Card Make Arena Announced, Lets Players Design Cards and Battle
Card Make Arena turns deck-building itself into the core strategy, rewarding players who deliberately design weaker cards, a twist on the genre that could appeal to fans of Lizardry's unconventional game design.
Key Facts
- Card Make Arena was announced by publisher PLAYISM on August 18, 2026.
- The game is developed by Lizardry, the creator of 7 Days to End with You and Refind Self: Personality Diagnosis Game.
- Card Make Arena is scheduled to enter Steam Early Access within 2026.
- A closed beta test runs from August 27 to September 7, 2026, with applications accepted until August 25 at 23:59.
- Players can set over 60 types of card effects, activation timings, conditions, names, flavor text, and illustrations.
Reporting from 4 sources: 4Gamer.net, Denfaminicogamer, Automaton, Game Spark.
Publisher PLAYISM announced on August 18, 2026, that it will release Card Make Arena, a competitive card game by independent developer Lizardry, known for 7 Days to End with You and Refind Self: Personality Diagnosis Game. The game is scheduled to enter Steam Early Access within 2026, and a closed beta test is planned from August 27 to September 7, with applications accepted until August 25 at 23:59. In Card Make Arena, players create their own cards, setting stats, over 60 types of effects, activation timings, conditions, names, flavor text, and illustrations. Cards fall into three types: Servants, Spells, and Lands. Battles use mana each turn, and the goal is to reduce the opponent's leader HP to 0. To keep player-made cards balanced, the game limits total deck cost, with stronger cards costing more. If a deck costs less than an opponent's, the player earns a bonus based on the difference. Effects with low usage rates also grant bonus points on victory, encouraging creative but weak card design. Modes include Ranked Battles, Room Matches with unrestricted cards, and Random Card Battle using decks randomly selected from shared cards. An in-game SNS lets players share cards and compete for likes and copies. Participation in the beta requires a Steam account and a Discord account.
- Card creation allows setting required mana, ATK, HP, effect count, effect type, target, timing, value, and conditions, with the number of combinations cited at roughly 100 sextillion.
- Cost scales with effect power, target breadth, and ease of activation, so a card that triggers when your hand is empty or grows with the discard pile costs more.
- Players can place up to 4 cards per turn, with Servants attacking the front, Spells usable once per turn, and Lands working in combination with Servants.
- Room Matches allow unrestricted use of the strongest cards without deck cost limits, while Random Card Battle draws a deck from cards shared by other players.
- Default illustrations are available so players can focus on performance and strategy, though custom art can be drawn in-game.
- The Steam store page went live alongside the announcement.
- Closed beta testers are selected by lottery and will be listed in the in-game credits; participation requires joining the Discord server.
- Lizardry's upcoming horror game "Cling to Blindness," which claims to require a blindfold, is set for release in 2025.
Synthesized by Yomimono from the 4 cited sources below, including Japanese-language reporting where cited, then editorially reviewed before publishing.
Sources
- 4Gamer.net 自作カードでPvPに挑む「Card Make Arena」発表。効果やコスト，イラストまで自由に設定できる対戦型カードゲーム
- Denfaminicogamer カードを一から自作して“対人戦”ができるカードゲーム『Card Make Arena』発表。『7 Days to End with You』『Refind Self』開発者の新作ゲーム
- Automaton 自作カードで戦う対戦カードゲーム『Card Make Arena』発表。イラストも効果も自分次第、“弱く作る”のも戦略になるデッキ丸ごと自作ゲーム
- Game Spark イラスト・効果なにもかもカードを自作して対戦するDCG『Card Make Arena』2026年早期アクセスへ。『7 days to end with you』作者の新作