Gary Games announced today that it has partnered with Magic: The Gathering creator Richard Garfield to develop SolForge , a new digital card game. The game is currently slated for a January 2013 launch on iOS, with a PC release to follow. Release on other digital platforms, including Android, is also being considered.

SolForge appears to already be fairly deep in development, with well-defined mechanics, a fleshed-out fictional universe and plenty of card art. Gary Games has launched a $250,000 Kickstarter to help push the title across the finish line.SolForge’s core gameplay revolves around card transformation, a mechanic that is hard to execute in physical card games. With a few exceptions , of course. The example given in the Kickstarter pitch is a Dragon Egg transforming into a Dragon Whelp, and finally a Giant Dragon. Gary Games has provided IGN a few exclusive pieces of card art showing an example transformation in action:A lot of SolForge’s details remain under wraps for now, including specifics on how the game plays and how its freemium model will operate. The Kickstarter does specify that a single player campaign, likely similar to what’s found in Magic the Gathering: Duel of the Planeswalkers, will be included out of the box. The Kickstarter FAQ also indicates that players will be able to buy digital booster packs, pre-constructed decks and card singles.Gamers can learn more on the game’s Kickstarter page or at SolForgegame.com . IGN will have more on SolForge as it nears launch.

Justin is Editor of IGN Wireless. He has been reviewing cell phone games since the dark days of Java flip phones. You can follow him on Twitter and IGN