KeyForge is a two-player game, with each player using a single deck of cards to play creatures, artifacts, actions, and upgrades.

An announcement trailer and accompanying introductory article explaining the game were published to the Fantasy Flight website, citing a launch date in the fourth quarter of 2018.

Garfield claimed that he had wanted to create KeyForge for 10 years before release, but the printing technology central to the idea was not yet available.

[9] Ghost Galaxy ran a Gamefound campaign to fund the release of the sixth KeyForge set, Winds of Exchange, in September 2022.

IGN described the game as "a bold new idea and a vastly different kind of game format", but questioned the randomization model, speculating that "people won’t be spending tons of money on single rare cards, but that may have been replaced with spending tons of money on random deck boxes in the hopes of getting lucky with a great card combination.

"[7] Polygon called the game "remarkable" in a hands-on demo and suggested that it "has its work cut out for it just in establishing a marketplace presence.

Tom Vasel of The Dice Tower said the decks in the initial core set "feel balanced" and praised the unique aspects of the game and the gameplay.