Cursed Yard

Cinevva's analyzer read this game's design doc and its source, then wrote the brief below. "Make your own" hands it to the game creator as your opening message, so you start from a real spec rather than a one-line idea.

Recreate “Cursed Yard,” a playable 2.5D side-view arena-fighting gauntlet set in a dark urban school training yard. Use Three.js-style low-poly 3D character models and an orthographic side camera: fighters stand on a broad charcoal concrete platform, with pale vertical training-yard lines and a large cyan glowing ring painted on the floor. Behind them is a shadowy school building with rows of bright cyan windows, dark distant buildings, chain-link fence sections, street lamps, and corner warning/sign props. Lighting is dramatic anime-like night lighting: navy/purple environment, cool cyan and violet fill glows, crisp white key light, shadows, and bright translucent energy VFX. Keep the camera fixed in a mostly side-on 2.5D composition, showing the full fighters and arena width; constrain both fighters to the horizontal yard bounds and keep them slightly separated so they do not overlap.

At the start, show a character roster UI with ten original playable sorcerer archetypes, each selectable by a card with name, role, and description: Red Fist (fast martial artist, Divergent Fist), Shadow Tamer (shadow summoner, Shadow Hound), Limitless Mentor (untouchable mentor, Infinity Burst), Thorn Queen (cursed nail striker, Resonance Spike), Masked Curse User (villain playable, Binding Curse), Pulse Medic (reverse-energy healer, Reverse Pulse), Rift Soldier (teleport skirmisher, Rift Shot), Blade Dancer (combo specialist, Petal Cut), Iron Warden (tank curse user, Iron Verdict), and Sensei (strongest teacher, Solar Lineage Beam). Give each a distinct low-poly costume/accessory overlay rather than simply tinting the whole body: red collar/hand wrap, dark uniform and shadow pool, dark teacher coat with white spiky hair and black blindfold, hammer, stitched mask, white medic coat/cross, tactical vest and visor, kimono ribbons, armor/shield sigil, or dark high-collar coat with white hair and blindfold. A prominent start button should say “Start as [selected fighter]” and become “Fight as [fighter]” after play.

The core mode is a continuous one-round, best-of-one-style eight-spirit gauntlet. Once started, spawn the selected hero at the left and the current enemy at the right. Fight these cursed spirits in this exact sequence: Lantern Ghost, Ooze Ninja, Red Demon, Skull Wraith, Blue Oni, Orc Bruiser, Winged Curse, and Evolved Dragon. Use low-poly monster assets or visually equivalent silhouettes: ghost, blob ninja, large red demon, skull ghost, blue demon/oni, big orc, flying demon, and evolved dragon. Label the opponent HUD as “CURSE 1/8 — LANTERN GHOST” and advance the number each battle. Defeating one automatically starts the next after a short pause, with only a small recovery of 18 health between fights and a recovery cap at 80% of maximum health, so damage carries through the run. Add 30 energy between battles. The player wins after sealing all eight spirits and loses when health reaches zero. Press R to restart the gauntlet.

Controls and mechanics must be functional: A/D move horizontally, W jump, S hold to block, J light attack, K heavy attack, L use the selected fighter’s cursed technique, Space dash, and I activate Domain Expansion when the gold domain meter is full. Prevent repeated actions from one held attack key by consuming the action input. Movement speed is about 4.2, jumping is a short vertical hop, dash is a quick horizontal burst with a cyan/colored afterimage and a short cooldown; Rift Soldier has an extended dash. Fighters face one another, attacks only connect in front and within range, and horizontal positions are clamped to the arena.

Give the player and enemy each a top HUD panel: name label, a large gradient health bar, and a smaller energy bar. Show the player’s gold Domain bar as an additional meter, along with the current spirit/gauntlet indicator and a bottom instructional tip that updates with the selected character’s special name and energy cost. Show transient centered combat callouts such as “GAUNTLET START!”, “NEXT SPIRIT: …”, “HIT!”, hit-combo counts, “ENERGY NEEDED,” “DOMAIN BAR NOT FULL,” the special name, and “DOMAIN EXPANSION: [domain name].” The visual HUD should match the screenshot: dark navy translucent panels, thin pale borders, uppercase compact labels, bright green-to-yellow player health, orange/red enemy health, blue/purple energy, and a gold domain meter.

Implement combat values/rules close to the original: light attacks are fast, short range, about 7 damage, 1.22 range, and grant about 9 energy; heavy attacks are slower, about 15 damage before fighter bonuses, 1.55 range, knockback and upward pop, and grant about 13 energy. Blocking greatly reduces damage to roughly 28%, grants about 14 energy on a blocked hit, and prevents movement/attacks while held. Attacking and blocking are the main ways to refill cursed energy. Specials consume the fighter-specific cost and travel as a ranged glowing projectile; landing one grants domain progress. Use these exact approximate special costs/damage and names: Red Fist 30/21 “Divergent Fist”; Shadow Tamer 32/18 “Shadow Hound”; Limitless Mentor 42/24 “Infinity Burst”; Thorn Queen 35/20 “Resonance Spike”; Masked Curse User 45/27 “Binding Curse”; Pulse Medic 34/14 “Reverse Pulse” and heal 16; Rift Soldier 36/19 “Rift Shot” with extra domain gain; Blade Dancer 30/17 “Petal Cut”; Iron Warden 40/22 “Iron Verdict”; Sensei 38/32 “Solar Lineage Beam.” Specials should produce a visible windup, projectile, impact burst, and audio impact. The projectile is a bright orb with a rotating ring, with style-specific additions: Shadow Tamer has a dark hound-like tail/projectile, Thorn Queen a white nail spike, Limitless Mentor a larger infinity orb, and Sensei a long yellow beam.

Make each special’s animation visibly distinct using translucent glowing geometry and short-lived effects: Red Fist rushes through black/white flash afterimages and a tunnel of rings; Shadow Tamer summons a dark lunging shadow hound from a shadow pool with fangs/mist; Limitless Mentor combines blue and red cores into an expanding hollow burst and orbiting rings; Thorn Queen hammers a straw effigy and sends a barrage of nails; Masked Curse User sends a dark curse avatar through binding links into a seal/cage; Pulse Medic emits reverse-energy crosses and healing waves; Rift Soldier creates a sequence of teleport gates; Blade Dancer emits petal-like slashes; Iron Warden creates a verdict blade and guard sigils; Sensei fires a long yellow beam with slow-time rings. Use cyan, violet, magenta, red, white, and yellow emissive-looking transparent meshes, white impact slashes, rings, sparks, hit-stop-like screen shake, and Kenney-style light/heavy punch sounds.

The gold Domain bar begins empty and fills through successful specials; it requires several successful uses to reach 100. Blade Dancer also gains domain from melee hits, Rift Soldier gains faster domain progress, and normal melee gives Blade Dancer extra domain. Press I only when full: consume the entire bar, add about 20 energy, briefly lock the player, disable enemy blocking, deal the fighter’s sure-hit damage, cause a strong hitstun/impact, and show a large temporary unique domain arena effect lasting about 2.25 seconds. Use these domain names/damages: Red Fist “Black Flash Shrine” 48; Shadow Tamer “Chimera Shadow Garden” 42; Limitless Mentor “Infinite Void Ring” 52; Thorn Queen “Resonance Dollhouse” 46; Masked Curse User “Vow-Bound Prison” 56; Pulse Medic “Restoration Ward” 34 and heal 24; Rift Soldier “Gravity Crossfire” 44; Blade Dancer “Sakura Guillotine” 43; Iron Warden “Judgment Bastion” 50; Sensei “Golden Stillness Domain” 74 and a strong slow effect. Domain visuals should use a large translucent floor/dome plus character-specific pillars, fangs/eyes, orbit rings/core, nails/effigy, chains/seal, crosses, gates, petals, bastion walls/sigil, or gold rings/sun/rays.

Apply fighter traits: Pulse Medic heals from special and domain; Rift Soldier has longer dash and faster domain gain; Blade Dancer has stronger heavy attacks and domain gain from melee; Iron Warden takes about 18% less damage and has a stronger heavy; Sensei has 140 max health, stronger slow-heavy attacks, applies enemy slows on hits, and has a slow, high-damage yellow beam and high-damage slow Domain. The other fighters have 100 max health. Slow effects reduce movement/attack behavior temporarily. Enemy AI should close distance, retreat if too close, attack at appropriate ranges, sometimes block player attacks, and use ranged techniques when sufficiently energized. Scale enemy difficulty by sequence: later spirits have increasing health, speed, damage, block chance, starting energy, and special frequency, approximately from Lantern Ghost (82 health, slow/weak) through Evolved Dragon (165 health, highest damage, 64% block chance and frequent specials). Enemy specials should use the generic cursed-spirit claw-wave style if no unique spirit special is available. Include hitstun, knockback, jump pop, combo tracking, damage flashes, attack animations, and victory/defeat animations.

Use animated Quaternius-style GLB characters/monsters where available, with fallback simple capsule fighters while assets load. Use idle/run/jump/punch/shoot/hit/roll/victory/defeat animation aliases, cast/receive shadows, and animated mixers. The final presentation should feel like a polished compact anime training-yard duel: dark schoolyard geometry in the background, readable side-view fighters in the foreground, glowing cursed-energy rings around each fighter that pulse with energy and brighten while blocking, and explosive but short-lived special/domain VFX. Do not add unrelated modes, extra rounds, firearms, platforming levels, or features beyond this roster, controls, combat system, and eight-fight gauntlet.