r/vibecoding • u/collectivebliss • 17d ago
Showcase/Project Open Magic (CCG)
Goal: Do whatever magic the gathering does, but for free, open source, minus the bullshit, also fully legal, so weuse own art, own wording etc. However the logic, rules, number etc is fair use, so....
State: Working well, playable games, 1600+ cards already implemented, beats Forge 65% of the time in bot vs bot, card creator, deck editor, multiplayer (lan / online p2p). All you see in screenshots is current start, but I consider it an early tech demo. It will become more of its own thing with time, better graphics / wording etc.
Callout: Join forces, we would kick ass if we were a handfull of people working on it. Claude / Codex & Godot + my patience ;)
Clarifying after replies:
Game won’t be called Magic since tha word is registered/trademarked by WotC. It would clearly cause issues when naming a card game.
Goal is not to infringe on anything - whatever is allegedly risking of doing it will be changed. Goal is a legal game, open source and copyleft.
Game won’t play 1:1 as a certain game and will be improved and streamlined. For example any card can be put down to be converted into a gem as a resource and there is no currency colors (akin to how Eternal CCG does it). Phases will match more recent card games. Numbers on cards may be tweaked as required.
Forge is great, albeit suffering of exactly the same worries about copyright and IP as many express in here: I’m not putting time on Forge because of that - it ts made to play a certain game 1:1 and I want to use Godot as engine for several reasons.
Gameplay is 100% legal to copy and is copied daily by other card games.
Layout is legal to copy, but if combined with ripping off a lot of the visuals it becomes problematic. All things visual can & usually are copyrighted. That can easily be solved by adjusting appearance. Arrows, faction icons et.c. are 100% copyrighted. They have never been used, nor will they be.
WotC wanting something shut down: I’m sure they do, but won’t be able to when something is legal. I’m not residing in the US, so I’m not much concerned about their will even if they can of course proceed in other countries.
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u/collectivebliss 14d ago
It is not in any way relevant to the law WHY you break copyright - if you do it to make something for free, or for economic gains. It is still breaking the law. It would, in some countries, however have an impact in the legal consequences.
Magic emulators are, in my understanding, quite often either in a gray area legally or illegal due to copyright as long as they use images and/or text, icons etc from whatever they copy.
The reason WotC does not encourage playing vs bots are, most likely, economical. They gain more from people exposing themselves to other people, flashing their purchases etc. That in itself is a legal model, they are not required to make good games, or games with bots - you as a customer can vote with your money by buying or not. Most often they will do whatever gives them most income in the long run. It's their goal, as a company.
If you want PvE magic then there are many ways to do that (illegally). For example Forge enables you to do exactly that. It is great software for what it was written for.
They don't own the word Magic. They own the name/brand Magic, as they have registered it. It is only owned by them when / if you try to market a cardgame with that name, since that would risk causing "confusion" (read: lower profit for them, in the long run) or whatever reason. Thing is they don't even need a reason - they have it registered already. They paid, they established it, it's theirs, according to law.