Animated Cards?

[ender424]

Playing last night I though I saw one of the monsters on the cards slightly move (may or may not have been my due to my 'medication') but started thinking it would be neat to take advantage of the digital format and have an option to see fully animated cards - like a digital/classic option for cards.

 

 

[hfm]

Wow.. that would be a TON of work for the artists. Perhaps maybe just the Villains and Henchmen?

[ender424]

Wow.. that would be a TON of work for the artists. Perhaps maybe just the Villains and Henchmen?

Yes it would be.  Nothing wrong with hard work.   Either way it is a suggestion for enhancing the experience imo and not one that I would a) expect overnight and b) expect for free. 

[da_mayor]

Personally, I feel my tablet is working too darn hard as it is.  The heat generation and power consumption are significant.  Animations would probably make it more intense.

[StormbringerGT]

This would be very cool indeed but I can see it becoming more taxing on people's tablets.

[hfm]

I do notice that the images on the cards "pulse" for items, weapons, and armor. I'll have to pay more attention to others. Thought I think you were asking for more than just that.

[ender424]

I do notice that the images on the cards "pulse" for items, weapons, and armor. I'll have to pay more attention to others. Thought I think you were asking for more than just that.

OK so wasn't just me lol.   No wasn't really thinking full blown animated sequences just some slight movement but won't hold my breath. 

[Brainwave]

Yea I notice a slowdown already just from the low hit point animations.

[gel]

I animated everything in the game and can say that all the cards have subtle animation, or "pulse" as it has been said. Cards in your hand don't pulse, but if you tap them to enlarge, then they will pulse. This was the simplest way to get some movement without hurting performance. It's a simple effect, but I think it looks dead when the cards don't move at all.

 

While fully animated would look cool, it would be a ton of work. I'm not afraid of extra work, but the budget is (budget = time and money). It would also hurt performance for some users. Not only do moving cards mean animation, but it means more texture usage because of layered art. The game has so many cards that animating most of them would balloon up the memory usage.

 

However! I feel that adding more animation to an area of the game that could players could get the most out of would be combat and other card usage. There are vfx for that stuff now (e.g. using a fire based spell for combat results in a firey effect, using a healing potion has healing vfx on your deck), but there could be more! There can always be more. Instead of animating the card, I can animate some sword swings, clashes, etc. It will help bring the card to life without making each animation a one-off. We might even use the still art of the card in there somehow, or use the card itself in a more involved manner.

 

If we ever have budget for some more fancy shaders (yes, that means slower devices will cry), then I'd like to add some to the card art as well.

 

Thanks for the feedback! Look for some pretty things in the future!

[Nightfind]

I second the add for animation to cards - it would add an extra flare.

Maybe add animation to just Treasure Cards.  That would make them more desirable and "special" to collect and use.

You can always add an option to turn card animations off by default to help the performance of some devices.

 

Nightfind

[Noll]

I think the game has to be optimized first, I play it on an iPad PRO (the big one), and still sometimes I lose some Frames per Seconds...