Mounted Wizard Brawl

Mounted Wizard Brawl is a physics brawl between wizards on horseback. There is no mana bar. Your mana is the kinetic energy of your horse: the faster you gallop, the bigger your spells can be, and every spell you cast takes that energy out of the horse and slows you down (speed after a cast = v·√(1−f), where f is the fraction of kinetic energy spent). Stand still and you are just a person with a stick. Spend everything and you are an easy target.

What it simulates, and for whom: a physics toy that simulates mana as the kinetic energy of your galloping horse (E = ½Mv²), for players who like Half Sword / TABS-style wobbly melee and want a magic system with real trade-offs.

How it relates to the theme (SIMULATION)

The whole game is one simulated system, treated as a toy:

• Mana = ½·M·v². The HUD shows your gait, speed (m/s) and the "mana" that speed is worth (horse + rider mass is simulated, about 546 kg).
• Casting costs momentum. Every spell removes kinetic energy from you and your horse. Big spells make you slow down and stumble.
• Everything else is rigid-body physics (Rapier, 60 Hz fixed step, deterministic): riders get knocked off by horse bumps, spells and hits; ragdoll limbs; horses panic ("fear") from explosions and fire and refuse to run.
• Space is mana too: the arena fence shrinks during a fight, so you have less room to build speed.
• Spells follow the same rules: a wind tornado travels at your own speed, an ice sheet lets horses keep their momentum and fall on sharp turns, an earth wall throws a rider who hits it at speed (the attacker's own kinetic energy is the weapon), a fire trail frightens horses in proportion to how fast they cross it, and a water whip ties two riders together so the slower one is dragged by the faster one.

What you do

• Play the Gauntlet: a short ladder of fights (1-on-1 duels and 3–4 rider brawls) against AI wizards with different personalities: heavy-and-slow Mukjik, fast Beongae, sneaky Gihoe (the Opportunist), and the final Rival Serin, who copies your element. You play Maji, an apprentice wizard on Stubborn, an old gray mare; the prize money pays off the ranch's debt.
• Win fights to earn points and gold; buy staffs, hats, robes and horse gear in the shop. Half-Sword-style stakes: beating opponents with lower-tier gear earns more points, and if you lose, your most valuable item can be confiscated.
• Job advancement: after your first win, visit the Advancement Hall and pick one of four elements. Pass a short trial to unlock it; beat the rank boss (Stable Boss Dolsoe) for the 2nd advancement and a "big spell" button.
  • Fire: Fireball → Fire Trail
  • Water: Water Whip → Ice Sheet
  • Wind: Gust → Tornado
  • Earth: Earth Wall → Fissure
  • Elements form a cycle: Water > Fire > Wind > Earth > Water.
• Fall off your horse? The fight isn't over: get up and fight on foot (kick, grab, throw, pick up weapons) or climb back onto a calm riderless horse.
• Four venues: stable yard, spring tournament field, a rainy field and a sunset castle finale, each with props you can knock over.
• Free Battle and Practice Yard let you try any element immediately.

Controls (PC, default "simple" controls)

• W / S: gallop faster / slow down (the horse mostly runs by itself). A / D: steer. Mouse: look.
• Right mouse (hold, then release): cast your spell. Hold to charge; release when the crosshair turns gold for the best result. Q: big spell (unlocked by the 2nd advancement).
• Left mouse (hold, then release): swing your staff. Holding auto-steers you alongside the target; release on the gold cue. The action changes with context: parry, pick up, mount, thrust.
• Space: duck / dodge (kick on foot). E: mount a calm riderless horse / pick up a weapon (throw while swinging). V: first/third person. G (hold): surrender. H: hide hints. Esc: pause.
• Advanced controls (Half Sword style; Settings → Advanced controls): the mouse drives the staff swing directly; Shift sprint (uses horse stamina), Z lock-on, C + mouse forward/back = thrust, Q (hold) = grab, R = big spell, F = slow motion.
• Phone / touch (landscape): left stick to move; buttons for Magic (hold), Big Magic, Swing (hold and drag), Duck/Kick, Thrust, Grab, Run, Mount/Pick up, View, Lock and Pause. Phones are less tested than PC.

Tip: try the Practice Yard on the title screen first; it lets you try each move on a standing scarecrow.

Notes (this is a jam build)

• Single player against AI only. Online multiplayer is not included.
• English UI by default with a Korean toggle ("English / 한국어" buttons on the title screen or in Settings; the choice is remembered). The English text has not been checked by a native speaker.
• Best on a PC with a mouse in Chrome / Edge / Firefox with hardware acceleration enabled (without it the browser renders on the CPU and the game is very slow). Needs an internet connection on first load (three.js and the Rapier physics engine load from the jsDelivr CDN).
• Cartoon fantasy violence only (riders get knocked off horses and knocked out); no blood or gore.
• Build v0.5.3, solo project made for the Game Gauntlet SIM Jam. Discord: sunghyun6929.

Credits (third-party assets)

• 3D models, all CC0 1.0: Horse from "Ultimate Animated Animals" by Quaternius (https://poly.pizza/m/qvTrSG9pZF); characters from KayKit Character Pack: Adventurers 1.0, venue buildings/trees/props from KayKit Medieval Hexagon Pack 1.0, plus a pumpkin (KayKit Halloween Bits 1.0), quiver (KayKit Skeletons 1.0), barrel and keg (KayKit Dungeon Remastered 1.0), all by Kay Lousberg (kaylousberg.com). Repacked with gltf-transform (MIT).
• Sound effects: Impact Sounds by Kenney (kenney.nl, CC0); Male Grunt/Yelling sounds by HaelDB (opengameart.org/content/male-gruntyelling-sounds, CC0); horse hooves from "Horse gallop on different surfaces" by congusbongus (https://opengameart.org/node/167525, CC BY 4.0), made from recordings by D4XX, StephenSaldanha and MrFizzywig (each CC0); horse whinny from Supplementary Audio S1 of Briefer, Maigrot, Mandel, Freymond, Bachmann & Hillmann (2015), Scientific Reports 5:9989, doi:10.1038/srep09989 (CC BY 4.0, trimmed and level-matched). Magic, explosions, swings, crowd and UI sounds are synthesised in code; there is no music.
• Libraries: three.js r160 (MIT), Rapier physics engine 0.21.0 (Apache-2.0), loaded via the jsDelivr CDN. Fonts: Black Han Sans and Gowun Dodum (Google Fonts, SIL OFL 1.1).
• Inspiration only (no assets or code taken): Half Sword, Mount & Blade, Blade & Sorcery, TABS, Spellbreak, Magicka, Divinity: Original Sin 2, and my friend's game BOUNKO (the simple two-button control idea).

AI content disclosure

• Code: yes. Essentially all game code was written with AI assistance (Claude Code, Anthropic), directed by me.
• Text: yes. The in-game UI text (English and Korean), hints, character descriptions and this page were written with AI assistance (Claude).
• Art / 3D models / textures / UI images: no. Models are the CC0 packs above; visuals, effects and UI are drawn by code. AI-generated concept images made during planning were private references and are not in the game.
• Music: none. Sound: no AI-generated audio (recorded CC0 / CC BY effects plus sounds synthesised by code).

Originality

The project was started on 2026-10-14, during the jam period. Its concept (mana = a mount's kinetic energy), code and content were created for this jam. The control grammar and fight loop are inspired by Half Sword, but no assets, code, names or sounds were taken from it.