Digital Chocolate reveals iPhone trading card game NanoVerse Castles

Trading card games such as Magic: The Gathering are massively popular and also very profitable because of all the extra cards fans buy.

It's a philosophy Digital Chocolate is looking to replicate in virtual form with its new game for iPhone and iPod touch.

Called NanoVerse Castles, the online card trading game has you and your opponent each drawing four cards from a deck of 52.

The goal is to try and make the strongest hand you can, by drawing and replacing cards, and then taking over the enemy's territory.

So far, so simple.

However, the game is also the first step in Digital Chocolate's wider NanoStars concept.

This is a virtual character system that will work across many of its games, with each character offering different abilities and attributes depending on the specific game.

In terms of NanoVerse Castles, the characters will work as modifiers, enabling you to do special moves. For example, the Robin Hood character will swap one of your weak cards for one of your opponent's best cards (robbing the rich to give to the poor).

In another game, though, the character could be an accuracy update to a gun, or a great free kick taker.

In this way, the more complex and rare your characters, the more complex the moves you'll be able do in NanoStars-enabled games. Obviously, there will have to be limits on exactly how the system works, but that's for the game designers to work out.

Digital Chocolate plans to launch with 100 different NanoStars, some of which will be free and some of which you'll have to buy.

To read more about the concept, check out Digital Chocolate's Trip Hawkins' explanation on his blog.