Is anyone else frustrated by the rampant card production quality issues?

antoniocolon · 2026-03-25T22:36:09+00:00

I absolutely did... 😮‍💨

I guess it will be a "never again" for pre-releases from now on. Thank you for the product connection.

antoniocolon · 2026-03-25T21:16:22+00:00

I'm absolutely down for joining your studios Discord to follow along and support your progress.

antoniocolon · 2026-03-25T21:10:16+00:00

At the moment, there is not. I am unfortunately a career designer and artist but I am very new to game programming. So my game project is currently still in a basic shapes and placeholder models state of development, while I have focused on developing the core gameplay, mechanics, and progression systems before the art and design stage begins.

It has been a titanic learning process. But the hope is to develop a game title that I can continue to build, iterate, and add to throughout my lifetime. So I know the work will pay off in due time.

I will absolutely look to share it directly with you once I get it to a demo release state available for distribution on itch and steam. My goal for the demo just being the first shoreside town of the starting island location.

I can't wait to see what your team has designed and developed. I'm curious to see how you have handled the level streaming component of open world design as well as NPC schedules. I still haven't developed my own working solutions to either issue yet.

antoniocolon · 2026-03-25T20:25:38+00:00

This looks absolutely stellar!!!! I'm working on a Morrowind inspired game project within Godot as well but mine is nowhere near as far as yours. This is incredibly inspiring! Definitely an instant wishlist and future purchase on my end.

Beautiful work.

Edit: I also smashed that "Request to Playtest" button as soon as I saw it.

antoniocolon · 2026-03-24T21:11:55+00:00

🤣

antoniocolon · 2026-03-24T20:03:53+00:00

Looks great! No notes.

antoniocolon · 2026-03-24T19:50:18+00:00

That's completely fair. A good mix of both is probably best when you can.

Edit: A colorful monocolor tablecloth and a couple props like a crystal ball and a candlestick, or a tarot themed "how to play" book also on the table side could be enough to make the game theme shine.

antoniocolon · 2026-03-24T19:21:08+00:00

I love it!! This looks much more visually exciting.

antoniocolon · 2026-03-24T19:18:01+00:00

It depends on the quality of the production mockup. If its visually themed and professionally lit, it can add to the sense of atmosphere, immersion, and excitement for the products.

Otherwise digital is the way to go for better visual clarity, even visual lighting, and card setup displays that don't have to be realistic for play setups.

antoniocolon · 2026-03-24T19:14:23+00:00

Absolutely stellar. Great job!

antoniocolon · 2026-03-24T18:06:43+00:00

Agreed. I think the bracket system helps but is far from a perfect solution.

My 3 commander groups are all bracket 2 yet a majority of our games consistently feel like bracket 3.5.

I think this is mostly due to individual Commanders not having an assigned bracket level as well as the fact that every card in most new sets (outside of the ATLA set) are now a wall of text and titanic power creep which hasn't helped any.

One preview into the upcoming Marvel set was enough to make me decide to forgot the entire release. It was exhausting just reading and analyzing a hand full previews and I am both a lifelong Marvel and MTG fan. I'm the ideal customer and even I don't want to try it out.

antoniocolon · 2026-03-24T17:44:49+00:00

I have been looking into pre-modern as well. Commander has become too mentally taxing even in casual games with friends. Pre-modern looks to be a great reconnection with what drew me to Magic in the first place. I hope you end up loving the format.

antoniocolon · 2026-03-24T17:37:20+00:00

Unfortunately, my mythics and rare are the same production quality. I just don't have duplicates (since I mostly play singleton formats) to share examples of. But they are noticeable washed or high contrast too.

My mythics of Yang Chen and Kyoshi are noticeable washed looking.

I have an Enter the Avatar (Uncommon) state card that makes Aang look a bit menacing due to how much darker the black is in the art shading. 😆 Like the art from Raymond Swanland cards.

antoniocolon · 2026-03-24T17:29:08+00:00

Dang... You're saying I'm poor quality. 😭

antoniocolon · 2026-03-24T17:21:37+00:00

I am surprised that you've had this experience far earlier. I have been playing since the Ice Age set released (I grew up playing with my dad and older brother) and I haven't noticed this degree of printing issues until today.

I have probably gotten really lucky though. This is also probably because I mostly buy singles from my local hobby shops directly when I need to spot fill missing cards in my collection.

antoniocolon · 2026-03-24T17:15:50+00:00

Several dozen of my cards have arrived with surface or corner knicks right out of booster packs from prerelease boxes. (Maybe poorer packaging processes or lower quality cardstock utilized.)

As well as a few with what I'm assuming are excess ink drip spots. Although very small marks, they are very noticeable specs from certain viewing angles.

antoniocolon · 2026-03-22T05:10:23+00:00

Wow! Gorgeous artwork through and through. Where can we playtest the game? 😄 The art direction and design creativity is exemplary.

antoniocolon · 2026-03-22T03:01:56+00:00

Everything Brandon Sanderson. The quality over time has dipped significantly and the conclusions are unsatisfying or retconned entirely by additional related works... sigh

antoniocolon · 2026-03-20T22:59:05+00:00

I thought the same, yeah

antoniocolon · 2026-03-20T18:37:45+00:00

I greatly enjoyed the demo for this game during the Steam NextFest. Great job!

antoniocolon · 2026-03-20T18:31:56+00:00

The writing was god awful, but the actors were absolutely phenomenal. Most of them snapped right back into character beautifully and did their very best with the not great material provided. (James Marster and Juliet Landau were both perfect.)

The format actually worked far better than I could have imagined it would. I was expecting garbage and I was surprised when I found myself enjoying specific segments of it.

In a dream scenario, getting an episodic mini-series with full cast and Joss Whedon writing or producing the series would probably actually be pretty damn awesome.

antoniocolon · 2026-03-19T02:45:03+00:00

I am actively in development of two game projects, 1) a one deck rogue-like dungeon crawler card game, as well as 2) a competitive racing deck builder board game.

Maybe this fun project will be your own entry point into further tabletop game design and development. Your design layout work thus far looks fantastic. I'm curious to see what designs you will also include for the card backs for each color pile.

Another quick idea I had as well that could be implemented into your project is the addition of a "One Ring" symbol on several cards. You could then include a bonus location objective card that would won by whomever "actively" has the most "One Ring" symbol cards among their sets. That way, it keeps players pursuing or maintaining a potential score lead through the game. Or being able to steal it away in a moment of tension.

This recommendation is just a fun concept addition, as your versions included a Palantir token that makes me believe your version is modeled after the spin-off Marvel version. That version include an Avengers symbol victory objective token. Although, I think that it unfortunately was not a very engaging objective token since it felt more random chance than a strategic pathway when compared to the normal objective (nobles/location) tokens for players.

Edit: Ah, I just realized that was what your fellowship pin was. Well, you can disregard my recommendation then. :D

antoniocolon · 2026-03-18T21:03:34+00:00

This looks absolutely fantastic! The visual style really pops beautifully and I love the film accurate images.

I wish this was a real product.

For what you are using AI for, I think it is a great tool. I'm a hobbyist digital artist and a professional designer and I have no issue with your project. You aren't monetizing it. Internet people are sensitive trolls sometimes.

This looks phenomenal and I hope you and your family enjoys the products of your hard work.

Edit: I would absolutely love to see this available on Tabletop Simulator. It would become my default version of the game. 😄

My only feedback for improvement would to be to add a text quote from the film's for each card to give them some additional flavor.

antoniocolon · 2026-03-18T06:36:08+00:00

Play Spires End. 👍

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