readme.txt

OVERVIEW

At the moment, the following options from the main menu are functional:

- Play vs AI Goblins (or Fanatics or Vampires) -- this will play a game against a bot of the appropriate type.
- Play Multiplayer Game -- play online against the first available opponent.
- Deck Builder -- make your own deck of cards to play with.

PLAYING CARDS

When you start the game, you will have five cards in your hand. Every turn, each player draws their hand up to five cards.

You can play a card if you are able to generate enough mana to pay its casting cost. For a card such as a creature this involves clicking on the card, and then clicking on the tile you want to summon your creature onto.

At the start of the game, you have no mana, but you can generate mana by discarding cards -- one mana for each discarded card. The game interface makes playing a card easy for you: simply mouse over the card and all the cards that will be discarded to generate the needed mana will turn a dark gray, representing that they are going to be discarded.

Each card has a casting cost. This cost includes a base cost, which is represented by the number in the top right corner of the card, and a difficulty, which is represented by icons next to the base cost.

At the start of the game, you will have to pay the base cost plus the difficulty to play a card. However, each time you play a card in a given school you will gain experience in that school, gaining you levels in that school of magic. Each level you gain reduces the difficulty cost you have to pay for a card by one, so eventually you will only have to pay the base cost of a card with no difficulty cost at all.

At the end of your turn you will discard the cards in your hand and draw up to five. Also, any accumulated mana is drained at the end of your turn, so each turn you most likely want to play out as many cards as you can -- at the start of the game you will play just one card each turn, but later on you might play two or three or more.

The 'glyph' tiles on the board give you additional mana each turn, allowing you to cast more spells. Also, there are many cards which will give you additional mana or even cards.

BASIC GAMEPLAY

When you summon a creature it will move each turn according to its movement allowance. The main goal of the game is to move creatures all the way across the board to the opponent's side. Each player begins with one life, every time you get a creature across the board you inflict one damage. So get three creatures across the board and you win!

When creatures from opposing sides meet each other they attack. Creature movement and attacking happens automatically each turn. Each creature has a life total and an amount of damage it will inflict on its opponent. You can manipulate creatures by casting various spells which have the effects written on them.