Merlin War Card Game

Overview

Merlin War is a tactical card game built with Unity that challenges players to defeat increasingly powerful monsters through strategic card play and resource management. As a lone wizard, you must use your magical cards wisely—either attacking monsters directly or burning them for mana to fuel more powerful spells.

This was a Personal Project completed in 2021.

The Challenge

The goal was to create a simple yet engaging card game experience within the Unity engine, focusing on intuitive gameplay and escalating difficulty while maintaining strategic depth.

The Solution

We developed a card game featuring:

• Intuitive drag-and-drop mechanics for card play.
• A strategic mana system where cards can be sacrificed for resources.
• Progressively challenging monster encounters with increasing health/difficulty.
• A unique ‘win condition’ card offering a powerful strategic option.
• Integrated sound effects to provide feedback and enhance immersion.

Key Features

• Intuitive Drag-and-Drop Gameplay: Simply drag cards onto monsters to attack or onto the mana pool to gain resources. Easy to learn, engaging to master.
• Strategic Resource Management: The core loop involves deciding whether to use cards for immediate damage or burn them to build mana for potentially stronger future plays.
• Progressive Challenge: Players face a sequence of increasingly difficult monsters, requiring them to adapt their strategies as they progress.
• Special Victory Card: A rare and powerful card exists within the deck. If drawn and played (with sufficient mana), it can instantly defeat any monster, adding a layer of luck and high-reward strategy.
• Immersive Audio: Sound effects accompany key actions like attacking, gaining mana, and monster defeats, providing essential gameplay feedback.

Technical Details

• Engine: Unity
• Programming Language: C#
• Core Mechanics Implemented:
  • Drag-and-drop interface for card interaction.
  • Mana generation and spending system.
  • Basic enemy AI behavior (attack patterns, health scaling).
  • Card draw and discard logic.
• Audio: Utilized Unity’s audio engine to integrate sound effects for actions.
• Platform: Primarily WebGL (via itch.io), potentially standalone builds.

Development Process

1. Concept & Game Design: Defined the core gameplay loop (attack vs. burn for mana), monster progression curve, and the idea of a special win condition card. Focused on keeping the initial rules simple but allowing for strategic choices.
2. Art Direction & UI Design: Created simple, clear visuals for cards, monsters, and UI elements (health bars, mana pool) ensuring gameplay information was easily understood. Used readily available or quickly created assets suitable for a rapid development cycle.
3. Technical Implementation: Built the game logic in Unity using C#, focusing on clean implementation of the drag-and-drop system, mana calculations, enemy states, and card handling.
4. Audio Design & Integration: Selected appropriate free sound effects for actions like card plays, mana gain, attacks, and monster defeats, integrating them via Unity’s audio system.
5. Testing & Balance Adjustments: Conducted playtesting sessions to tune mana costs, card damage, monster health progression, and the frequency/cost of the special win card to ensure a challenging but fair difficulty curve.

Results & Impact

• Development Timeline: The project was completed from concept to release within 2 month.
• Community Recognition: Featured in various indie game development communities and card game forums, generating positive discussion.

Additional Information

How to Play

1. Understand the Basics: Drag cards onto the monster to attack, reducing its health. Drag cards onto your mana pool (usually depicted visually) to discard the card and gain mana.
2. Manage Resources: Decide when to attack and when to build mana for potentially stronger future plays or the special win card.
3. Defeat Monsters: Reduce the monster’s health to zero to win the encounter and face the next, stronger one.
4. Find the Win Card: Look out for the special victory card – if you draw it and have enough mana, use it for an instant win against the current monster!

Availability & Resources

You can play the game and view the source code via the links below (these may also be displayed prominently elsewhere on the page by the template based on the url, repoUrl, and marketplaceUrls provided in the frontmatter):

Future Development

While Merlin War was primarily developed as a personal learning project and proof-of-concept, potential future enhancements could include:

• Expanding the card pool with more diverse effects (e.g., healing, defense, status effects).
• Implementing a deck-building or card drafting system.
• Adding more monster variety with unique abilities.
• Developing multiplayer (PvP or co-op) modes.
• Polishing the visuals and user interface further.