The Alpha test phase of Silberheim Evolving Card Game came to an end on June 29th.To properly look back on the past few weeks, we’ll be diving into everything that happened between the Alpha announcement and the final day - in two recap posts. Get ready for some fun gameplay stats, legendary Discord moments and a whole lot of Silberheim. But today, we’re starting things off with an introduction.

Before we dive into the past, let’s first lay the groundwork and quickly clarify what an Alpha test phase actually is and what it’s all about - because for some of you, it might not be that obvious (Hi Mom and Dad, yes, I’m talking to you!).

“Alpha” is, first and foremost, the first letter of the Greek alphabet (surprise!). So what does that have to do with Silberheim? Well… at first glance, not much. But if you look a little closer, it actually makes sense. Alpha, as the first letter, represents a beginning - something new, a starting point. And that’s exactly how you can describe our recent Alpha test phase: not the first one ever, but one of the first. More precisely, it was the first testing phase under the new name “Silberheim” (missed the rebranding? Check it out here ) and in Unity.

For the alpha, we gathered a group of volunteer testers who generously gave us their valuable time and patience to put Silberheim Evolving Card Game through its paces - testing it inside and out, until it broke. And sometimes, it did break. Which might sound pretty bad – a game shouldn’t just fall apart, right?! – but that’s actually the whole point of the process.

Whenever our diligent testers discovered a bug, they sent a message to our programming office – either via Discord or through the in-game Wolby Express tool. This way, countless bug reports made their way to our code connoisseurs, who could then squash them. With the help of our testing community, we were able to fix issues we didn’t even know existed at first – after all, 114 eyes see more than just Karl (even with glasses), Sammie, and Joel.

One might wonder: are 114 eyes really enough? Wouldn’t even more eyes find even more issues? So why didn’t we let the masses play Silberheim? Well – that’s not the goal of a Closed Alpha like ours. Our testers were a carefully selected group of relentlessly enthusiastic individuals – just enough to be effective, but not so many that we’d lose oversight. Anything beyond that is the job of a beta phase (which is – surprise! – the second letter of the Greek alphabet).

The main focus of the Alpha was the technical side of things: does everything work? (No, it didn’t.) Does Silberheim ECG make computers explode? (No – but it came close.). What the Alpha was not about was balancing – that is, making sure the cards and decks are fair and well-tuned. That’s one of the construction sites we’ll tackle in the future. At this stage, Silberheim doesn’t have a tutorial yet either – which means players actually had to READ the rules (ugh, the horror!1!!). But of course, that’s something that will also be implemented later on.

Now that we’ve learned what exactly the purpose of our Silberheim ECG Alpha testing phase was, let’s take a look at how it actually went down. And this time, we’re doing it not from our perspective, but through the eyes of an average Alpha tester.

It’s some day in 2025, and for the first time, you hear about the Alpha test phase for Silberheim ECG. Maybe you found out through YouTube or Instagram, maybe you’ve been part of our Discord community for a while and got the good news there, or maybe someone persuaded you, or a friend kept bugging you until you finally said yes. The next thing you know, you’re joining our Discord - if you haven’t already. Suddenly, you’re part of something, though you’re not even sure what exactly that something is. Some “Manu” cracks bad jokes, some “Jana” posts news updates you couldn’t care less about, some “Karl” is doing Alpha stuff, “Zongi” gets messages from some hairy creature named Piwie, “Felix” is “happy,” and what the heck is this damn “Goblinbox”? You tick a green checkmark or message Karl, saying you want to test the game - that’s why you’re here, after all! Karl will reply to you - at least, I hope he does - and send you a link, along with your personal invite code. You click the link and land on the Silberheim website. You’re asked to register. Eventually, you reach the point where you have to think about a username. And what do you do? Seize the chance to pick the best name ever? Choose one that’s always taken in other games? Nope. You just go with the same name as always. Congratulations.

Suddenly, you find yourself in a dark dungeon, and facing you is a hideous creature. Can you defeat the shadow? Or will you suffer the same fate as that poor soul right before your eyes? We’ll see. Welcome to the “Questionnaire.” It was designed to sort our testers into factions. The Sorting Hat is so yesterday – today, thanks to the “highly complex” Silberheim ECG questionnaire, you get shoved into one of five drawers! Your options are Fenn, Warrior Elite, Trandar’s Basin, Stormrunner and Shuhuks. Choose wisely - because you actually don’t get to choose at all.

At the end of the questionnaire, it’s decided under which banner you’ll fight - at least until you can use Flux, our in-game and earnable currency, to buy a new deck. But before you can finally start playing, you have to install the game. Now, there are three ways your story might continue. If you’re on Windows, you’ll probably click impatiently on the file and end up running it at least twice. If you’re on a Mac, chances are you’ll get a security warning and wonder if we’re actually just some criminal hackers trying to steal your account info. If you’re on Linux, you’re probably studying computer science - good luck and my condolences.

And then it happens. You’ve landed in Silberheim. At first, it’s hard to find your way around. Gradually, things get better. Finally, you start your first game - most likely against the bot. It begins. And you don’t understand a thing, because of course, you didn’t read the rules. Immediately, you regret it.

Wait - you actually read the rules? Stop lying to me! Nobody does, right? I can’t have been the only one?! Well, moving on.

Sometimes you lose, sometimes the others win. Eventually, you might try a more advanced difficulty level, fail or triumph. Maybe one day you even face a real person! You suffer, get frustrated, feel joy, get bored, and wonder. Maybe you follow our Discord, maybe you’re actively part of the Goblinbox discussion, maybe you just skim through it, maybe not at all. Maybe you wonder where that music suddenly came from, and before you know it, you’ve got a catchy tune stuck in your head.

And then, on June 27th at 2:59 PM local time, comes the “bad news”: the Silberheim ECG Alpha test phase ends. What hopefully won’t end is your journey in Silberheim. Your account will stay, your uninspired username will remain, your earned promo cards won’t be deleted, and you can keep playing - just without babysitting from our IT team. Inside, you feel a good feeling - it’s the gratitude from the Beyond Worlds team and the knowledge that you did something good. Maybe you didn’t save the world, but you definitely made ours better.

To be continued...