Xbox 360 PS3

Magic: The Gathering - Duels of the Planeswalkers

StrategyTurn-based strategy (TBS)Card & Board Game

Overview

Magic: The Gathering, Duels of the Planeswalkers is a video game based on the popular collectible card game of the same name, published by Wizards of the Coast. It was released on June 17, 2009.

The core game follows the standard rules of the collectible card game Magic: The Gathering; each player has a deck of cards consisting of lands and spells. Lands are used to generate "mana," the resource needed to cast spells. Mana comes in five colors, and cards may require colored or generic (mana of any color) to be cast. Spells come in many varieties, from sorceries which have a one-time effect, to summoned creatures which can attack and defend from opponents. Players alternate turns playing land cards, casting spells, and attacking opponents until all but one player's life total is reduced to 0.

The game is, as described by its developers, an "arcade" game and simplifies much of gameplay to be more accessible to newer players. There is no deck construction, and players only have access to a limited number of preconstructed decks; however, as they play and win against computer opponents, they unlock new pre-constructed decks and specific cards that can be inserted into each deck to make the deck more powerful. Tapping of lands for mana is done automatically, with the engine selecting lands in multi-colored decks based on the remaining cards in a player's hand.

Due to the nature of Magics gameplay, in which any card can override the game's core rules, Duels was developed using a combination of C++ for the core engine and the Lua scripting language, wrapped in XML, to provide logic for specific cards. The engine was developed in this fashion to allow for future expansions on the game, including adding new cards and complexities to it. The game is able to handle cards with more complex rules, though these may require additional programming.