EFURC v0.1 ships with 55 cards. Each card needs art. Print-ready art is 300 DPI minimum. That is a lot of art for a solo developer.
Here is how I render all 55 cards in a weekend.
The constraint
55 cards. 1 solo developer. 2 days. Each card needs:
– Character/creature art (or spell effect, or structure illustration)
– Faction-coded color palette
– Print-ready resolution (300 DPI minimum)
– Consistent visual style across all 55
The pipeline
Step 1: Lock the style (Saturday morning, 2 hours)
I picked one faction and rendered 3 sample cards. Picked the Alliance (gold + navy palette is easiest to read at print scale). Rendered:
– Crystalline Guardian (Legendary Mythic, character)
– Light’s Favor (spell)
– Aureate Bulwark (structure)
The 3 cards established the visual style: dark navy base, gold filigree accents, soft blue arcane highlights, painterly brushwork, faction-crest watermark in the corner.
Step 2: Template the card frame (Saturday morning, 30 minutes)
Once the style was locked, I built a template in my art tool. The template has:
– Card frame (the rounded rectangle border)
– Faction-coded color zone (top-left corner)
– Type icon zone (top-right: unit / spell / structure)
– Rarity gem (bottom-right: common/rare/epic/legendary)
– Name + cost text zones
– Ability text zone
– Power/toughness box (for units)
The template is reusable. Once it was built, every new card is just the art + the stats.
Step 3: Render art per card (Saturday afternoon, Sunday morning — 12 hours)
For each of the 55 cards:
– 5 minutes: pull the lore source for the card subject (character description, spell effect, structure illustration)
– 15 minutes: sketch the composition
– 30 minutes: paint the art at print resolution
– 5 minutes: composite into the template
– 5 minutes: QA pass (color check, readability at print scale, faction consistency)
Average per card: 60 minutes. 55 cards × 60 minutes = 55 hours. That’s too long.
The trick: **batch by visual similarity**. All Alliance units get the gold-on-navy treatment. All Horde units get the blood-red treatment. The composition is similar across similar cards. The first card of each batch takes 60 minutes. The next 4 take 30 minutes each because the palette and composition are already locked.
Result: 55 cards in 12 hours. Average per card: 13 minutes.
Step 4: Card text + stats (Sunday afternoon — 2 hours)
Each card needs:
– Name (1-3 words, evocative, lore-derived)
– Essence cost (1-9, depends on rarity and power)
– Card type (unit / spell / structure)
– Ability text (1-2 sentences for common, 2-4 for rare, 4-6 for epic, 6-10 for legendary)
– Power + toughness (for units only)
I wrote the stats first (designed on paper), then the text (translated the stats into flavor). 55 cards × 2 minutes per card = 110 minutes.
Step 5: Print master + proof (Sunday evening — 1 hour)
All 55 cards composite into a single print master PDF. One card per page, 3″ × 5″ trim (standard TCG size), 300 DPI, CMYK color profile, bleed margin.
Printed one proof copy on my home printer. Checked colors. Checked text readability. Checked that the cards shuffle and feel right in hand. Found 3 cards with text that was too small. Fixed. Re-proofed.
The total
55 cards in 16 hours of focused work. Spread across a weekend.
What I’d do differently
The pipeline works. The batch-by-visual-similarity trick is the key time-saver. The print-master composite is straightforward.
What I’d change: start with the legendary cards first. I started with one of each rarity, but I should have started with all legendaries first (more detail, more iterations) and worked down to commons (less detail, faster).
Reason: the legendaries set the visual ceiling. If you start with commons, you may end up with all commons looking like legendaries. If you start with legendaries, the commons naturally settle below them.
What about AI art?
I considered using AI-generated art for the 55 cards. Decided against it.
Reasons:
– AI art lacks the consistent style I can deliver with my own art pipeline
– AI art’s “uncanny valley” at print scale is real (you see it at 300 DPI in a way you don’t see at 72 DPI)
– AI art’s licensing for print-on-demand is murky (some providers restrict commercial use)
– The lore deserves art that was made for it, not generated and hoped to fit
I am the art director for EFER. I do the art. That’s a constraint that limits my throughput but improves the product.
If you are a solo dev with no art skills: AI art is fine. Use it. The lore canon is what matters; the art is supporting material.
If you have art skills: do the art yourself. The consistency and quality are worth the time.
What this means for the business
EFURC v0.1 ships with 55 cards. Each card has art. The art is consistent. The cards look like a real TCG.
The print-on-demand model means I don’t print 55 cards up-front. I print what sells. The art exists digitally; the print happens on order.
Total inventory risk: zero. Total art time: 16 hours. Total cost: my time only (no AI art fees, no licensing fees).
Read the related
- /meet-the-crystalline-guardian-first-card-reveal-from-efurc-v/ — the first card reveal
- /how-a-30-card-deck-actually-wins-and-why-you-can-not-just-st/ — the deck-building math
- /efurc-playtest/ — join the playtest (free, 55 cards, real opponent matchmaking)
- /gallery/ — the concept art that inspired the cards
Play EFURC v0.1. Free. 55 cards. Real opponents. Server-authoritative matches.
