Cryptmaster, a narrative adventure where your words are your power, had a popular in-universe card minigame, “Whatever,” that you could play against certain characters to win more cards to add to your deck. First, let’s take a look at Whatever and understand how this deckbuilding minigame became so popular.
In Whatever, your goal is to eliminate your opponent’s life before they destroy yours. This is accomplished by playing letter tabs (think the letters in Scrabble!) that match the letters in the names of the cards in your hand. If you complete a card’s name, then its ability goes into effect, which ranges from healing yourself, dealing damage to the opponent, increasing your hand size, and way more.
If you defeat your opponent, you can win a card to integrate into your deck and win souls that can be used in the main game for powerful attacks. This is why it’s a minigame– Whatever card battles break up the flow of your progression through the dungeon crawler and provide resources for you to continue progressing. What we never expected was how much players would get into it.
In the Anniversary Update, there are a few improvements to Whatever which shake up the minigame, add more opportunities to strategize and strengthen your deck, and face new opponents bringing their own strengths and weaknesses to challenge you. We thought of this as “maximizing the minigame.” What if a player wanted to play Cryptmaster entirely for Whatever? How could we serve that player best?
First off, we added so many new cards to the minigame. I’m talking triple digits amounts! Over 100 new cards with new effects and combinations for players to play with. Part of it is giving new tools for players to play with but we also wanted to maximize card synergies to making deck construction more compelling. Do you go risky and have many cards share the same letters? You’d deal more damage and get more effects off but you could spend entire turns missing your needed letters. Or you could play more conservatively where you’re more likely to hit your letters but less likely to hit multiple cards at a time. I’ll be curious how players will play with the new cards.
With so many new cards, we also brought a new place to play Whatever and meet new characters to play with. The tavern was built in the Downwood area and many familiar faces come there to play. If players defeat all five opponents, they move onto the next floor to face off against the more competitive players of the dastardly card game. Meet the Innkeeper who runs the building and the mysterious Highwayman who hides in the shadows but is willing to keep their side of the deal. More opponents means more decks to play against, more challenges and puzzles to solve so players can continue to collect the cards and refine their strategies.
When we saw people connecting with Whatever and how much they enjoyed playing the minigame, we were ecstatic to think of new ideas and new content to support the growing love for Whatever. With new characters each with their own stories, over 100 new cards with unique abilities, new locations to play in, and more, there are hours of new content to dive into for the in-universe card minigame, Whatever. Simply type “whatever” and deal the cards.
Whatever…direction you choose, you’re sure to find new challenges in the Cryptmaster Anniversary Update, out now on Xbox.
Cryptmaster
Akupara Games
In the ancient past, four brave heroes banded together to destroy a terrible evil, giving their lives to save countless others. But now their eternal rest has been disturbed by the Cryptmaster, a capricious necromancer in whose thrall they must ascend through the buried strata of the city above them – the gloomy Bonehouses, mysterious Sunken Sea and freakish Downwood.
With the enigmatic Soulstone in hand, the four adventurers must recover their memories, solve whimsical puzzles and defeat outlandish enemies. From fishing and card games to bardic rap battles, finding the right word is the key to success. Who knows, maybe you'll even remember a little more than you bargained for…
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