In Brief:
- Koin Games reports that the free Steam demo of its card title Origins TCG has topped 20,000 downloads.
- Released on July 15, the demo had passed 15,000 downloads by late September.
- Ranked mode and the $10,000 Crimson Cup go live when Steam Next Fest begins Oct. 19, the Alpha Edition Kickstarter follows on Oct. 27, and the full release is slated for Q4 2026.
Koin Games announced on X that downloads of the free Origins TCG demo on Steam have now surpassed 20,000.
“The demo for our game Origins was downloaded over 20000 times already,” the studio’s account wrote, pointing to sub-seven-minute matches, genuine collecting and an absence of pay-to-win as the appeal.
20K!!!
@TimothyJView on X ↗
The count was flagged by Koin Games founder and CEO Timothy Jooste on his personal account, with a post reading “20K!!!”
That number has climbed fast. In late September, the studio noted the demo had “just crossed 15000 downloads,” meaning the most recent 5,000 arrived in roughly two weeks.
The July 15 PC and Mac release marked the demo’s debut as the first public build of a title Koin says spent five years in development.
A packed October
The milestone lands roughly two weeks ahead of Steam Next Fest. Running Oct. 19 to 26, the event will switch on ranked mode within the demo at its start, complete with exclusive ranked rewards, according to Koin Games.
Arriving alongside the festival is a Demo 2.0 update, which introduces custom deckbuilding to the demo for the first time.
The studio is also behind the Crimson Cup, an online tournament carrying $10,000 in prizes, scheduled for Oct. 19 to 25. Five 512-player qualifiers feed into a 256-player playoff stage on Oct. 24, with finals set for Oct. 25. The champion receives a 1/1 Dracula promo card, two booster box cases and $1,500 in cash.
Registration runs through the game’s Discord. Play takes place on the demo build rather than the studio’s separate playtest client.
A Kickstarter, then launch
The Origins Myths & Legends Alpha Edition Kickstarter launches Oct. 27, a date Jooste confirmed on X in September. Alpha booster boxes and cases are preorder-only, and the studio has stated the print run will not be repeated. Koin said in July that it is aiming for roughly $4 per collector pack.
Steam lists the full game for Q4 2026. Once it ships, cards earned in the demo will become tradable on the Steam marketplace.
From Immutable to Steam
Crypto watchers have paid closest attention to the trading layer. Koin developed Origins on Immutable and unveiled it in August 2025 as Project O (official site), with on-chain card ownership part of the pitch.
In May, the studio dropped the standalone on-chain marketplace and now channels all trading through the Steam Community Market, pointing to its pool of players who already buy and sell digital items. There is no native token.
Koin brands Origins as the first free-to-compete TCG. Its Steam page reads, “Compete on skill alone (zero pay-to-win) for limited digitally graded cards you can buy, sell, and trade.”
How the demo plays
Games play out with simultaneous turns on a three-lane board. Each deck contains 13 cards, and every match draws from a pool of more than 100 locations that alter the field. The roster draws on public-domain figures, including Robin Hood, Mulan, Winnie-the-Pooh and Dracula.
The studio has described its pitch as a game where players “play like Hearthstone & Snap, rip and collect like Pokemon, and trade like Counter-Strike.”
On Steam, the demo holds a “Very Positive” rating, with 95% of its 74 user reviews positive.