Game Introduction:

"Dungeon Drafters" (Magic Card Dungeon) is a dungeon game that combines turn-based gameplay with a two-way card building mechanism. Its innovation lies in the integration of turn-based and card-building gameplay into the original dungeon mode. In the game, players have three action points each turn, each representing a player's action (move, basic attack, use skills). Players need to reasonably plan the action points for each turn to take corresponding actions.

It's worth mentioning that since dungeon games are inherently grid-oriented (the map is composed of squares), incorporating turn-based action points into a grid-oriented map further enhances the strategic properties of the game, making it more akin to a tactical board game.

The skills part of the game is similar to most tactical board games, with most having grid-oriented area attacks. However, what differs from tactical board games is that the skills in the game are directly tied to the cards. You can only release different skills if you draw the corresponding cards, and the cards in the game are mainly focused on special effects, with weaker numerical content.

Notably, this skill range indication applies not just to the player, but also to the enemy's attacks. Approaching enemies will display their next actions and attack range. In other words, the enemy's behavior and attacks in the game also have a certain predictability. Players need to comprehensively manage their action count and action content to gain the maximum benefit in the turn-based duel, which leans more towards the tactical board game style.

In terms of card construction, "Dungeon Drafters" has also made its own innovations. Firstly, the game distinguishes six different card systems through a class system, and each card system has two types of cards that can complement each other. As the game progresses, players will continuously receive different card deck supplement packs to enrich their card library. The cross-design of professions and card types is used to expand the game's playability and depth. Although this aspect is well done, it is not particularly innovative.

However, the card consumption system in the game truly achieves innovative design. Unlike other card games, "Dungeon Drafters" permanently consumes cards in a single game. That is, once used, they will not refresh. Once a player uses a skill, it is used up unless an opportunity event occurs.

This design adds a certain restriction to the content of card construction itself. Because "Dungeon Drafters" is not a pure card game, it is essentially a dungeon exploration RPG, just that the skill content is presented by cards. This restriction also allows players to fully consider the use of each card, rather than blindly using skills to consume action points, otherwise they will quickly fall into a situation where there are no cards to play. Most of the action points are used for displacement and performing basic attacks, not all spent on skills, requiring players to carefully consider the match strategy for each battle.

Game Analysis:

• Introduction of Asymmetric Turn-Based Gameplay in Dungeon RPGs

To analyze this part, we first need to understand what a dungeon RPG is. The most significant feature of a dungeon RPG is the grid-oriented map, as seen in the layout of the dungeons and outdoor scenes in classic early dungeon RPGs like "The Legend of Zelda". The game map can be divided into small squares, and the player's actions are largely guided by the grid of the map. Of course, with the development of games, many grid-oriented map games now allow players to move freely, without adhering strictly to grid steps.

However, "Dungeon Drafters" still adopts a more retro dungeon RPG mode where players must strictly follow the grid guidance on the map to progress. On this basis, the game introduces a turn-based settlement system, dividing the player's actions into three action points, or three mini-turns, and each action point can only perform one basic action. Correspondingly, the enemy's action points are only one, meaning that an enemy can only perform one action per round. The strict grid guidance coupled with the turn-based process restricts player and monster actions in both spatial and temporal dimensions, assigning a framework for all actions in the game and transforming the game mode from real-time combat to strategic combat.

The grid orientation of traditional dungeon RPGs, combined with the game's own innovative asymmetric turn-based system, further enhances the game's strategic nature and makes the gameplay more tactical. We know that in tactical games, players need to control a whole team of characters, each playing a different role. But "Dungeon Drafters" is a dungeon RPG game with only one protagonist. If the traditional turn-based settlement of taking turns moving is still used, it is obviously unfair, and such a design also greatly reduces the operability of the character, and the actions that the character can make in one turn are limited, unable to cope with the enemy's attack.

"Dungeon Drafters" perfectly solves this problem through asymmetric turn-based combat. The player's three action points also mean a higher degree of freedom. Meanwhile, the design of different card skills combined with traditional displacement and basic attacks corresponds to the division of labor and ability differentiation in tactical games. This design has successfully allowed the turn-based settlement gameplay of tactical games to be applied to more RPG games, not only limited to team versus team settings, but also allowing for protagonist versus team scenarios.

• Limited Card-Playing Opportunities Lead to a Stronger Overall Strategic Experience

As mentioned before, all skills in the game are realized through cards, and the core mechanism of the game is Roguelike card drawing. Although each profession has its own special deck and genre thinking, this is not particularly innovative. The innovation of the game is that all cards played in the game level process are equivalent to being permanently played. After releasing the skill, it cannot be used again, which sets a more stringent concept of choice for the card content of the game.

Each time, players will carry a large deck of about 40 cards to play the game, far more than other Roguelike card games. But these 40 cards cannot be reused. Each time a skill card is used in the game, 5 cards are drawn from the original 40-card deck for the player to choose. This design guarantees the randomness of the game to a certain extent, and the non-reusable card-playing mechanism also makes players have more considerations when arranging their actions. Players will not only consider the application scenario and timing of the card in the current game, but also focus on whether this card can play a greater role in the later stages of the game, and how to maximize the benefit of this card, which has become the main strategic content of the game's cards.

This design undoubtedly changes the refreshing and exhilarating experience brought by the constant refreshing of the card pool and the reuse of hand cards, and exchanges the concept of choice throughout the game for the extremely high strategic properties of the cards in the game, and raises the player's strategic considerations from a single battle to the entire game process. (Single-round thinking → Whole game thinking)

Player Research:

• Traditional RPG Players' Emphasis on Strategy

"Dungeon Drafters" introduces asymmetric turn-based design in the game, which to a certain extent integrates the strategic content of tactical games. This design also makes the behavior of monsters in the game predictable. What players need to do more is to calculate in their minds what is going to happen next, rather than engage in real-time combat with monsters in the game like traditional dungeon RPGs. Changing the original real-time combat to turn-based reduces the difficulty of the game operation and enhances the strategic depth of the game. The three action points provide players with a certain degree of operational freedom. Players can freely choose to move, use regular attacks, or use skills, which gives players more control over the characters in the strict turn-based system, rather than just watching the battle change.

The reason why "Dungeon Drafters" was able to achieve such good results at the beginning of its release is to a certain extent due to the emphasis of traditional RPG players on strategy. Because the strategy of the original dungeon RPG can only be reflected in the construction of character equipment and attributes, the introduction of asymmetric turn-based system has also shifted the game's test of strategy to the normal game process.

• Card Game Players' Emphasis on Overall Experience in Match Strategy

In the previous text, I have specifically analyzed why "Dungeon Drafters" transforms players' match strategy and thinking from single-round to overall through a large deck and non-reusable card-playing mechanism. Generally, in traditional Roguelike card games, because most hand cards can be reused, players' match strategy only considers how to defeat the opponent in this battle and continue to advance to the next battle. They do not think about match strategy from the overall (whole game process) perspective. Of course, traditional Roguelike card games also have overall thinking, but it comes from the construction of cards and character strength, not match strategy.

However, "Dungeon Drafters" exactly provides card players with an overall experience in match strategy. This design was not present in previous game works, and its success also indicates that the importance card players place on the overall experience in match strategy is increasing.

Design Analysis:

• Asymmetric Turn-Based System Lacks Corresponding Adjustable Regulation

Although I mentioned earlier that an asymmetric turn system is set up in monster and player strategic matches to balance the turn experience of players and many monsters, the asymmetric turns in the game do not make any variable adjustments according to the number of monsters in the game. That is to say, although monsters can only act once per round, there are inevitably situations where there are many monsters due to some Roguelike random elements involved in the dungeon RPG. If there are a lot of monsters but the player can still only act three times per round, they will be in a very passive situation and cannot experience the strategic test brought by turn-based system, after all, two fists are hard to beat four hands.

The optimization method can dynamically read the number of enemies and then dynamically adjust the player's action points. For example, if the number of enemies is around 10, the player's action points can be adjusted to 5. And when the number of enemies is around 5, the player's action points are 3. Similar designs might optimize this issue to a certain extent.

• The synergy between card pools is insufficient, leading to a decline in the deck-building experience

"Dungeon Drafters", despite having a vast deck system, and the fact that hand cards cannot be reused throughout the game, plus the game itself has almost no synergy designed between the cards, this leads to the strategic depth of the cards themselves not being high. Although many different styles and strengths of cards are designed in the game, the lack of any synergy between the cards leads to the strength of the entire game's players being extremely reliant on single-card strength (this is also somewhat related to the non-reusability of cards, as cards can easily be permanently consumed, making it difficult to roll together complementary cards), and lacks the synergy and construction content between decks.

This design makes the cards in the game basically independent of each other. Although it fits the mechanism that the game's cards cannot be reused, the lack of skill linkage between different cards makes the player's match strategy much more monotonous, lacking the fun of deck construction content itself. Therefore, the strategic depth of the game is not as high as the general Roguelike card game, but it does have a very high strategic experience for dungeon RPGs.

The optimization method is also relatively simple, that is, to add more card synergy effects to the cards. This synergy effect is different from the specific linkage between general cards. It can categorize each card in terms of attributes, and the use of cards with different attributes together will produce different buffs. This design also avoids the problem of having many types of cards that are permanently consumed and it is difficult to roll to specific linkage cards. At the same time, the game itself has divided the cards into two types for different professions, each profession has two types of cards, then establish an attribute for these two types of cards and introduce influencing factors, but the actual situation needs further testing.

Summary & Outlooks:

• Turn-Based Design in RPG Category

The most obvious point of innovation in "Dungeon Drafters" is the introduction of turn-based design in a dungeon RPG game that involves one versus many, which enhances the strategic match thinking of the game.

This kind of asymmetric turn design can also be introduced into many different categories, introducing asymmetric turn-based processes into games that originally focused on single-player experiences, achieving a match experience similar to banner games, greatly increasing the strategic weight of the original game, and also solving the main limitation of banner games that must be multiple Vs multiple, providing new ideas for the gameplay integration of banner games.