In Brief:
- Origins TCG from Koin Games is in Steam Next Fest, which started Oct. 19, and its free demo is hosting ranked mode and the $10,000 Crimson Cup.
- The Demo 2.0 update brings custom deckbuilding, five new decks and over 70 new cards.
- Koin Games said its collector ecosystem, which includes tradeable digitally graded cards, will launch soon after the festival ends.
Koin Games launched Origins TCG into Steam Next Fest on Monday. Festival visitors get ranked play, a $10,000 tournament and the biggest update the free demo has had yet.
The team announced the launch on X: “Steam Next Fest is live and Origins is part of it.” The post gave three reasons to try it: “A free TCG with no pay-to-win,” “Cards you can actually own and trade” and “7-minute matches, but still deep strategy.”
Steam Next Fest is live and Origins is part of it
– A free TCG with no pay-to-win
– Cards you can actually own and trade
– 7-minute matches, but still deep strategy@origins_tcgView on X ↗
Next Fest lasts from Oct. 19 to Oct. 26.
Ranked play and the Crimson Cup
Ranked mode went live at the start of Next Fest, and players who climb the ladder can earn exclusive rewards. The mode arrived in an Oct. 15 update from Koin Games, which also added a new home screen with playmat visuals, let missions be completed in either PvE or PvP and made the opponent’s mulligan visible. According to the studio, the patch fixed around 100 bugs.
The Crimson Cup carries a $10,000 prize pool made up of cash, collectibles and exclusive promo cards, which Koin Games said will not be re-released. Digital packs and Alpha Edition product are part of the pool too.
Sign-ups happen through the official Origins TCG Discord, and matches are played on the free Steam demo. Qualifiers take place over the week. The playoffs and finals will be streamed on Twitch.
Matches follow a Conquest format. Every player registers three decks, each built around a different Legendary. Rounds before the grand final are best-of-three, and the final itself is best-of-five. Nobody sees decklists until the top four.
For tournament play, Koin Games turned off seven locations it described as RNG-heavy. The studio also started a Refer a Friend program that hands out packs to both the player and anyone they bring in.
Inside Demo 2.0
This festival build is the largest change to the demo since its July 15 release, adding five new decks and over 70 new cards.
For the first time, players can put together their own decks instead of choosing from preset lists. Each deck holds 25 cards: a single Legendary and 12 unique cards, with two copies of each. Progress from previous playtests carries over.
A match takes roughly seven minutes. Both players act every turn, and play happens across three lanes that each have their own conditions. Koin Games describes the setting as an original world, and its characters come from history and literature, among them Mulan, Robin Hood, the Queen of Hearts and Winnie-the-Pooh.
The studio’s pitch: play like Hearthstone and Snap, rip and collect like Pokemon and trade like Counter-Strike.
How the economy works
According to Koin Games, any player can earn every card needed for a competitive deck without paying. The Steam page states: “Spending money will never unlock stronger cards or give you an advantage in gameplay.”
Revenue comes from limited edition packs, hand-drawn cosmetic variants and digitally graded cards, all of which can be traded in a marketplace. The studio says collectors value those cards “for their artistry and rarity, not their gameplay power.”
Blockchain and NFTs are not mentioned on the Steam page.
In an Oct. 14 post on X, the team wrote: “The Origins TCG collector ecosystem is launching soon after Steam Next Fest.” The launch includes sealed product, limited sets, digital grading and tournament cards. That post also said the playtest had gone past 100,000 matches in two months.
Heading to Early Access
Steam lists Origins TCG for an Early Access launch in Q4 2026. Koin Games said it is targeting an exit from Early Access around March 17, 2027, and the game will remain free to play both during and after Early Access.
On Steam, the demo holds a Very Positive rating, with 95% of 197 user reviews positive.
On the store page, Koin Games wrote: “We believe a competitive trading card game is strongest when it grows alongside its players.”