Great, another game that’s using lame figurines to cash in on the whole Skylanders phenomenon … Wait, this one is made up of passionate indies who want to make a deep, rewarding, tactical RPG? And the art is reminiscent of Warhammer and Magic: The Gathering? Oh boy, now you’ve got me hot and bothered.

The team at Paris-based Hanakai Studio have taken their project to Kickstarter. The game is simply called Prodigy, and instead of utilizing only cards (like Magic) or only figurines (like Skylanders), the game uses a platform to load your characters, a la Skylanders, which you then use in battle in tandem with a deck of cards.

Each figurine is embedded with NFC technology, so as you move each character piece, they move in game, kind of like a board game. The “controller” itself is a large white scanning platform that lets you load your characters into the game, and recognizes their movements.

At the beginning of each turn, you can move one of your characters around to get the best tactical position, after which you use your cards to command your characters to attack, defend themselves, or even use special abilities. Think of the whole kit as a more ambitious version of The Eye of Judgement, a game that Sony developed internally but ultimately failed to promote or realize.

If you want to back Prodigy, head on over to their Kickstarter page.