Bazooka Tango nabs $5M to develop tactical collectible card game ‘Shardbound’

techcrunch.com:

Bazooka Tango — a gaming studio founded by former Rockstar and Riot developers — raised $5 million in a funding round led by BITKRAFT Ventures. The proceeds will be put toward Shardbound, the upcoming immersive multiplayer game that combines trading card game (TCG) elements, tactical maneuvers and digital collectibles.

The company was founded in 2019 by Bo Daly and Stephan Sherman, veterans in the AAA gaming industry who are the minds behind Vainglory, a multiplayer online battle arena game. Vainglory was developed and published by Super Evil Megacorp, Daly and Sherman’s previous gaming venture.

Some of you may recognize the Shardbound title; it was started initially by Spiritwalk Games in 2015, yet nothing came of it. Bazooka Tango is reviving the game, bringing new features that players may enjoy. Shardbound was developed in collaboration with web3 publisher Immutable.

Essentially, Shardbound is as if Hearthstone married Final Fantasy Tactics. Set on a fantasy island levitating above Earth, players face off against opposing armies, using their deck of cards to cast spells and summon minions. Players can also collect achievement and login rewards such as weapons and loot boxes.

Characters (a.k.a. commanders) move around a hexagonal battlefield and must navigate both low and high-ground terrain, plus boulders to hide behind. They can move up to three spaces per round and perform melee attacks against enemies adjacent to them or range attacks to any enemy in line of sight.

There’s also a “Super Meter,” which fills up as a player trades damage. Once complete, they can deal six damage to seven surrounding tiles, devastatingly affecting nearby opponents. (Be careful not to hurt allies, though.)

Players select from five types of