Arithmage

Inspiration

Math practice sucks. It’s often repetitive, isolating, and painfully unrewarding. Meanwhile, teens will gladly spend hours mastering the mechanics of card games, strategy titles, and competitive online matches. So I thought: what if I took that competitive spirit and redirected it into something productive? Arithmage came from a love for games like Yu-Gi-Oh and a hunch that maybe math doesn’t need to be boring; it just needs better game design.

What it does

Arithmage is a 1v1 multiplayer math-based card game where players summon number cards (values -15 to 15) and apply operator cards by solving math problems. The goal is to reduce your opponent's life points from 100 to 0 through strategic card play and combat.

Core Mechanics

• Number Cards: Number cards with values from -15 to 15 that can be placed on the field
• Operator Cards: Operator cards (+, -, ×, ÷, power, square root, absolute value) that modify number cards
• Operator Effects: Players must solve math problems correctly to activate operator effects
• Lane-based Calculations: Numbers in opposing lanes battle automatically each turn
• Turn Phases: Draw → Main Phase 1 → Main Phase 2 → Combat → End ###How to Play
• Each player starts with 100 LP and 5 cards in hand
• Draw 1 card per turn from an infinite deck
• Summon up to 1 number card per turn (max 3 on field)
• Play up to 2 operator cards per turn (solve math problems to apply effects)
• Combat happens automatically - higher numbers win and deal damage
• Direct attacks when no opposing number in lane

How I built it

• HTML, CSS (Tailwind), JavaScript, Flask (python), and Flask-SocketIO.
• Math problems are dynamically generated based on the card being played and the card’s current state.

Challenges I ran into

• Getting two players to play synchronously without bugs or lag, and correctly updating the players' information on both ends.
• Balancing the game so that solving the math felt meaningful, but not so punishing that one wrong answer ruins your chance of winning.

Accomplishments that I'm proud of

• Real-time multiplayer with room codes and simultaneous gameplay.
• A fully functional turn-based battle system that actually feels fun to play.

What I learned

Gamification works!! I genuinely enjoyed testing the game, and hopefully you will too :)

What's next for Arithmage

Cool new features, such as:

• Account system with leaderboards
• Rewards for winning
• Adaptive difficulty based on player skill
• AI opponent for individual practice
• Expand operator variety and add multi-step problems
• Overall UI/UX polishing

Built With

• css3
• flask
• html5
• javascript
• socket.io