Competitive Analysis

As part of the project proposal, I need to carry out research into different games within the same sector as enter_universim. This will influence how I approach the development to my game and will help to create an original title. I barely have any experience with card games, so research into other existing games is a must.

Hearthstone

Each player plays as a 'Hero'. Heroes are the centre point of every deck in the game; if their health drops to zero, the player loses the same.
- Heroes are categorised by classes, with each class possessing a 'hero power'.
- Heroes can also possess weapons. Weapons have a damage output, but most importantly, durability. Weapon durability decreases with use, and becomes unusable once durability runs out.
Each card costs 'mana' to play, with players replenishing 1 mana per turn, up to 10 mana.
'Minions' are the characters in the centre of the battlefield.
- Minions take one turn after being played to be ready to attack.
- Players can play up to 7 minions.
- Minions can attack opposing minions or opposing heroes.
Players have a 'hand', which is made up of cards drawn from your deck.
- One card can be pulled from your deck per turn.
- Green outlines show cards that are immediately playable.
- Yellow outlines show cards that need special conditions to be met in order to play it.
- Players can hold up to 10 cards at a time.
Players have 30 card decks from which they draw cards.
Players toss a coin to determine who starts.
- Three cards are given to the beginning player, and four are given to the player going second.
- The player going second is also given 'The Coin', which gives them +1 mana at the beginning.
- Players can continually swap out their starting hand until they are both satisfied and ready to begin.

Notable Attributes

I really like how Hearthstone utilises a weapon for the hero specifically - I think the weapon adds a nice layer of variability to a character that would otherwise remain one dimensional. Held items, equipables and consumables would be a cool concept to experiment with!
A 'cost' of some sort would also be worth trialling. I don't necessarily want to dig too deep into this right now as I aim for simplicity, but trials could show unexpected results.

Pokemon

Each player begins by shuffling their 60 card deck.
- Players draw 7 cards to begin their hand.
- Players start by playing any 'basic' (typically Pokemon without evolutions, or the unevolved forms of Pokemon) Pokemon in their hand.
  - Basic Pokemon can 'evolve' into 'stages'. These 'stages' represent increases in power, with the highest 'stage' of any particular ruleset usually possessing the strongest abilities and attacks, and the highest HP.
  - Pokemon can upgrade to higher stages when eligible Pokemon of the next stage up are played on top of the original Pokemon.
- Players can take up to 7 possible actions per turn.
- From their hand, players can choose to play as many basic Pokemon onto their bench as they can, up to 5 Pokemon on the bench.
  - Players can attach energy cards to any Pokemon on the bench or in play, up to one per turn.
- Once a player has completed their desired actions, they can end their turn by attacking the opponents active Pokemon.
The objective is to defeat 6 Pokemon on the opponents side of the field.
Cards are split into different major categories:
- Pokemon are the means of offense.
  - Each Pokemon is represented by a 'typing'.
    - Every typing has a unique set of resistences and weaknesses, which either reduce or boost incoming and outgoing damage depending on the matchup.
  - Each Pokemon has a 'retreat cost', which is the cost it takes to remove a chosen Pokemon on your own side from play.
- Energy cards are the 'fuel' for each of the Pokemon's attacks.
- Trainer cards act as supporters, and do not have health.

Notable Attributes

Just like Hearthstone, I like how Pokemon implements consumable cards, such as the trainers, to bolster and increase game variety.
I do enjoy Pokemon's rock-paper-scissors style type matchup, so this is something I may experiment with, but I think this may overcomplicate things.
I enjoy how Pokemon uses stadium cards, and how they can change the battlefield on the whole.

Magic: The Gathering

Each player assembles a 60 card deck, called a library.
- Decks can't have more than 4 copies of one card.
Each player begins with 20 life. When this value hits 0, the player loses.
Players begin by drawing 7 cards, and can choose to to reshuffle their hand until they are satisfied.
- Every time a player uses a mulligan, they must decrease the size of their starting hand by one.
- Players can draw one card per turn to play - characters cannot attack on the same turn that they're drawn.
Cards are split into categories:
- Every card has a colour, with each colour representing a specific 'mana'.
  - Each character has abilities that cost mana, with the mana they require needing to be the specific colour.
  - Players can utilise enchantments, which can either effect the game as a whole passively, or be attached to a specific character.
  - Players can utilise items, which can be bound to a character.
  - Planeswalkers are powerful cards that do not have a health value, instead using 'loyalty', which acts similarly to mana. However, 0 loyalty means they will exit the battle.
Games are split into phases, main phase and combat phase.
- In the main phase, you can choose to play a 'land' card once per turn, and can cast creatures and/or sorceries. Main phases occur twice per player turn, one before and one after the combat phase.
- In the combat phase, you can attack and defend.

Notable Attributes

Equipables once again make an appearance here, and I'm becoming more and more convinced to experiment with them.

What can I take from these games?

Avoid Deckbuilding, Emphasise Adaptation

Something I want to avoid in enter_universim is the concept of deckbuilding. Whilst it is absolutely an interesting concept and can be very fun, I feel as though deckbuilders are oversaturated. I want to place more of an emphasis on strategising on the fly and working with the cards you are dealt, rather than coming in with heavily pre-planned strategies. I prefer the idea of adaptability over premeditation for enter_universim in a worldbuilding sense too, as the game is set within a survival simulation designed to test the problem solving of the artificial consciousnesses within it.

Utilise Equipables and/or Consumables

I love the use of equipable items, weapons and consumables within the games I researched. I think they add a strong layer of variety to a game and help to bolster player arsenals massively throughout a game.

Stadium or Field Cards

Stadiums and fields could be a really fun concept to explore - they once again add variety and unpredictability to a game, in turn adding another layer of strategy to the fray. One thing that I have to be mindful of here though is how each character is actually effected by these cards, as I do not have any specific categories, races or classes for characters to fit into. If I did implement stadiums and fields, I'd have to figure out a way to classify the characters.