Duelist Arena is a two-player card game where players take on the role of captured soldiers battling in an arena to earn their freedom. Each turn, players secretly select a weapon card to attack with, each with different damage, range, and recharge attributes. Damage is calculated based on these attributes, and the player who reduces their opponent's life points to zero first wins. Players keep a combat log to track used cards and strategize. The fast-paced gameplay focuses on strategy within a simple set of rules.

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Duelist Arena
By Team Mario
Stephen Andruszkiewicz
Steven-Felix Cho
Jean Jaramillo Orquera
Austin Sheridan**
Alexander Weeks
**Withdrew
Description:
Duelist Arena is a two-player card game with a focus on fast, action packed game play.
Within the game, each player takes the role of a captured soldier who must earn their freedom
by defeating the opponents they face within a mystical arena. However the arena has gifted
each fighter with the ability to magically change his or her weapons instantaneously allowing
each fighter to quickly adapt to any foe. Within the game this is represented by ten different
weapon cards (Dagger, Sword, Spear, Axe, Hammer, Bow, Crossbow, Javelin, Flail, Halberd),
which the player must use to damage his opponent. Each turn both players choose a card to
attack with. Every weapon is broken into three sections, the weapon’s damage, the weapon’s
range, and the weapon’s recharge time. Each card also has two different attacks which adjust
the values of these three sections accordingly. These three sections come into play when
fighting with the opponent, if two weapons have equal damage the weapon with the higher
range will win while if both weapons have the same damage and range the weapon with the

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lower recharge time will win. After a card is used it’s placed in the discard pile and it’s up to
each player to properly record what cards were used in their combat log and build strategies
around that. The player who destroys all of his opponent’s life points or has the most life points
remaining is deemed the winner and is able to walk free from the arena and regain his
freedom…at least until the arena calls them once again.
Developer’s Log:
We started by brainstorming the options regarding the new mechanic that was given. We began
by trying to incorporate the drawing mechanic in our game, by thinking of making the players
draw out where they fought in the arena with their desired traps and areas to take cover. We
then thought about making the players draw their own avatars for the game, trying to go into a
direction more of a blind fire attack game, but we ran into a wall as this change would turn the
game into a different genre that incorporated an entirely new mechanic that was not available to
us. This scenario did not work because it involved a sort of defense mechanic which we could
not use by making the players draw their parts of the arena where they could take cover and
protect themselves, in addition to the obfuscating mechanic that was not available to us. Then
we thought about making the game all about attacking and making the players draw their own
weapons and their avatars. This seemed to be too complex of a set up for the start of the game
and would have taken the fast paced action out of the equation. We did not want to make our
mechanics involve a long process that would have taken the fun also with it. We finally decided
to look at the other possible options available within the mechanic, which was the writing portion
of it, and it all started to click as we started to incorporate a combat log which opened up new
options and possibilities for our game. As we started to make our game more oriented towards
the attack mechanic, options became available for our game to be more about strategy involving
the log. By using the log, players can not only record the events taking place within the game,
but also use it to keep track of which cards the opponent has left. Knowing which cards your
opponent has used allows the player to build strategies around that, giving the game a lot of the
player choice we were initially missing out on. Since we decided to go into an attack oriented
game, we started to create different types of weapons, each with their own attributes, like
damage, recharge time and range. We examined each type of weapon and realized that with
the different weapon types different styles of play could come into account. We looked really
carefully at the differences between each weapon to have it as balanced as possible all the
while trying not to allow a dominant strategy to exist within our game. We also decided to
incorporate a discard mechanic where after a card is used it is placed within the ‘discard pile’
and is unable to be used again for the remainder of the game. This mechanic forces each player
to think ahead and create strategies instead of just randomly picking cards and hoping for the
best. Another change that we had to implement into the game was to increase the life points of
the players, to allow the game to run longer. We also incorporated a new win/lose scenario, with
the discarding of the cards, if players run out of cards and they do not have any other way to
attack each other making the victor the one with the most life points left.

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Designer’s Intent:
● Fast paced action with strategy
● Quick and enjoyable
● Consistent replay value
● Easily playable/learned
● Ages 12+
Materials list:
● Pen/Pencil
● Paper
● 20 playing cards (ten for each player)
Rules:

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Setup Phase
● Each player must have one of each kind of card (10 total)
● Each player starts with 80 life points.
● Players retrieve pen and paper in order to set up their Combat Log.
Attacking Phase
● Each turn both players choose a card to play.
● The cards 10 weapon cards are Dagger, Sword, Spear, Axe, Hammer, Bow, Crossbow,
Javelin, Flail, Halberd.
● Players place their selected card face down in between each other
● Players must flip their selected cards face up as close to the same time as possible and
state which attack they are using
● After a card is used it is placed into the Discard Pile and is unable to be used again for
the remainder of the game.
● Players record which cards were used and how much damage was traded in their
combat log
Damage formula: Base Damage / recharge time x range = Total Damage
Damage enemy takes is equal to the difference of each weapons’ total damage.
● If total damage is equal, the weapon that has the higher range will win and deal the
weapon’s base damage to the losing player.
○ Ex: Player A used a Sword stab and Player B used a Spear as a ranged weapon.
Player B wins because a Spear has 3 range when used as a ranged weapon,
while a Sword has 2 range when used to stab. Player A takes 5 damage.
● If total damage and range are equal, the weapon that has a lower recharge time will win
and deal the weapon’s base damage divided by the recharge time to the losing player.
○ Ex: Player A used a Bow, and Player B used a Crossbow. Player A wins because
a Bow has a recharge time of 0.5 while a Crossbow has a recharge time of 3.
Player B takes 6 damage (3 / 0.5 = 6).
● If total damage, range, recharge time, and base damage are the same, then both
players will receive the full Total Damage value.
○ Player A used a Sword stab, and Player B used an Axe slash. Since every
category (total damage, range, recharge time, and base damage) is the same,
both players take 15 damage.
Card Damage
Dagger
Against 3 range: (15 damage, 0.5 recharge time, 1 range) = 30 total damage

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Against other range (1, 1.5, 2, 2.5): (5 damage, 0.5 recharge time, 0.5 range) = 5 total damage
Sword
Stab: (7.5 damage, 1 recharge time, 2 range) = 15 total damage
Slash: (20 damage, 2 recharge time, 1.5 range) = 15 total damage
Spear
As a melee weapon: (7.5 damage, 1 recharge time, 2 range) = 15 total damage
As a ranged weapon: (5 damage, 1 recharge time, 3 range) = 15 total damage
Axe
Slash: (7.5 damage, 1 recharge time, 2 range) = 15 total damage
Cleave: (12 damage, 2 recharge time, 2.5 range) = 15 total damage
Hammer
Crush: (15 damage, 2 recharge time, 2 range) = 15 total damage
Bash: (20 damage, 2 recharge time, 1.5 range) = 15 total damage
Bow
Ranged: (3 damage, 0.5 recharge time, 3 range) = 18 total damage
Melee Bash: (8 damage, 1 recharge time, 1 range) = 8 total damage. Makes the opponent
recoil, making them deal half damage the next turn, rounded down to the nearest whole
number.
Crossbow
Ranged: (18 damage, 3 recharge time, 3 range) = 18 total damage
Melee Bash: (8 damage, 1 recharge time, 1 range) = 8 total damage. Makes the opponent
recoil, making them deal half damage the next turn, rounded down to the nearest whole
number.
Tomahawk
Ranged throwing: (5 damage, 1 recharge time, 3 range) = 15 total damage
Melee cleaving: (8 damage, 1 recharge time, 1 range) = 8 total damage. Makes the opponent
recoil, making them deal half damage the next turn, rounded down to the nearest whole
number.
Flail
Swing: (10 damage, 1 recharge time, 1.5 range) = 15 total damage
Bash (5 damage, 0.5 recharge time, 1.5 range) = 15 total damage
Halberd
Stab: (3 damage 0.5 recharge time, 2.5 range) = 15 total damage
Slash: (7.5 damage, 1 recharge time, 2 range) = 15 total damage

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Win/lose Phase
● Once a player reaches 0 life points = game over
● The player with life points remaining after the other has 0 wins
● If both players reach 0 life points during the same turn the players will continue taking
turns till one player takes more damage than the other
● If both players run out of cards and still have lives remaining than the player with the
most lives wins
Mechanics:
Attack Storyboard:
This mechanic will determine the rate at which the players will lose life points, win or lose
rounds and ultimately determine the winner.
Write/Draw Storyboard:

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This mechanic will be use by each player to keep track of the different inputs of the combat
phase, as well as the damage and remaining life points of the opposing players.
Win/Lose Storyboard:
Here we have 15 life points Here we have lost 15 life Here we have 0 life points
points during combat and the game is over

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After the attack phase the last All cards have been discarded Neither player has any cards
card has been discarded remaining so the player with
the most life points wins
This mechanic governs how a player will lose or win the game based on the amount of life
points they have.
Destroy/Erase Storyboard:
This mechanic governs how the player handles their cards after the combat phase.
Vote/Choose Storyboard:

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Both players place
their cards face down.
Attacking player has sword
and spear card.
Attacking player chooses the card
he/she will use.
This mechanic governs the card choice the players make when attacking and defending.
References
- Jaramillo Orquera, J. (Photographer). (2015). Combat Log [Photographs],
Retrieved February 21, 2015.