Game design
Logic Node: Arena
A 1v1 card battler where you program your bot instead of steering it.
What it is
A 1v1 duel in a neo-cyberpunk arena, three to five minutes a match. You don’t steer your bot. For 30 seconds you lay four command cards into a stack, then both programs run at once, slot by slot. Within a slot the card with the higher priority goes first: movement is fast, heavy attacks are slow. Collect three Data Cores before your opponent, or knock their bot out for a free one.
What I did
Twelve documents: the GDD, a technical spec, the overall balance, the full card list, the UI map and user flow, FTUE and a narrative tutorial, the art bible, LiveOps and monetization, the audio design document and the lore.
- Balance. Every level adds exactly 10% to the base:
Stat = Base × (1 + 0.1 × (Level − 1)). The stronger the card, the lower its priority. - Economy. Power grows linearly, upgrade cost geometrically (50 → 150 → 400 → 1000 credits) — the main sink of the soft currency. Chests with timers cap daily farming.
- Trophy road. +30 for a win, −20 for a loss: even at a 45% win rate a player still climbs, +2.5 a match. Four arenas, each opening a new mechanic.
Notes
The risk is that a bug in the first slot wastes the other three and feels like punishment. The answer is in the feel, not the rules: the bot bonks its head on the wall with sparks and a sound, and a mistake becomes a moment to laugh at. Logic cards (IF DAMAGED) open only on the third arena, once the basics are habit.