RPG MAKER MZ Plugin: Card Duel System
Card Duel System
Build a complete card-duel experience inside RPG Maker MZ.
Hello! Thank you very much for your interest in Card Duel System, one of our most ambitious RPG Maker MZ projects.
Card Duel System is made for developers who want card duels, deck building, card collection, rewards, and a complete duel workflow without rebuilding the rest of their game around that feature.
The plugin works together with Card Duel Studio, the included local developer application used to create and organize cards, decks, duelists, fields, reward pools, Fusion rules, visual profiles, project settings, and runtime data.
RPG Maker MZ
Product Overview
| Product | Card Duel System |
| Platform | RPG Maker MZ |
| Current plugin release | 1.3.0 |
| Included Card Duel Studio release | 1.6.0 |
| Available versions | Demo: No | Full: Yes |
| Full Experience Mode | Available to download |
| Expansion Packs | Optional add-ons sold separately |
Current Release Highlights
Card Duel Studio 1.6.0
- Build your own Star Guide: name and style custom guides, define their strengths through a visual relationship map, or keep the classic cycle.
- Give cards a second identity: add an optional Secondary Subtype and Secondary Star Guide for richer card families and strategies.
- Create more precise rules: expanded conditions and filters support clearer nested logic, formulas, ranges, branches, and classifications.
- Work more comfortably: performance, responsiveness, and reliability improvements make larger projects easier to manage.
Card Duel System 1.3.0
- Deeper performance improvements: duel preparation, core scene work, and card management use resources more efficiently.
- Custom Star Guide rules in play: custom relationships and secondary guides carry into duels, effects, Fusions, equipment, and CPU decisions.
- Broader card interactions: filters and conditions can recognize multiple Classes, Subtypes, Star Guides, and surrounding situations.
- More compatibility and polish: stability fixes improve the experience while keeping existing projects and familiar rules in mind.
Plugin Details
Card Duel System adds a complete card collection, Deck Manager, and cinematic 3D duel system to an RPG Maker MZ project. You keep control of your maps, story, events, and normal RPG Maker workflow while the plugin handles the dedicated card-duel experience.
The duel concept was inspired by the easy-to-understand spirit of classic PlayStation-era card battles. The system expands that foundation with improved Trap Card handling, advanced rewards, event integration, a dedicated Deck Manager, flexible data, and extensive presentation settings.
You are not locked to the included example content. Create the cards, decks, duelists, fields, rewards, Fusions, graphics, card backs, layouts, and visual profiles your own project needs. The examples are references for learning the workflow, not restrictions on your final game.
Main Features
- Cinematic 3D card duels: dedicated duel scenes with Life Points, hands, decks, Monster zones, support zones, direct attacks, battle calculation, deck-out loss, animations, camera movement, and RPG Maker MZ event integration.
- Your own cards and identity: create custom Monster, Magic, and Trap Cards with your own artwork, text, behavior, balance, card backs, fields, portraits, and visual layouts.
- Card Duel Studio workflow: create and organize cards, Fusions, decks, duelists, fields, reward pools, custom classifications, Star Guide relationships, designs, Expansion Packs, and runtime packages from one visual workspace.
- Deck Manager and Card Vault: players manage owned copies, build an Active Deck, search, filter, sort, inspect cards, and validate deck size and copy limits.
- Fusion and equipment rules: use recipes prepared in Studio, ordered logic when needed, multi-step Fusion sequences, and compatible equipment Magic.
- Flexible Star Guides: keep the classic relationship cycle or create custom guide identities and directed strengths, with optional Secondary Star Guides for deeper interactions.
- Weighted reward pools: reveal card rewards after victory with configurable chance, count, duplicate behavior, New badges, saved statistics, and a dedicated 3D reward scene.
- RPG Maker MZ plugin commands: start duels, open Deck Manager, add cards, check possession, read last-duel data, count deck cards, manage statistics, and change input settings from events.
- Keyboard, gamepad, mouse, and touch support: dynamic prompts, gamepad profiles, mouse hover selection, custom bindings, and touch controls when RPG Maker MZ Touch UI is enabled.
- Custom presentation: configure duel rules, transitions, 3D visuals, animations, rewards, results, Deck Manager, card details, fields, audio, windows, prompts, and UI text.
- Developer protection and recovery: protected Studio data, playtest-only debug tools, contained recovery screens, copyable error reports, and safer rollback behavior when possible.
Optional Expansion Packs
Expansion Packs are optional add-ons sold separately. Card Duel System and Card Duel Studio work without them, so you can add only the extra systems that fit your project.
Card Album Expansion Pack
Turn card collecting into part of the adventure with a cinematic 3D book for unknown, discovered, and owned cards.
Get Card Album on itch.ioCard Shop Expansion Pack
Create card stores with configurable stock, prices, currencies, presentation, and a shopping experience connected to the player's collection.
Get Card Shop on itch.ioDeck Builder Plus Expansion Pack
Let players create, name, duplicate, edit, and switch between multiple saved deck presets from the familiar Deck Manager.
Requires Card Duel System 1.3.0 or newer and Card Duel Studio 1.6.0 or newer.
Get Deck Builder Plus on itch.ioExplore the complete Expansion Pack catalog
Compare every available pack, see what each one adds, and review its compatibility information on the official website.
Open the Official Expansion Pack PageUse Examples
- Story rival battles: create an NPC duelist in Studio, assign a deck and reward pool, then start the encounter from an RPG Maker MZ event.
- Collectible card progression: grant cards through shops, treasure chests, quests, story events, or post-victory rewards, then let players organize them in Deck Manager.
- Multiple deck strategies: with Deck Builder Plus, players can keep named presets for different rivals, fields, or story chapters and switch between them inside Deck Manager.
- Collection discovery: with Card Album, players can revisit unknown, discovered, and owned cards in a dedicated 3D book.
- Card stores: with Card Shop, create dedicated stores that use your project's cards, stock, prices, currencies, and presentation.
- Event-driven results: use Victory Switch, Defeat Switch, Get Last Duel Data, and Card Duel statistics to branch events after a duel ends.
Difficulty of Use
This plugin is considered Medium difficulty. Card Duel Studio provides a visual workflow that helps organize the system's deeper options.
What Is Full Experience Mode?
Full Experience Mode is a closed and safe project prepared so you can experience the system before using the complete plugin in your own project.
For Card Duel System, this includes the duel flow, Deck Manager, rewards, controls, visual presentation, and the way everything connects with RPG Maker MZ. The included content is only an example. Your project can use different cards, graphics, decks, duelists, fields, designs, rewards, Fusions, rules, and event flow.
Full Experience Mode is compatible with PC devices running Windows, which is the environment we officially support.
Official Project Website
Visit the official Card Duel System page for the project presentation, latest releases, visual guide, Expansion Pack catalog, controls, setup information, and frequently asked questions.
Open the Official Card Duel System WebsiteThe game reads local runtime data prepared by Card Duel Studio. Studio does not need to remain open while the game runs. The complete editable Studio workspace is for developers only and must not be distributed with the final game.
How to Get Card Duel System
Purchase Card Duel System through itch.io and download it again whenever you need it from your itch.io library.
Get Card Duel System on itch.io
You can also purchase through the official Undermax website:
https://undermax.online/buy-plugins-credits/
Prices may vary according to taxes and withholdings in your country. Expansion Packs are separate products unless a specific offer states otherwise.
Official Presentation Video
Watch the official presentation video for a visual introduction to Card Duel System:
Language and Documentation
Card Duel System, Card Duel Studio, plugin metadata, parameters, commands, and technical documentation are provided in English. Card Duel Studio also includes localization tools for project content and interface text supported by the current workflow.
Every plugin command argument is documented directly in the RPG Maker MZ Plugin Command editor, and the official guide explains the intended Studio and runtime workflow.
Terms, Policies, and Support
Licence Terms: https://undermax.online/undermax/LicenceTerms.html
Privacy and Refund Policy: https://undermax.online/undermax/privacy_and_refunds.html
Plugin Codes Terms: https://undermax.online/undermax/plugin-codes-terms.html
Plugin Codes F.A.Q: https://undermax.online/undermax/plugin-codes-faq.html
Promotions and More Undermax Plugins
Follow Undermax on itch.io to discover product updates, promotions, bundles, and new releases:
You can also review promotions at https://undermax.online/promos.html and browse the complete plugin database at https://undermax.online/.
We hope you enjoy Card Duel System.
We are here to help with anything you need.
By acquiring the plugin, you support our work and help us continue creating quality tools for RPG Maker MZ developers.
Let's keep growing and creating more projects together!
Purchase
In order to download this plugin you must purchase it at or above the minimum price of $34.99 USD. You will get access to the following files:
Download demo
Development log
- Studio v1.6.2 & Plugin Update v1.3.21 day ago
- Card Duel System v1.3.0 & Studio v1.6.0 are here! New Star Guide System + Deck B...4 days ago
- Card Duel System - Version 1.2.0 & Studio 1.5.0 Release! ;D26 days ago
- Card Duel Studio v1.4.0 and Card Duel System plugin v1.1.0 are now available!48 days ago
- Plugin v1.0.2 + Card Duel Studio v1.3.056 days ago
- F.A.Q & Plugin Information58 days ago
Comments
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Hi, it's me again! I'm trying to set up a magic card that grants the player life points based on how many of a certain monster type are currently on the field. I found the "monsters on the field" value in the formula editor for granting life points effects and I am multiplying that by 100, but how would I for example only have it count monsters of a "Dragon" type (or subtype)?
Hello! Thank you for your message. ^^
We are currently preparing Card Duel Studio v1.6.0, which will introduce improvements and new features for the Conditions, Filters, and Effects systems.
And yes, you will be able to achieve exactly what you are looking for thanks to the new system we are currently developing.
You just need to wait a little longer until we finish the update. :)
I see, thank you! I wasn't sure if this was already possible and I just missed it. Looking forward to the next update then!
hello there ! Bought this script a few weeks ago and have been tinkering with it since then. The plugin is really good and has great potential, if ir continues getting support and updates, i'll be buying them.
Now with that said, I think the plugin still has some issues, in specific with loading time, but nothing is perfect.
I'll allow myself to give some suggestions on future features:
-enemy player should be able to start at the first turn sometimes.
-it would be great to have a discard zone/graveyard, and being able to see the cards that have been discarded.
-it would be really great to add effects to creatures (when it is casted/destroyed, attacked...)
-the discard effect to attack opponent's hand.
-cards that search for other cards to put them in hand/ summon them on the field.
-being able to add more that one effect to magic/trap cards.
-cards that resurect other cards from graveyards (to hand or field)
I hope this doesn't looks like a list of griefs, but more like a genuine list of suggestions, hoping to see any update to come in the time coming.
Keep up the good work and thanks for your plugins !
Hello! I’m glad to hear that you’re enjoying the project, and yes, absolutely!
Our idea is to keep expanding it even further over time. ^^
Thank you very much for your feedback and suggestions.
Yes, that’s correct. We are currently working on Card Duel Studio v1.6.0 and plugin version 1.3.0, which will bring a large number of improvements, especially in terms of performance. We hope to have it ready very soon. At the moment, we are finishing up a few remaining details and thoroughly testing everything to make sure it works properly.
Since this is a major update, it will also include many new features and improvements that we hope everyone will enjoy.
Regarding the option to decide who starts the duel, I think it’s a very good idea. However, we will most likely implement it in the following major update, currently planned for September (plugin v1.4.0 / Studio v1.7.0), alongside new Expansion Packs.
In fact, the graveyard feature you mentioned is something we had already been considering. It is planned for an upcoming Expansion Pack that will introduce the ability to inspect the Graveyard, along with additional Fusion assistance features.
As for effects that trigger when a card is summoned, destroyed, and so on, that is also something we have considered before and plan to introduce in a future regular update. In fact, one of the ideas we already had in mind was allowing each card to have its own custom attack animation, so we may implement these features together.
Regarding the ability to add more than one effect to Magic and Trap Cards, you can actually already do this. In the current Studio update, we significantly improved and expanded the Effects and Conditions system, allowing you to create entire sequences of effects and conditions in the way you want, giving you much more creative freedom.
Reviving cards and summoning additional cards directly from the Deck are also features we have already considered, and they may be introduced in a future update or Expansion Pack.
So there’s no need to worry. This project is very important to us, and we intend to keep improving and polishing it as much as possible so that it can cover a wide range of possibilities.
That said, because of the complexity involved in developing a system like this, the care required to make sure everything works properly, and the limited development time we sometimes have due to everyday responsibilities, we always do our best to provide the best experience possible. ^^
The new effects editor is really nice. Any chance you can add an effect to summon a monster from a spell card's activation?
Hello! Thank you very much, I’m glad you liked it! ^^
Yes, we have that planned for the future. ^^
Was wondering (before planning buying this thing) i wonder what magic or trap effect you can deploy and setup thru studio?
Hi there! The plugin offers several customization options for Spells and Traps. In future updates, we will add new features and effects, but the current version already provides a good variety of options that you can choose from and combine as you like.
Hello Undermax, I was wondering the same thing before buying
I see on the site in the screen example under the "effects and conditions" tab—that you can modify monster stats that was already nice
but do you have a list of the currently available effects?
Things like destroying cards on the field, returning them to the hand, or something similar?
Thanks in advance, and great work!
How are you, Thank you for your question and sorry for the delay in responding. I wanted to let you know that we have updated our website where you'll be able to view this information more easily and get more details. We remain at your disposal for any additional questions you may have, alright? We look forward to your support and thank you for continuing to trust us!
CDS Official Website
Hi, I've been trying out this for a couple hours and overall it works really nicely. The Studio makes managing the content much more convenient than plugin parameters would.
I have a few questions and some feedback about the asset. All of my testing was done on a fresh project with no other plugins installed. I have a Windows 11 PC with hardware that can run modern games smoothly.
The Card Studio works well and quickly at first, but the more cards I add, the longer it takes each time to save the project or to create a new card. This delay also applies to creating any other sort of data, like creating a new deck or a new duelist profile, for example. On a fresh file it's almost instant. At around 10 cards it took a second or two, and at only around 20 cards, it takes around 4 to 6 seconds each time where it displays the loading screen before I can start editing the card. Restarting the Studio doesn't change this, only creating a new project. I'm wondering if it's related to the loading of the resources in the background, could it be the more card artworks are added, the longer it takes for the app to add new data entries? That's just speculation on my part, though, as the Studio app is kind of a black box to me.
The graphical editor for card designs can be very fiddly. Even if I lock a component and try to select and move/scale a different component that is only somewhat close, the app will only let me select the wrong component instead if there's even a tiny bit of overlap between the two. Even when fully zoomed in, this means certain components are almost impossible to select. It wouldn't be as troublesome as it is if the editor had an undo/redo functionality, which it doesn't seem to have from what I can tell.
When playtesting and doing duels, the game lags during certain actions, usually when an animation is about to be displayed. It's not severe lag, more of a bit of a brief stutter. It would be nice to have this addressed as it makes the visuals feel pretty choppy a lot of the time.
A small visual issue happens if you activate a trap card, depending on where the camera is pointed, the trap card will appear horizontally mirrored.
Also in the Studio app, if you try to preview an existing card in a custom design template, it will always show the first created card instead of the one you chose as the preview card. This works for the default designs that come with the app, but it doesn't work for any design I edited.
Lastly I have a couple questions about current and future functionality.
Firstly, will there be a way to customize or at least properly rename the Star Guide system's terms? I know that it can be customized a little via UI-related plugin parameters, but for a future version of the asset it would be awesome if it was possible to customize it more. Similar to the types of Monsters, it would be neat if I was able to actually rename and add more Star Guides. Being able to rename ATK and DEF stats would also be nice.
Second question: Is it planned to have Monster abilities/effects? In Yu-Gi-Oh a Monster can have an effect, and it would be nice to be able to add effects to Monsters like you can choose effects for Spell and Trap cards.
Also, I noticed that there's placeholder text tokens for the UI params, would it be possible to have similar tokens available for card text? For example, having a placeholder for the value of a game variable or at least being able to define custom (static) replacement values in the Studio app. Come to think of it, I guess I could try doing something like this via the card design templates, but it would of course still be nice to have a text replacement functionality in the card texts themself.
And finally, I noticed that it's possible to define a portrait for a duelist, but is there any way to display this portrait in game?
Cheers, looking forward to your reply!
Hello! Thank you very much for your comment and feedback! ^^
We are very happy that you liked it, and we truly appreciate you taking the time to share these suggestions with us.
I’ll try to respond to each point:
1- Regarding Card Duel Studio performance, you are right that the program’s performance may have been affected as the project continued to grow. We have updated the Studio to version 1.3.0, which should improve performance and provide a smoother experience. We invite you to try it and let us know whether this new version works better for you! :)
2- We are constantly making improvements to the Card Designer, and we hope to add those features in the future while also fixing the issues you mentioned. We apologize for any inconvenience or complications that may occur for the time being.
3- During gameplay, I understand that there may be occasional stutters or moments of lag. This happens because the RPG Maker MZ engine is not primarily optimized for loading resources and 3D graphics so quickly and intensively. Even so, we are constantly working on optimizations to improve performance and make the gameplay experience as smooth and consistent as possible.
4- Regarding the Trap Card animations, we will try to investigate and identify the situations in which this issue occurs so that we can fix it in the future.
5- Regarding the possibility of renaming ATK and DEF Points, we will consider implementing this in the future.
As for adding new mechanics to the Star Guide system, we will see whether we can introduce something more advanced in the future. We decided to use a Rock-Paper-Scissors system because it is simple to understand and easy to use.
6- We have considered allowing monsters to have effects. However, we do not want the game to lose the essence of the original title that inspired the system, where this mechanic did not exist, and we also do not want the game to feel like a direct copy of the current franchise.
We will see whether we can introduce something related to this in the future, but for now, this idea is currently on hold.
7- The possibility of having dynamic fields that use in-game values is something we had already considered. It is very possible that we will be able to add something like this in the future.
8- Regarding the Duelist portraits, this is something we have considered for a feature that we plan to introduce in a future version.
For now, they do not have any additional function beyond helping you quickly identify the Duelist’s design inside the Studio.
I hope I was able to answer all your points!
Thank you very much for your support and trust in the project! ^^
Thank you for your reply! It makes sense that RPG Maker's performance for 3D content is limited by its engine, thank you for looking into optimizations nevertheless. I gave the new version of the Card Studio a try and it does run a lot more smoothly and doesn't have the long loading times anymore. The update appears to be a big improvement in that aspect. Looking forward to future updates to the plugin and app!
Have I ever came on your mind if you ever made a racing car system?An RPG maker MZ.
Hello! How are you? Thank you for your message and suggestion ^^
We actually had a similar idea some time ago, but we were unable to move forward with it because of how complex such a plugin would be, not only to develop, but also for developers themselves to use and manage the system.
In any case, we will keep this possibility in mind for the future ^^
Sure, you should also made a card shop with it. Where you can buy cards. That it seems to be missing in grayed out. and the card collection how much you collected.
You're free to visit me at my YouTube https://www.youtube.com/@BraveTheBabyBunnyMegaLifeForm channel anytime you like and see what I'm doing. I'm working on something very big.
That you probably have a lot of fun in it.
It's taking time to gather, so expect that it's gonna take probably months before it's all put together.
I'm already on the preparations of working with the tiles. Right now that's my first objective, so I'm already started. And it's gonna look beautiful. I'm trying to do the best that it will have great beautiful graphics.
Well, you managed to surprise me once again
♥️
What more needs to be said? This is exactly everything I wondered if I could create in RMMZ. If you are a developer reading this who, like me, is challenging and enjoys trying new things, you won't regret buying this at all!
Once again, I would like to thank Undermax for always developing new cool plugins and contributing to the RPG Maker community! :)
♥️ Thank you for your support and kind message!