Card visual treatments and theme shortlist
The current shortlist is creature collection and mythic fantasy. Industrial tactics is a secondary experiment with weaker product comparability. Read the theme research and lineage table for the primary sources, dated commercial evidence, and limits on what those sources establish. These concept images begin a discussion; no world, brand, or final illustration style has been selected.
What the studies are testing
| Territory | Card study | Intended visual communication | What still needs work |
|---|---|---|---|
| Creature collection through biological adaptation | Armored Burrower | A low, broad silhouette and heavy plates suggest defense; a juvenile introduces protective behavior | The current image is closer to realistic creature painting than bold character illustration. Test a more graphic treatment before choosing the rendering style. One defensive animal does not demonstrate a memorable full cast. |
| Mythic fantasy through direct confrontation | Oathbound Defender | Braced stance, large shield, and a clear face suggest a powerful protective champion | The shield provides a motif, but an arena and classical armor alone do not establish an original world. Develop rival materials, cultures, body types, and creatures before claiming distinction. |
| Industrial tactics as a secondary comparison | Breach Recovery Rig | Weight, a practical chassis, operator, and bridge equipment suggest a machine with a specific job | A bridge layer implies mobility or support more clearly than Guard. The current identical-rules comparison is useful for layout, but this art would need a different final card concept or pose. No close original mech TCG commercial benchmark has been verified. |
The studio workbench keeps the same mechanics across all three pictures: a visual reskin of the duel's Stone Sentry, cost two, power one, health four, with Guard. This controls one comparison variable; the three names are aliases for the illustration study, not additional cards in the 100-card set. The neutral faction and stats remain visible. The industrial mismatch above is evidence to improve a card concept rather than conceal it with flavor text.
Lineage and original contribution
Creature collection has a direct category lineage in Pokémon, while Evolution provides an adjacent example of physical traits explaining strategic roles. This project's original question is whether a diverse cast with visibly functional anatomy can create attachment and readable counterplay. Neither reference establishes demand for this proposed cast.
Fantasy confrontation has a direct category lineage in Magic, with Flesh and Blood as a reference for bodily effort, equipment, and rivals. This project's original question is whether champions and creatures can express a small set of faction identities without needing extensive lore before the first match. Magic's overall sales include licensed universes and cannot isolate the appeal of original mythology.
The research report links each factual claim to its source. The samples do not copy characters, frames, or logos from those games. Each saved prompt records the intended communication and constraints in the prompt log.
Three editable frame treatments
| Treatment | Intention | Tradeoff to inspect |
|---|---|---|
| Tournament | Strong outer boundary, prominent cost, plain text area, stable stat locations | The colored frame should identify a card without reducing usable rules space. |
| Illustrated | Lighter border, larger uninterrupted art area, restrained type strip | Art should not overwhelm the name, rules, or stats. Keep those areas opaque. |
| Prestige | Metallic-looking trim and a dark name strip around the same hierarchy | Decoration and tiny collector details must not consume rules space. No foil or rarity mechanics are assumed. |
These are graphic layout choices, independent of world and rendering style. The browser workbench lets us switch a theme and a frame separately. Cost, name, type, rules, and stats retain their positions. The display-size slider is a screen comparison, not a claim of calibrated physical dimensions. A monitor's pixels do not prove a printed type size is readable.
Tabletop readability in a browser
Keep familiar card proportions while prioritizing the browser board and hand. The prototype is played online against a CPU; no paper printout is required. The frame should remain readable at compact size and reveal complete rules when selected. Any eventual physical edition would need its own print tests and production specifications.
Use readable browser text at actual playing size. Limit ordinary rules to approximately 35 words, then test the actual longest cards. Collector metadata may be smaller, but gameplay text may not depend on it. Stonemaier's vision-friendly Wingspan cards provide a concrete publisher example of enlarging text and improving contrast without changing rules.
Faction must be written as well as colored, and its eventual emblem must have a distinct shape. Use stable positions for cost and stats. Exhaustion is rotation, damage uses counters, and ordinary text remains readable without hover, animation, or hidden software history. The sample emblem is a neutral placeholder; five faction symbols remain to be designed.
Review an expanded card, a full hand, both players' unit rows, and a compact browser board. Check contrast, name collisions, similar silhouettes, readiness, damage markers, and long text. The current work includes browser layout checks; human gameplay readability still needs observation.
A focused next comparison
The style comparison now tests the same Defender and Burrower in anime, dark painterly fantasy, and illustrative gouache. Dark fantasy follows the user's classic Conan-cover reference: visible paint, weighty forms, concentrated highlights, and deep shadow. The saved prompts record each treatment. Use the interactive browser comparison at compact and large sizes, then judge the chosen treatment in actual browser play.
Develop three roles in each leading territory: a simple common, a defining creature or champion, and a tactic. Give the two directions equal effort, comparable composition, and identical text density. Separately compare realistic painting against a graphic character treatment on one repeated subject. This distinguishes dislike of a theme from dislike of its rendering.
Ask what a card appears to do before revealing its text, which subject the player remembers after a delay, and which they would choose to collect with rules hidden. Keep qualitative responses and disagreements intact. A few conversations can guide development; they cannot establish market share or commercial certainty.
The initial cozy fantasy concepts and championship outlier are excluded from the active library presentation. Their files remain in the local archive so iteration is reversible.