Monster Clash

A proof of concept for a 1v1 Autobattler and TCG hybrid, with a Halloween monster theme because Halloween is the best holiday. 

The game plays like a standard autobattler such as Hearthstone Battlegrounds or Storybook Brawl. The twist is that it's a 1v1 game, and you choose what you want your shop to be, similar to building a deck in a TCG such as Magic or Netrunner. Making it this way allows for cards that directly interact with your opponent in various ways, such as dealing direct damage to them and destroying their monsters. 

I think this demo shows off the possibilities of this design space well, although it's super limited in scope. Right now there's no deckbuilding, the enemy "AI" is just the same thing every time, and the balance is all over the place. Since I just hardcoded the enemies' board each fight, there was a lot of design space I didn't get to explore, such as stealing gold from them, adding bad things to their shop, or preventing them from casting spells for a turn. 

How To Play

The game alternates between shop phases and battle phases until one player's HP reaches 0.  At the start of the game, you are presented with a small shop of cards which can be bought and played onto your board. If you don't like the offerings in the shop, you can spend 1 gold to reroll the shop and see new cards. If you run out of gold to buy cards but still want something in the shop, you can freeze it so that you will be offered the same selection during the next shop phase (otherwise it will be randomized). You can also add better cards into the shop with the "tier" option, which will also add more cards shown in the shop at a time.

There are 3 types of cards: monsters, relics and spells. All cards will have a cost shown above them, an amount of stars equal to their tier, a name, and an effect. To buy a card, drag it from the shop to the bottom half of the screen. Likewise, you can sell a card for 1 gold by dragging it from your hand or field to the top half of the screen. 

Monsters must be played to your front row, and will do the actual battling during the battle phases. Even if a monster dies during battle, it will come back fully healed at the start of each shop phase. They will have an attack value in the bottom left corner, and a health value in the bottom right.

Relics must be played to you back row, and will give you powerful benefits for a short time. Relics will have an hp value in the bottom left corner, which is how many rounds of battle it will last. Once it reaches 0, the relic will be removed from your back row. 

Spells can be played anywhere on your board, and will give you a one time effect before going away. Some spells will only activate at the start of the battle phase, while others will take effect immediately. 

After you've finished with the shop phase, you can click the "Battle!" button to go to the battle phase. A random player will be chosen to start, and their left-most monster will attack a random monster on their opponent's board. Then the other player's left-most monster attacks, and the battle proceeds alternating players attacking with their left-most monster that has attacked the least until at least one side is out of monsters. The player that ran out of monsters takes 1 damage plus 1 per remaining monster their opponent has. In the case of a tie, nothing happens.