FTX, a crypto exchange, bought a game and its fans are not happy. But is the game any good?
Tl;dr yes
On 23rd March 2022, Sam Bankman-Fried, CEO of FTX, announced via Twitter that they had acquired Good Luck Games. As a studio, GLG had one offering in its portfolio: Storybook Brawl, a fairytale-themed auto-battler in Early Access on Steam.
Within a day, the small but passionate existing community took to making itself heard:
Meanwhile, newcomers flooded the game’s Discord server and wasted no time getting into productive, healthy and no doubt fruitful debates on the morality of NFTs and what this meant for their game.
As someone with a foot in both worlds, I decided I would see for myself whether this was the future of gaming, dystopian or otherwise.
Summary
Storybook Brawl is a free to play auto-battler that’s simple to learn and moderately hard to master.
Cards are either creatures or spells, and these are fully unlocked at the start of play (no pay to unlock cards whatsoever).
You play as a unique hero which provides a passive effect that boost your cards. Some heroes require unlocking via in-game currency, which can be earned through playing.
Not all free heroes are trash and not all locked heroes are useful. It ultimately depends on your ability to play flexibly a̶n̶d̶ ̶j̶u̶s̶t̶ ̶h̶i̶t̶ ̶P̶o̶g̶O̶
If you’re a fan of Hearthstone Battlegrounds, you’ll find yourself at home. If you’re looking for an Early Access auto-battler to change things up, you’ll get some enjoyment out of it until you learn the meta, at which point it becomes a question of if you enjoy chasing Burning Trees every game. If you’re looking for the next 420x coin to speculate on, you may be waiting for a while.
Disclaimer
I am currently a Diamond IV scrub in Teamfight Tactics, another auto-battler. I dropped Hearthstone a couple of months after it first launched Battlegrounds, so I’m approaching this as a casual player.
As of publishing, I have played 6 hours of Storybook Brawl.
I am part of the 17% of Australians that own cryptocurrency, but don’t own any FTT (FTX’s own token).
I am a user of FTX.
I am not sponsored by either FTX or GLG.
The first hour experience
After installing, I was greeted with a pleasant surprise: the introduction screen was voiced over. Quality!
Clicking Start takes you right into the tutorial.
You’re introduced to the basic mechanics: you get gold each turn, which you can use to build your board with cards; buy three of the same and you Upgrade it and get a Treasure.
The game wastes no time showing off its flavour, which was one of the biggest draws for me personally — more on that later.
Okay, cool, tutorial done. But where’s the money-grubbing? I was promised unethical environment-destroying scams!
I navigate to the Store page:
Currently, the only direct monetization in the game are unique emotes and hero skins.
Gems can unlock new heroes, but so can fairy dust, which you earn by playing. Upon completing the tutorial, you start off with enough fairy dust to unlock one hero of your choice.
So the game isn’t very monetized at all (yet).
Feeling confident in my ability to roll down all my gold in 10 seconds, I got right in and queued up for PVP. Metaguides? Hero tier lists? Who needs them?
…well, at least I didn’t go 8th.
A few more games and I finally land a top 4.
All right, I actually won. Time to collect my thoughts.
Why you might like Storybook Brawl
Storybook Brawl has two strong points going for it:
- The game is full of flavour, with gorgeous artwork, great pun names and thematic expressions in card families
2. You’re encouraged to buff up your cards to massive numbers due to the lack of hard removal, resulting in epic endgame brawls. Number go up = dopamine
Flavour
As the name implies, this game is built on heavy fairytale themes. There are cute dogs and eldritch horrors (with the former being a powerful lategame card and the latter a dime a dozen).
You can play as Beauty, whose artwork implies that not all is as pretty underneath; one card is an evil parody of Disney’s Snow White, while another is styled around the crocodile from Peter Pan.
The Mandela effect is strong here and exploring all the little design decisions is a pleasure.
To draw comparisons with Hearthstone, which this game feels the most similar to, there’s still some ways to go. There’s nothing to fiddle with on your board, and the turn timer font is drab. The prompt for bug reporting in the bottom left corner is an ever-present reminder that this is still in Early Access.
Flavour fades once you put in enough time, but it’s a vital element in converting curious newcomers into consistent players, and the effort demonstrated in getting the flavour right gives me confidence that the developers care about the same thing I do — having it feel fun.
The thrill of the chase
Gameplay-wise, to borrow the Timmy, Johnny and Spike model of Magic, this certainly feels oriented to the Johnnys who swap theorycrafting and go after the inconsistent but oh-so-satisfying buff loops.
In my very limited experience, setting up synergies that allow stats build-up over the course of several rounds is the only way to win in the game.
I found that when I lost early, it wasn’t because I was punished by aggro players, but because I was greeding too hard for triples and Treasures. I found myself better off pivoting around cards that continually add or accrue value, and in a couple of turns I’d stabilize to roll for the next cog in my buffing machine.
This is partly why the soft monetization of heroes doesn’t bother me. What impact is a measly +2/+2 buff when 50/50s are par for the course?
It felt terrible to hit good Princes and Princesses early on only to not find the one lynchpin who would ensure they don’t get outpaced. The Good/Evil subtype, which very flavourful, was not as impactful in my decision-making because Burning Tree, the ultimate accruer of value, does not care how you buff it, as long as you do.
In this aspect, the flow feels more like Teamfight Tactics than Hearthstone Battlegrounds. You’re rewarded for playing what you hit and recognizing what “not hitting” looks like.
In TFT, you play the best early game you can then roll on 7/8 for a real carry based on your items, transitioning out your entire board if you have to.
In SBB, for example, if you start with Dwarves, you roll a few times near level up, and don’t find the Dwarf buffing card you want? Pivot to Burning Tree if you find that instead and it will probably work out.
As with all auto-battlers, how you view RNG will affect your reception of the gameplay. If you want to be a Puff Puffs one trick, you can still have fun as long as you don’t mind going bot 4 most games. If you want to win every game but aren’t offered meta carries on 5, you’ll probably not feel too good.
As far as balance and future enjoyment goes, I’m on the fence. How often will the devs shake up the meta? Will new sets and mechanics be released?
It’s just far too early to say, and great game development takes time.
Yeah, whatever. Where’s the crypto?
Currently, the only blockchain-related anything is a free NFT of Humpty Dumpty that you can acquire on FTX.us.
The developers are openly considering “non-aesthetic” integrations to the blockchain, but FTX has also stressed that there will be “as much (or little!) integration with FTX as they want”.
How does it compare to competitors?
Hearthstone Battlegrounds
A lot of similarities. Try for yourself, if only to taste again what it’s like to learn a new meta for the first time.
Teamfight Tactics
TFT has clearer optimal pathways and more structured decision-making. Maybe it’s my bias because it’s what I currently play, or the fact that SBB is still a small game in Early Access; the balance feels better in TFT, with a greater variety of carry options and skill expression in positioning.
Defi Kingdoms
I am personally bullish Jewel, but you have to admit that DFK is as much of a game as collecting free pizza to feed your Neopet is a game. The AVAX Summit promises otherwise, so watch this space.
I haven’t played Illuvium, Lost Glitches or any of the other blockchain games.
Cheesetown
This is my own baseless speculation for how the game might integrate with blockchain technology in the future. Skip this part if you don’t care for it, or check back in a year to laugh at how these predictions aged like milk.
NFT integrations of limited hero skins
These would be held in the FTX NFT wallet and managed via linking your wallet to the game/Steam. Valve does not like NFTs at all, but it was only so many years ago that Blizzard was a beloved game company… the point is, times change.
Play to earn
Playing earns you tokens (eg $SBB). These tokens are tradeable on FTX. $SBB can be used to unlock cosmetics, expansion packs or any other element the devs decide to monetize in the future. An evergreen set will always be available as free to play, but the rest requires $SBB.
$FTT value add
Alternatively, certain unlocks in the Storybook Brawl shop can only be redeemed with $FTT, FTX’s native token. This adds utility to $FTT and directs more newcomers to Storybook Brawl.
Or, staking $FTT also rewards you $SBB or in-game currency to unlock heroes with.
Ecosystem growth
My personal bet is that none of the above will happen any time soon, and what instead will happen are more initiatives like the Humpty Dumpty NFT — low cost, “try it yourself” activities to educate the general populace about the blockchain and NFTs.
Giving away free NFTs on FTX.us, where all you have to do is sign up for an account with no KYC, is a great way for people to experience this firsthand. And the “huh, is that all?” effect goes a long way in shifting perceptions.
Worst possible outcome BAYC integration
Credit to u/killerkonnat on the Storybook Brawl subreddit.
Closing thoughts
As the future of blockchain gaming, this is nothing… yet.
As an indie free to play game, it’s great!
Ultimately, I had fun playing Storybook Brawl. I would never have heard of it if not for the FTX acquisition. In its current state, it’s great for at least a few hours of gameplay, and learning the meta of a smaller system gets the neurons firing.
If you’ve made it this far, please try out the game for yourself.
I for one will hang around because it’s not every day that you get a ticket to the show that is FTX’s expansion strategy. I’m not hoping to make money off SBB, I just want to be able to say that I took part in it while it was early days.
Have you tried Storybook Brawl? Did you love it or leave it? Is my worship of Burning Tree just a low elo thing? Let me know in the comments.
I write about personal development when I’m not writing about indie games being acquired by crypto giants. Check out my other stories and follow if this sounds like your thing. Thank you!
