Concept art from Dungeon Duel.

The creators of the wildly ambitious BioShock Infinite have delved into their archives to reveal a game that never was. Irrational Games has published its original pitch for a console based fantasy outing known as Dungeon Duel. Though described as a real time strategy title, Dungeon Duel’s combat system was seemingly inspired by turn based trading card games such as Magic: The Gathering and Pokémon.

Players were to explore randomly generated dungeons, and slay their opponents using the best combination of cards at their disposal. As they progressed, they would unlock additional cards and be encouraged to improve their custom decks by trading online or via memory unit with friends. The game was to feature an epic single player campaign and at least five multiplayer modes. Work on the title took place during 2002 and it isn’t yet clear what led to the project’s abandonment.

This isn’t the first time that Irrational has opened up about a failed project. A year ago, the studio revealed that it had considered developing action game Monster Island back in 2001.