UVULITES is a local 1v1 strategy game played on one horizontal screen. Place NFC cards on physical readers to summon units, cast spells, and kill the other player’s King.
UVULITES is our first game: a local 1v1 strategy card game with physical NFC cards, hand-built readers, and a shared digital battlefield.
Two players sit across one horizontal screen, each with three card readers in front of them. Place a card to summon a unit or cast a spell, then push through the lanes and kill the other player’s King.
[prototype preview]Cup of Malice is the studio behind UVULITES, our first game. Founded by Nathan Davis and Sahid Rojas, we set out to make something that felt physical: a strategy game you play with real cards and custom readers, not a keyboard or controller.
UVULITES is still a prototype, but you can already play a full match. We’re still tuning the balance, finishing art, fixing hardware rough edges, and adding the ideas we haven’t gotten to yet.
Cup of Malice is a small student studio split across design, art, animation, code, and hardware.
In charge of the visual style, character art, and animations for UVULITES.
Handles the game code, reader setup, and hardware integration.
Updates on what we’re drawing, coding, testing, fixing, and changing as UVULITES comes together.
View the TimelineWe retuned the roster, fixed a bug where troops kept changing their minds mid-fight, and moved every balance number out of the code.
Our readers had a habit of going silent mid-match and needing a physical unplug. Fixing it properly meant teaching the hardware to notice and heal itself.
How a joke healer became a unit people actually want to bring — mostly by changing his behavior, not his stats.
If you still have questions, feel free to send us an email at hello@cupofmalice.com
UVULITES is a local 1v1 strategy card battler played with real NFC cards and physical NFC readers. Two players sit across one horizontal screen, summon units, cast spells, manage resources, and try to kill the other player’s King.
It is a digital game controlled by physical cards. The screen shows the battlefield, while the real cards and readers handle what each player summons or casts.
Each card has an NFC tag with a unique ID. When the card is placed close enough to a PN532 reader, an Arduino reads that ID, sends it to the game over USB, and UVULITES looks it up to trigger the matching unit or spell.
UVULITES is a two-player game. Both players sit across from each other and share the same horizontal screen. There is no single-player mode right now.
There is no online multiplayer at the moment. The current version is focused entirely on local 1v1.
Not currently. UVULITES is designed for two human players, and there is no computer opponent in the prototype.
UVULITES is still a prototype, but you can already play a full match from start to finish. We are still working on balance, final art, sound, hardware polish, and more unit behavior. If you want to hear about new updates or support further development, subscribe to our newsletter here: [placeholder].
We post updates on this site, X/Twitter, our newsletter, and YouTube. Playtests are still early and local to the UCF area.