idea. Back then, these were the “Stories”, though they were much shorter and less detailed than they are now.

We are often asked what our approach to monetisation actually looks like. How much does Silberheim ECG cost? How will we fund it in the long term? And will we stick with play-to-win instead of pay-to-win? We do, of course, have a few answers.

At launch, you can get the base version of the game for €10 – roughly the price of a large döner kebab. A launch discount makes that possible. Later, it will cost a coin or two more – or a dar or two, rather. You only pay once. You cannot buy booster packs or new decks with real money, nor can you buy our in-game currency Flux or the rare Resonances (more on those in a moment). Instead, you earn your progress through play. Winning duels and completing sagas gives you Flux, and what you do with it is up to you.

That price has actually been set for quite some time. Some dear souls may remember this GameStar article about Silberheim. To our surprise, however, this very approach has caused some concern. How can we sustain it? What is wrong with charging for cosmetic items? Have we completely lost our minds?

We took that to heart, thought it through, did the maths and concluded that there might be something to it. At the same time, we do not want to lose sight of the principle behind “earn your cards instead of buying them”. So anyone who would like to support us and Silberheim with a few extra euros can choose the Companion or Ally DLC, expected to cost €20 and €30 respectively. These include cosmetic extras such as new card backs, a silver or gold Soul Design, additional PvE content, more starting Flux and a few Resonances. The Ally version also gives you an exclusive Discord role recognising your support for Silberheim.

Please bear in mind that the two DLCs have two distinct purposes. One is to make it a little easier to get started if you have less time to play. You should not, however, expect any lasting, fundamental advantages. We want to keep things fair and continue rewarding dear souls who spend their time in Silberheim ECG. The second purpose is simply to support us. These DLCs are for Silberheim supporters who can afford to spend a few extra coins. If you can, and Silberheim is worth going without another three or four döner kebabs this month, we are of course very grateful ;) But please don’t feel obliged.

A few words about Resonances: these rare items are used in the collection and reveal a random Fragment that can evolve. How and when it does so will remain a mystery. So shhhhh. There is another way to get Resonances, too, which we will come back to later.

Beyond the two supporter DLCs, more expansions will arrive over the coming months – sometimes smaller add-ons, sometimes entire editions. They will also help us keep Silberheim financially afloat. And perhaps some other secret secret things are happening behind the scenes…

Dear souls remember our past test phases just as well as Silberheim itself does. Whether it was the alpha or the beta, a tutorial was nowhere to be found. You had to painstakingly read and consult the rules. Until tooltips arrived, they were the only thing that could help players in Silberheim – apart from the many videos by creators who lovingly and meticulously explained the game (thank you!).

Those days came to an end – and most souls might assume they ended with the demo. After all, that was when a so-called Quick Tutorial suddenly appeared. Text boxes guide souls through a battle and explain what to do, when and how, as it unfolds.

But do you really think that was it? Do you really think that was already THE Silberheim tutorial? Oh no. We gathered our most creative minds to make something bigger. A tutorial that takes you by the hand in a very unexpected way and introduces you to Silberheim ECG. Without spoiling too much: you will begin in a first-person view, somewhere in Weiler, a town in the Fenn Realm. You will make choices – more than you might realise. You will defend the Pitfall Trench against rampaging beasts, meet characters from Silberheim’s stories again and eventually… Phew. After that, I don’t know what happens either.

And the best part: in theory, you can skip reading lengthy text boxes altogether. Because – drum roll, please – the tutorial will be fully voiced in both English and German by none other than THE storyteller and Warcraft expert Shattner. It is an honour to have him.

Some dear souls may already have guessed what this heading is about. Perhaps you’re thinking, “Aha! A refer-a-friend scheme?!” Yes, broadly speaking, you’re right. But we wouldn’t be ourselves if we hadn’t taken the whole system a little too far. Oops. Let us explain.

In Silberheim, you can duel your friends – and you could already do that during the beta. You will now find them under “Bonded Souls”. But there is much more you can do with Bonded Souls. For example, you can name one soul as your Soulmate, once and only once. That tells us: “This soul introduced me to Silberheim.” Your bond then brings a whole range of benefits.

First, you each receive a promo card – but a different one! The soul who brought you to Silberheim receives the Offensive Expansion “Base camp on mountains summit”. They are waiting for you up there, at the summit, so you can continue your Silberheim journey together. You, meanwhile, are still at the foot of the mountain and must overcome the “Unexplored labyrinth at mountains edge” to reach your friend.

That is why Silberheim ECG rewards you for the next three duels you play against each other. Together with your Soulmate, you can get to know Silberheim and earn some extra Flux along the way. And sooner or later, you are sure to make it up to the base camp on the mountaintop – perhaps someone else will choose you as their Soulmate, too.

The more souls you bring to Silberheim, and the more of them decide to form a bond, the more you stand to gain! Complete all three duels with a Soulmate and you will receive a Resonance for that bond. You can earn up to three Resonances this way.

One last new feature may be particularly interesting to the content creators among you. Whether creating content is a hobby or you are already doing it professionally, Silberheim appreciates your efforts. You may remember our Streamer Wanted campaign. Following that campaign, and inspired by it, we came up with the Silberheim Explorer Partnership Programme. It gives you a way to grow alongside Silberheim and earn a little spending money along the way.

If you are interested, email us at coop@beyondworlds.de and we will send you all the details. We will surely take the time to cover the programme in a dedicated article later. First, though, we want to see whether everything we have come up with actually makes sense. As the saying goes, “No plan survives first contact with the enemy” ;)

This does not only benefit content creators. Their communities can benefit too, and “perhaps” even get a very special card. In the bottom-left corner of Silberheim ECG’s main menu, you will find an icon that lets you redeem a code. And “perhaps” you will receive some Flux – and “perhaps” with the Companion and Ally DLC, you might “perhaps” even receive a one-of-a-kind card signed by your favourite influencer. So the rumours go. But remember: you can only have one favourite, so choose wisely!

You have almost made it through the flood of Silberheim information. You have my sincere respect for reading this far – and my thanks. But can we thank you properly? With only a few hours to go until release, your 17-person Silberheim team is on a real rollercoaster ride. On the one hand, we are excited for the big day: the day when all those years of work on our debut game finally see the light of day. But there is worry, too, and an enormous sense of awe. After all, this is the first time we have done any of this. We are convinced that the team has done everything it could over the past weeks, months and years. The last few weeks in particular have been an enormous effort and have demanded a great deal from us all.

And yet the inner critic remains, asking: Will it have been enough? Will we disappoint our community and the souls of Silberheim? Will we live up to your expectations and our own? Should we have done more? How much patience and understanding can we still count on? Will this release be a beginning or an end?

“Two souls, alas, dwell in my breast” – and as if that were not enough, something else has happened.

The dear souls entered the theatre long ago. They chose their seats carefully to make sure they had the best view of the stage. They know exactly what time the performance begins. It always begins at the same very particular time. They sit patiently in their seats, watching the curtain expectantly. They know exactly when it is supposed to fall. And they know the cast is ready. The set is in place, the plays have been rehearsed. Softly, someone hums a familiar tune.

Everything seems to be in order. Everything? Not quite. Behind the curtain stands a nervous director. He knows that one small cog is not doing what it should. It is the fog machine. Instead of filling the theatre with an impressive amount of steam, as it did during the dress rehearsal, it has not stirred for an alarmingly long time. Many times, the director has tried turning it off and on again. Many times, he has asked the manufacturer to finally do something – after all, they had promised to resolve promptly something he had not even messed up himself.

Behind the stage, the final preparations are already under way. Costumes are on, make-up is complete, lines have been learnt and the welcome speech is ready. The director knows it must not fail. But he also knows they cannot begin without the fog machine. He makes a decision. One last attempt. The last of many.

And the steam… It does not steam.

The director turns around. There stands his troupe, ready at last to perform for the dear souls. Questioning eyes: glassy, tired, yet determined and hopeful. Their strength ran out long ago. Only their will keeps them from giving up. And all because the steam will not steam.

The director peeks through the curtain. The theatre is full to the very last seat. Hundreds, even thousands, sit there waiting. The dear souls have waited so long, and so patiently. Some have waited for years, some for months, and others for only a few days. They are all waiting for this very moment. Nobody wants to disappoint them. But the steam will not steam.

Only two to go. The director has had enough. With all his strength, courage and anger, spurred on by the expectant eyes in front of and behind the stage, he kicks the fog machine.

And finally… see you in Silberheim!