ABXY (2016)

ABXY is a competitive 2-player simultaneous action selection game. Players use hand-picked teams of extraordinary creatures to battle until one player has no one left.

Learn the game in 3 minutes, play a match in 5-15 minutes.

Players begin a standard match with a team of creature cards and 4 button cards representing A, B, X, and Y actions. A single creature card is the active combatant for each player while all others sit on the side awaiting use.

All creatures in the game possess types, a weight, a passive ability, and a special action tied to one of the four button cards.

Each round, players secretly and simultaneously select a first and second action card. Players reveal and resolve their first action and then reveal and resolve their second. When directly contested actions occur, the lighter weight creature acts first.

By default, the A action deals damage, the B action prevents damage and then deals damage back to the attacker, the X action switches out a player's active combatant for a different one, and the Y action prevents future blocking or takes control of an opponent's attempt to switch. A creature's special action entirely replaces the default effect of one action button.

Types have no innate effect on gameplay (so players don't need to remember special rules based on types) but are sometimes referenced in passive abilities or special actions.

The most important effect in the game is damage. Rather than dealing with health totals, chits, dials, or dice, a creature is either damaged or it isn't. When a creature becomes damaged, it is flipped over to its damaged side. If a creature that is already damaged becomes damaged again, it is defeated.

When a player's last creature has been defeated, so has that player.