Manahex is a fantasy-themed card and board game for 2-4 players. It is played against other players online, either in short sessions (10-45 minutes, depending on player count) or asynchronously. At its core it's an old-school trading card game where each player brings their own personal deck to the match, but the resource acquisition and fighting takes place on a board instead of through cards only.
Gameplay
Before playing, a random map of hexes is generated. Each player chooses a deck and the starting position for their mage. Then starting hands are drawn and the game begins.
Each turn you can move your mage to an adjacent hex and take control of it. The color of each hex signifies which type of mana it produces, and you can use the mana of controlled hexes to pay for cards in hand. All your hexes replenish at the beginning of each turn so you'll be able to afford more expensive cards as the game progresses.
Some of the cards are spells, which can directly affect things in the game (e.g. deal damage to another mage). Other cards are creatures or structures, which are created next to your mage on the map. Most creatures can move around and attack enemies, and a lot of them also have magical abilities. The structures are stationary, but usually have powerful ways to boost your other units.
Each mage starts the game with 12 HP, and if that number ever reaches 0 that mage is knocked out of the match. The last mage standing is the winner!
Kinds of Mana
The game contains four kinds of mana:
- Dusk – the mana of the moon. You get this mana from Cliffs.
- Light – the mana of the sun. You get this mana from Deserts.
- Rust – the mana of the machines. You get this mana from Dwellings.
- Moss – the mana of nature. You get this mana from Forests.
Deck building
In this game you construct your deck before you start playing, just like in any old-school trading card game. All of the cards of the game are unlocked for all players – there are no in-app purchases. You can construct your deck using the built-in editor or by editing its text file directly. If you don't feel ready to make your own deck just yet, there's also a range of preconstructed ones included with the game.
Online play
To play Manahex you need a
Secret Supermarket account, which is completely free and only takes a few seconds to sign up for. In the future you'll be able to use the same account to play other digital board games developed by me (Erik Svedäng). If my company ever has to cancel its operations, I pledge to release the server code (which just uses Rust and Postgres) so that people can set up their own private instances.
When you play Manahex, your wins and losses are recorded to give you a rank. It can be used to find other players of a similar skill level, and to climb the competitive ladder.
Main features
- Construct your own unique decks using over 100 cards, enabling a multitude of different strategies
- Fun spells and creatures that can manipulate the hexes, push each other around, grant special powers, and much more!
- Support for both realtime matches and asynchronous play
- Hand-painted watercolor art for each card in the game, 100% AI free
- No in app purchases, everything is unlocked for all players
- Music by
Mjuk Vass
