Calamity TCG

Calamity TCG is a fast-paced, darkly whimsical trading card game set in the eerie and chaotic world of Hollow Town. Players engage in duels where they summon powerful entities, conjure spells, and control mischievous demons and eldritch horrors as they battle for supremacy. The game blends a structured strategic playstyle with unpredictable elements, evoking the same twisted atmosphere as Hollow Town itself. Its mechanics are approachable, with a familiar turn-based structure where players draw, summon, and engage in combat while managing resources.

Gameplay Overview:

Each player starts with a deck of 20 cards and 10 life, featuring a mix of creatures, spells, enchantments, and mana cards. Players take turns drawing cards, playing mana to summon their creatures or cast powerful spells, and attacking their opponents. The goal is to reduce your opponent’s health to zero while protecting your own with strategic plays. But within Hollow Town, nothing is predictable—random effects, curses, and chaotic events can disrupt even the best-laid plans.

Key Mechanics:

• Creature Summoning: Summon demons, spirits, and creatures from the shadows of Hollow Town to fight for you. Each creature has unique abilities that add depth to the gameplay.
• Spells & Curses: Wield a variety of spells and curses to manipulate the game’s outcome. Players can unleash devastating magic or curse their opponent’s board with detrimental effects.
• Mana System: The game uses a mana card system, with different types of energy aligning to various gameplay elements like summoning, enhancing, or casting dark sorceries. Strategic management of mana is key to overwhelming your opponent.
• Hollow Events: Special event cards can trigger chaotic effects on the battlefield, altering the rules of engagement, creating new obstacles, or changing the flow of the game entirely. Hollow Events embody the trippy, distorted nature of Hollow Town, adding an unpredictable layer of complexity to every match.

World and Art Style:

Set against the backdrop of Hollow Town, the art style is heavily inspired by the dark and twisted cartoon aesthetic of The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy. The creatures and environments are exaggerated, warped, and cartoony, bringing a mix of playful horror and quirky charm. Every card is dripping with personality, from the mischievous demons to the chaotic spells. The buildings in Hollow Town twist unnaturally, the fog creeps through the streets, and glowing green and purple accents set a sinister yet comical tone.

Development Notes:

Calamity TCG was designed as a small-scale project for a 2 week game jam submission, but I had gotten busy and forgotten until the last 48-hours..lol. Despite the time constraints, the game was built to be a fully playable TCG experience, complete with a functioning card game engine, unique cards, and an immersive atmosphere. However, the dream for Calamity TCG is to continue development and expand the game, adding more cards, new mechanics, and a deeper world. If the community shows enough interest, this haunting yet hilarious TCG could evolve into a full-fledged title with even more demons, spells, and chaos to offer.

Credits:

• Engine: Built using TCG Engine by IndieMarc, a fantastic resource that allowed for rapid prototyping of the card game mechanics.
• Mana Card System: Special thanks to Luiz Moratelli for the invaluable Mana card system scripts that helped bring Calamity TCG’s resource management system to life.
• Art Facilitation: AI Commercial License enabled the creation of the game's trippy, dark art style, capturing the essence of Hollow Town.
• Prompt Engineering, Game Development, and Sound Engineering: Powered by Unity and  FTV Studios, bringing the vision of Hollow Town and its twisted inhabitants to life.
• Special Credits to Kai for helping with art and world-building, providing invaluable creative insight into the dark and chaotic world of Calamity TCG.
• Zenkai Community (https://discord.gg/a2XBzt4stC): Huge thanks to the community for being a dope hangout spot and for their ongoing support.
• Game Dev Café (https://discord.gg/3fBvhJNM2e): Thank you for hosting this game jam and fostering such an amazing community.
• Inspiration Credits: The game's style and chaotic spirit were heavily inspired by The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy, a show that masterfully blends the eerie and the absurd.

Inspiration:

This project was heavily influenced by the dark, whimsical themes of The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy, which served as a major inspiration for the art style and tone of Calamity TCG. The eerie yet comical vibe of the town and its twisted residents is a direct nod to the show's blend of horror and humor.

Final Words:

Although Calamity TCG was a short, 48-hour project born out of a sudden burst of creativity, there’s a lot of potential for this game to grow. If the community shows enough love and support, I’d love to continue development and expand on the mechanics, the world, and the art. You beautiful humans have the power to help this game come to life—if you want more chaos, more demons, and more Hollow Town, then your support will make it happen!