🧙‍♂️ AniMagica

Chronicle of the Arcane Beasts

📜 Story

The Beast-borne Prophecy whispers through time:

“Every decade, the Twelve elemental clans summon their fiercest champions to the sacred arena. Power clashes. Legends awaken. And when the moment comes, one will rise—chosen by fate—to restore unity long-lost to war and magic.”

Heroes aren’t born. They’re forged in fire and sacrifice. Will you stand among the legends? Step into the arena. Seize the throne. Join the clash now.

🧭 Vision

AniMagica is an auto-battler strategy card game. It is free to play with no pay-to-win. It intends to offer an accessible yet rich game experience that is fun and challenging to master.

💡 Inspiration

It borrows some proven and successful concepts like

• “Tavern tier system” from “Heartstone: Battlegrounds” where players spend coins to upgrade the tavern and unlock stronger, tiered units.
• “lane domination” from “Marvel Snap” where the battlefield is divided into 3 vertical lanes. Winning 2 out of 3 lanes wins you the match.
• “Front and back lines” from “GWENT: The Witcher card game” where the battlefield is divided into horizontal rows affecting abilities and range.

💎 Production value

The game brings some new twists to the genre:

• 500+ cards offer an ever-changing experience to build and fight new decks
• 12 clans of animals with humorous audio sound effects
• 4 elements affecting cards and units with interactive dynamics
• 3 types of unit with different roles and meta
• positioning system creating unit synergies and movements
• units remember their experience and grow stronger over time
• fatigue system: units get tired if they fight too much, even across multiple matches
• synchronous combat without 1st mover advantage
• deterministic combat resolution with no luck involved
• predictable game duration based on a limited number of turns (usually 5 to 9) to keep sessions short

🌀 Metas

Many of the metas can be ignored and the game can be played without any knowledge of these mechanics.

• ☯ Elements
• 💤 Fatigue
• 🐼 Unit growth
• 🎯 Target lane
• Movement
• 🏡 Refuge
• …

Of course, experienced players will use and stack these mechanics to their advantage.

🎮 Game anatomy

• Each game picks 8 players of similar skill
• The game randomly selects 4 clans to decide which cards (~200 units) are available to players in addition to the spells and the neutral units.
• You start with a new empty deck
• A game is a sequence of turns until only one player is left alive. At Each turn:
  • 👤 Players get limited time to buy and place units.
  • Then, players enter random 1-on-1 duels. Up to 4 duels happen at the same time per turn.
• The game ends when only one player is left.
• A player dies when its 💚 Vitality reaches zero or below.

🏆 Winning a game

A player’s game ends when they’re eliminated or become the last one standing.

• The top 4 players are Winners and gain Rank points based on how long they lasted.
• The bottom 4 players are Losers and lose Rank points.

🪜 In-game ladder

After each turn, players are ranked in the game ladder based on their 💚 Vitality. If 2 players have the same amount of 💚 Vitality, the one with more units is ranked first. If they have the same unit count, then the one with the most total attack power is ranked first. If they have the same attack power, then the one with the most total health points is ranked first.

💰 Monetization

👤 Players will be able to purchase vanities like skin and such. The game will never have pay-to-win features as it usually ruins the experience of many players.

🚩 Locations

⚔️ Battlefield

Each player has its own section of the ⚔️ Battlefield, which is structured into a 3x3 grid. There are 3 Vertical 🛣️ Lanes. Each 🛣️ Lane contains 3 rows: Front, Middle, and Back, giving you a total of 9 positions on your side of the ⚔️ Battlefield, mirrored by 9 on the opponent’s side. You can deploy one unit per position, giving you the possibility to engage up to 9 units per combat. 🛣️ Lane usually confines combats. Each terrain position can have buffs/debuffs applied to the occupying unit. Interactions between units usually happen within a 🛣️ Lane. Certain abilities might cross 🛣️ Lanes like flanking maneuvers, or area-based effects, but they are uncommon.

At the start of the game, the player has limited coins to buy units. For this reason, not all positions are available. The lanes open progressively based on the ⟳️ Turn number. The table below shows the ⟳️ Turn at which a position is open.

🐼 Unit placement

👤 Players group their units by vertical 🛣️ Lanes, with each unit assigned to one of 3 horizontal rows.

1. Front Row

• Occupies the first row, closest to the enemy.
• Absorbs most incoming 💥 Damage as a barrier to protect the Middle Row and the Back Row.

2. Middle Row

• Sits behind the Front Row, balancing offense and protection.
• Gains distance advantage or penalties depending on when Front Row is defeated

3. Back Row

• Farthest from the enemy, often housing units with high 💥 Damage but low defense.
• Usually immune to 🗡 Melee units unless the enemy breaches earlier rows.

🏡 Refuge

• 🐼 Units affected by 🔴 Critical Exhaustion must stay in the 🏡 Refuge.

When staying in the refuge,

• A unit will NOT engage in combat during the same ⟳️ Turn.

After staying for 1 ⟳️ Turn,

• A unit will lose all its 💤 Fatigue points and remove some debuffs like 🔴 Critical Exhaustion
• A unit with 🟢 Egg Layer can produce a new ‘egg’ card.
• 2 units with 🟢 Mating sharing the same ☯ Element, can produce a ‘fertilized egg’ and/or an ‘offspring’ card.
• 3 identical units will merge into one more powerful unit which will double its abilities and stats.

💤 Fatigue

• 🐼 Units engaged in a combat receive a variable number of 💤 Fatigue points based on the outcome of the combat.
• When a unit has 9 💤 Fatigue points or more, it is affected by 🔴 Critical Exhaustion.

Examples:

• 1. An untouched 🏹 Shooter unit that took no 💥 Damage doesn’t receive any 💤 Fatigue point.
• 2. An untouched 🗡 Melee unit that took no 💥 Damage receives 1 💤 Fatigue point if he was involved in close combat.
• 3. A wounded 🏹 Shooter or 🪄 Spellcaster unit that took ranged 💥 Damage receives 1 💤 Fatigue point.
• 4. A wounded unit that was involved in close combat 💥 Damage receives 2 💤 Fatigue points.
• 💀 Death: When a unit dies in combat, it always receives 5 💤 Fatigue points.

🧺 Marketplace

• The 🧺 Marketplace offers a random choice of 🐼 Unit & 🔮 Spell cards based on its ⭐ Tier.
• The tier of the card is always lower or equal to the tier of the 🧺 Marketplace.
• A 🐼 Unit card costs 4 🪙 Coins. Its cost is independent from its ⭐ Tier.
• The cost of a 🔮 Spell card is equal to its ⭐ Tier. Their cost ranges from 1 to 6 🪙 Coins.
• The 📦 Shoe of cards contains 5 copies for each card. Each time, a player acquires a card, it reduces its availability for the other players.

You can perform these actions:

• Buy cards in exchange for coins
• Sell cards back. If you sell on the same turn that it was bought, you receive maximum 3 coins. If you sell a card at a later turn than it was bought or if a card was earned, then you receive maximum 2 coins. For each card previously sold back on the same turn, the merchant will pay 1 less coin, with a minimum of 1 coin.
• Refresh the cards available in exchange for 1 coin
• Upgrade the 🧺 Marketplace to access more powerful cards. The current cost diminishes at the beginning of each turn. The cost of upgrading increases for each tier. When upgraded, it automatically refreshes the cards available.

The table below shows the number of cards offered by type.

The table below shows the chance in percentage of drawing a card of a specific ⭐ Tier.

🪦️ Graveyard

• When a 🐼 Unit is sold to the 🧺 Marketplace, it will appear in the 🪦️ Graveyard.
• When a 🔮 Spell is cast, it will appear in the 🪦️ Graveyard.
• A 🃏 Card in the graveyard is not recycled. It reduces the number of copies available in the 🧺 Marketplace. A powerful card can be bought then resold to prevent other players to acquire that copy. There are 5 copies for all cards.

📦 Shoe

• The cards available for a game are placed in the 📦 Shoe.
• All players share the same pool of cards.
• Each different card is present in 6 copies.
• Once a card is purchased or placed in the 🧺 Marketplace, it is removed from the 📦 Shoe.
• Non purchased cards are put back in the 📦 Shoe at the end of a ⟳️ Turn.

⟳️ Turn

• A turn has 3 main phases.
• All phases except the preparation are fully automatic.
• In the preparation phase, the player decides how to spend his turn income (🪙 Coins). The player has to balance his spending upgrading existing units with 🔮 Spells, or upgrading the marketplace ⭐ Tier to buy stronger units.

⚙️️ Phases

1. 🧹️ Maintenance phase

• Removes effects applied during combat as they are only temporary unless they target units outside the ⚔️ Battlefield
• Returns surviving units to their initial combat position
• Resurrects dead units to their initial combat position
• Restores ❤️ Health and 🛡️ Defense to their maximum value
• Grants 1 🪖 Experience earned to each unit in the ⚔️ Battlefield
• Upgrades units that deserve it to the next level
• Discards all 💤 Fatigue points of units that stayed in the 🏡 Refuge
• Distributes 💤 Fatigue points based on the combat outcome
• Exiles exhausted units to the 🏡 Refuge.
• Increases player maximum income by 1 🪙 Coin
• Gives player its income in 🪙 Coins (At the first turn, income=8 🪙 Coins)
• Refreshes the 🧺 Marketplace with new random cards

2. 🧰 Preparation phase

You take strategic and tactical decisions to prepare for combat. A limited amount of time is given to this phase. It increases at each turn.

Trading cards

Each card has its own abilities. There are 🐼 Unit cards to fight and 🔮 Spell cards to boost your units.

• You can buy a card from the 🧺 Marketplace by dragging it to the 🏡 Refuge
• You can sell a card by dragging it to the 🧺 Marketplace.
• Unspent 🪙 Coins carry over to the next turn, but you lose 1 coin as a bank fee. If you have only 1 unspent coin, then it will be lost.

Deploying units

By strategically placing them on the ⚔️ Battlefield, you create interactions, build traps and advantages.

• You move cards into the ⚔️ Battlefield to involve them in the next combat.
• When you drag and drop a card onto a lane, the card is automatically placed at its optimal position if available. If the position is already occupied by an existing card, then the existing card is moved to its optimal row if empty, otherwise it is dismissed from the ⚔️ Battlefield and moved to the 🏡 Refuge.
• You can freely move cards back and forth from the ⚔️ Battlefield and the 🏡 Refuge.

Using spells

• You can use your 🔮 Spells cards to boost your units and influence the combat in your favor.
• When you drag and drop a 🔮 Spell onto a unit or a position in the ⚔️ Battlefield, the card is activated and attached to that unit or that position.
• Some 🔮 Spell cards have global effects that are not linked to a single target unit or target position. In that case, you can drop them anywhere on the ⚔️ Battlefield.

3. ⚔️ Combat phase

• ⚔️ Combat resolution is fully automatic.
• Losing a duel doesn’t knock you out right away.
• Each player starts with 9 💚 Vitality. You only get eliminated when your 💚 Vitality hits 0 or less.

After each duel:

• The player who controls more lanes is declared the Winner.
• The Winner keeps its current 💚 Vitality, even if they lost a lane.
• The Loser or Tie loses 1 💚 Vitality per lane lost.

🛣️ Lane resolution

• ⚔️ Combat is resolved lane by lane
  • If one player has no living units in a lane, they lose that lane
  • If both players have no units left, it’s a tie — no points are lost
  • 🐼 Units cannot move between lanes, but some may attack across lanes
  • 🗡 Melee units can only attack within their own lane
• During the 🧰 Preparation ⚙️️ Phase, 🏹 Shooter and 🪄 Spellcaster units may choose to attack a different lane
  • The target lane is selected before combat begins and cannot be changed mid-combat
  • Attacking a different lane makes the unit vulnerable in its own lane and unable to defend if attacked

⚔️ Combat Flow: Per Round

A combat is a series of Rounds until all lanes are resolved. Per Round

• A unit is considered active if:
  • It is alive (❤️ Health > 0)
  • It has 💪 Attack > 0
  • Its target lane contains active enemy units
• All active units attack simultaneously
• 💥 Damage is calculated based on the unit’s 💪 Attack, modified by 🔮 Spells and ☯ Elements
• The target’s ❤️ Health is reduced by: 💥 Damage - 🛡️ Defense

🕛 End of round cleanup

• 🐼 Units with 0 ❤️ Health are considered dead and are removed from the ⚔️ Battlefield
• Each unit loses 1 🛡️ Defense for every enemy unit that attacked it during the round

🗿 Clans

• Each clan represents a group of loosely related animals.
• Each clan is restricted to one out of the 5 ☯ Elements.
• NB: A 🐼 Unit can only use 🔮 Spell matching the ☯ Element from its 🗿 Clan.

🃏 Card distribution

This is a proposed distribution of cards in the game.

• Each clan requires approximately 40 cards
  • 21 🗡 Melees
  • 10 🏹 Shooters
  • 9 🪄 Spellcasters

☯ Elements

A unit is always associated with one of the 5 elements:

1. ◯️ Neutral
2. 🌿️ Earth
3. 💧 Water
4. 🔥️ Fire
5. 🌪️️ Wind

Reactivity

• Some elements react together and some don’t
• ◯️ Neutral element doesn’t react with any other element.
• 🌿️ Earth doesn’t react with 🔥️ Fire
• 💧 Water doesn’t react with 🌪️️ Wind

The table below shows which element reacts together.

Neutrality

• The neutral units don’t belong to any clan and use the ◯️ Neutral element.
• They are essential because they are available in every game independently from which clans are available.

Boost

• A unit receives an 💪 Attack boost called 🟢 Elemental Surge when it overpowers the element of another unit.

The table below shows which element dominates and receives the Boost.

1. ◯️ Neutral element doesn’t affect and is not affected by other elements.
2. 🌪️️ Wind overpowers the 🌿️ Earth by eroding it.
3. 🌿️ Earth overpowers the 💧 Water by absorbing it.
4. 💧 Water overpowers the 🔥️ Fire by extinguishing it.
5. 🔥️ Fire overpowers the 🌪️️ Wind by consuming its air.

Compatibility

On the ⚔️ Battlefield in the same lane:

• you can place 2 units non-reactive elements:
  • ✅ = 🌿️ Earth + 🔥️ Fire
  • ✅ = 💧 Water + 🌪️️ Wind
• you CANNOT place 2 units with reactive elements:
  • ❌ = 🌿️ Earth + 🌪️️ Wind
  • ❌ = 🌿️ Earth + 💧 Water
  • ❌ = 🔥️ Fire + 💧 Water
  • ❌ = 🔥️ Fire + 🌪️️ Wind
• you can place reactive elements in different lanes, as they have no effect on each other:
  • ✅ lane 1: 🌿️ Earth + 🔥️ Fire + ◯️ Neutral
  • ✅ lane 2: 💧 Water + 🌪️️ Wind + ◯️ Neutral
  • ✅ lane 3: 🌿️ Earth + ◯️ Neutral

Vibe

🃏 Cards

🃏 Card types

• There are 2 card types:
  • 🐼 Unit cards: Each unit card represents an animal. After being bought, the card can be placed in the ⚔️ Battlefield or in the 🏡 Refuge.
  • 🔮 Spell cards: A spell applies an enchantment to a unit or to the world itself.

🐼 Unit types

There are 3 types of 🐼 Unit cards.

A unit can only perform one action per round:

• MOVE:
  • 🐼 Units can only move vertically and cannot change lanes.
  • 🐼 Units can attack only one target lane per combat.
  • 🗡 Melee units can move forward to reach enemy.
  • 🏹 Shooter and 🪄 Spellcaster can move backward to avoid close combat penalties.
• ATTACK:
  • If there is an enemy unit within reach in the target lane, the unit will attack it.

All of these actions are carried out automatically and in an optimal manner.

📶 Upgrading units

• In exchange for 2 🪖 Experience points, a unit earns one extra 🎖️ Level.
• Each time a unit earns a level, its stats increase based on the table below.

🚩 Location

A card can only be in one of these locations:

🔮 Spells

• 🔮 Spells can be purchased in the 🧺 Marketplace or earned through enchantments.
• Each spell requires to create a new image. For this reason, it is better to favor 🕯️ Enchantment instead.
  
• Each spell MUST define the 🕯️ Enchantment that they trigger.
• Their description is generated automatically by the enchantment

🔮 Spell cards

🐼 Units

🗡 Melees cards

🏹 Shooters cards

🪄 Spellcasters cards

🕯️ Enchantments

The huge diversity of possible enchantments gives a significant depth to the game. Powerful strategies emerge when combining enchantments from different units.

• 🐼 Units can have one default enchantment
• 🔮 Spells can attach extra enchantments to a unit
• 🕯️ Enchantments triggered in combat have a temporary effect and are removed after the combat
• 🕯️ Enchantments triggered outside combat are permanent
• There is no limit to the number of enchantments that can be applied on a unit during the game
• There is a wide variety of ✴️ Effects on which enchantments are based:
  • 🧺 Marketplace accelerators: they can reduce the cost, affect the cards available and their stats, …
  • 🃏 Card pullers: they give extra cards. The cards are always at a ⭐ Tier lower than or equal to the 🧺 Marketplace tier.
  • ⚡ Trigger repeaters: they allow repeating the effect by triggering it multiple times.
  • 🐼 Unit boosters: they increase the unit stats like attack, health, defense, experience, fatigue.
  • 🔮 Spell amplifiers: these are the most powerful enchantments as they have a compounding effect. they increase the spell stats like attack, health, defense, experience, fatigue.

🕯️ Enchantments parameterize an ✴️ Effect with

• ⚡ Trigger: when the effect applies
• 📊 Properties: what the effect affects
• ⏳ Duration: for how many turns
• ⏰ Delay: how many times it triggers before its first activation
• 🧬 Traits: which traits to grant
• 🃏 Card: which card to grant

🕯️ Enchantments are further parameterized by the 🐼 Unit or 🔮 Spell with

• 🔢 Value: which number to apply to the properties
• 👥 Group: which units to select and to affect

🕯️ Enchantment list

✴️ Effects

• A computed value from a percentage is always rounded down, with a minimum value of 1

• ✴️ Effects support the following parameters below:

• The parameters are defined on the 🕯️ Enchantment, 🐼 Unit or 🔮 Spell.

✴️ Effect list

⚡ Triggers

• When a trigger activates, the effect of the enchantment is applied.
• Some triggers are “manual” and require the player to activate them.

The table below shows the different triggers and which condition is required to activate them.

⚡ Trigger list

🧬 Traits

• 🧬 Traits represent either
  • passive/inherent qualities (assigned by default to a unit)
  • or abilities/attributes that you can gain or lose (combat, spells, …)
• 🧬 Traits cannot be parameterized
• 🧬 Traits can have positive (venomous) or negative (poisoned) effects
• Some traits are visible and shown to the user, some are not because they are only used for internal computations
• Some traits are defined in the DB and some are assigned dynamically at runtime

🧬 Traits list

🃏 Card data models

🃏 Card template

• The same immutable card model is used by both 🐼 Units and 🔮 Spells to represent a card in the 📦 Shoe.
• This model represents an immutable template
• The data model is named ‘🃏 ICard’ and holds the properties below:

🃏 Card instance

• The same mutable card model is used both by 🐼 Units and 🔮 Spells to represent a living card after its purchase.
• This model represents a mutable runtime instance
• The data model is named ‘🃏 MCard’ and holds the properties below:

• When a 🐼 Unit is created, its 🎖️ Level is set to its 🧺 Marketplace ⭐ Tier.

🕯️ Enchantment template

• This model represents an immutable template named ‘IEnchantment’ and holds the properties below:

🕯️ Enchantment instance

• This model represents a mutable runtime instance named ‘MEnchantment’ and holds the properties below:

✴️ Effect

• For the list, see ✴️ Effects
• The data model is named ‘✴️ Effect’ and holds the properties below:

⚡ Trigger

• For the list, see ⚡ Triggers
• The data model is named ‘⚡ Trigger’ and holds the properties below:

🧬 Trait

• For the list, see 🧬 Traits
• The data model is named ‘🧬 Trait’ and holds the properties below:

🧩 Board setup

The game screen or board is composed of different “UI elements” that can be shown or hidden depending on the turn phase.

• 🧺 Marketplace: It holds the cards available for purchase.
• ⚔️ Battlefield: A grid of 3 🛣️ Lanes by 3 Rows (Front, Middle & Back)
• 🏡 Refuge: It holds your inventory of owned cards.
• ⏳ Hourglass: A timer that shows the time left before the next phase starts.
• Intel icon: When hovering on it, It provides a tooltip to inform you about the current state of the game like the current turn, the rules, the clans available, …
• 🪜 Ladder: It shows all the players in this game ranked by 💚 Vitality. It provides several key insights about your opponents like who is alive, …
• 💚 Vitality counter: It represents your life force as a player. When it reaches zero, you lose the game.
• 🪦️ Graveyard: A small heap that contained all played 🃏 Cards.
• 📦 Shoe: It is always invisible and never shown to the players.

Design principles

Due to the high number of graphics to create, the goal is to leverage the help of generative AI. It is now possible to generate high-quality images in high resolution that do adhere to the prompt requirement.

Rules

The following rules are based on experience using different generative tools.

✅ Recommended ✏️ Prompt

• Animal SHOULD LOOK at us
• Style SHOULD be anime: not too cartoonish, not fully realistic
• Stance SHOULD be aggressive, like attacking or ready to attack
• It helps to specify a TIME OF DAY (noon vs night)
• It helps to specify an ENVIRONMENT (desert vs river)
• It helps to specify a WEAPON
• It helps to specify FACE & BODY DETAILS: color, age, thin, fat…
• It helps to specify CLOTHING: color, texture, material…

⚠️ ️Mandatory

• Good separation between the animal and the background
• Animal MUST occupy most of the space
• Animal MUST look like a fighter (weapon included)
• Animals MUST be anthropomorphic, not the opposite
• NO human skin/body with just a face/mask of a lizard

❌ To avoid

• Too much/Not enough contrast with background
• Too realistic: not fitting with required ANIME style
• Too unrealistic: weird weapon, illogical physic, 3rd leg
• Too anthropomorphic: showing human skin, hands, face
• Too animalistic to be a warrior animal
• Too childish to be a warrior animal

🗿 Clan

• 🗡 Melee unit MUST display a close combat weapon
  • knife, sword, axe, club, stick, morning star, machete, whip…
• 🏹 Shooter unit MUST display a ranged weapon
  • bow, crossbow, sling, spear, halberd, javelin, …
• 🪄 Spellcaster unit MUST display a magical device
  • but it can be any as long as it is magical

✏️ Recommended

• Extravagant caricatures => to trigger humour
• Irony through ridiculousness => to trigger emotions
• Epic or creepy traits => calling our ideals or antagonize fascination and hatred
• Exaggerated vanity => identification of our own defects
• Sweet, baby round faces, big eyes, big mouth or lips => favor expressiveness

🎵 Audio

All animals will have anthropomorphic sounds where a human mimics the animal sound in different languages (like Cocorico, …). We will favor the most ridiculous ones for fun.