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Summoning Card Game

About project

Summoning Card Game2026Concept

A whole card phase on one screen, and the art still keeps the stage.

An adult card game for PC: every night the player summons an entity from a grimoire and courts her with cards across five levels of relationship. Working solo, I designed the interface around the illustrations: the card-phase HUD, where the whole game is played, and the dialogue screens. One screen holds the whole card phase without shrinking the character.

  • Game UI
  • PC
  • HUD
  • 18+
Role
UI/UX designer, solo
Client
Adult card game · PC
Platform
Game · PC · 18+
Tools
Figma
The card phase: the interface holds the top and bottom edges, so the character keeps the middle.

Challenges

One screen has to hold the whole card phase at once: the summoned character and her state, her passives, two resources, the hand, the deck, the discard, a way to break the summon and the mana reward. Every card carries eight facts of its own. The real problem was keeping all of it readable while the art keeps the stage.

  • A hand of four to six cards, some of them locked by relationship level
  • 5 card categories and 5 rarities, readable without breaking the card
  • Two resources that never refill during a summon: initiative and time
The player
has to see at a glance which cards can be played, what they cost and how far the next relationship level is.
The art
fills the screen with a full-height character, so every panel laid over it competes with her.
The summon
can be broken off at any moment, so that action must stay within reach and never be mistaken for a card play.
The text box: one dark panel, an orange name badge and coloured key words, so lines read fast.
The phase title: bold sticker lettering sets a playful, flirty tone a solemn RPG look would not.

Solutions

  1. 01

    Sticker style won over gothic and comic

    I took the look through three directions: an occult gothic with its own colour and type system, a classic comic style that echoes the illustrations, and a sticker style. Sticker won: bold lettering and stuck-on panels read as playful, which fits a flirty summoner game better than a dark RPG, and sit lightly on the art instead of framing it.

    Trade-offCarrying three directions far enough to judge them took time that could have gone into polish. In return I chose between finished-looking options rather than between sketches.

  2. 02

    Colour means a mechanic, never decoration

    Red and pink are her side: affinity and the hearts. Blue is you: initiative. Purple is magic: the mana reward. Gold is value: legendary cards, titles and the timer, because time is a resource too. Green is the deck, social cards and the uncommon tier. The player tells theirs from hers before reading a single number.

    Trade-offA strict mapping leaves no colour free for decoration, and some colours do double duty, like green for the deck and for social cards. Consistent meaning was worth the tighter palette.

  3. 03

    One card shape: ribbon for category, badge for rarity

    Category is a coloured ribbon plus an icon, rarity is the colour of a small corner badge, and shape and size never change, so the hand reads as one row. A locked card stays in the hand: the body darkens by half under a lock and a red NEEDS AFFINITY LV 4 band, and the effect text stays visible.

    Trade-offRarity as a quiet badge is less spectacular than rarity frames, and a legendary card does not shout. It keeps six different cards scannable side by side.

  4. 04

    The art leads: the HUD floats, dialogues shed chrome

    The character takes the maximum of the screen, and the interface floats over her in the corners and along the bottom. Break Ritual sits away from the hand, red and clearly secondary, so it cannot be hit by accident. Dialogues follow the same rule: one dark panel in the text box, none in the speech bubble.

    Trade-offFloating UI over busy art needs shadows and a vignette everywhere, which darkens the edges of the illustration; contained panels would be cleaner and hide more of her. The bubble shows more art and holds less text, so I drew both and a scene takes the fit it needs.

A locked card stays in the hand, darkened, so the player sees a goal instead of a gap.
The speech bubble drops the panel: the line sits beside her, so the whole illustration stays in view.
Her side: hearts for the relationship level, a red bar for affinity, so progress reads before any number.

Results

The whole card phase fits on one screen without shrinking the character: the interface holds the edges, and colour tells the player's side from hers before a number is read.

5 × 5card categories and rarities in one hand, told apart by ribbon and badge on one card shape
1 screenfor the whole card phase: her state, both resources, the deck, the discard and a hand of up to six cards
Each resource owns one colour, red hers and blue yours, so whose is whose reads at a glance.
A legendary item card: rarity lives only in the badge, so the hand stays a tidy row.
Break Ritual above the deck, away from the hand, red and small: it cannot be hit by accident.

Reflection

  • Colour is cheaper than labels: tying red to her and blue to you means the player never reads a legend, and it cost nothing but discipline.
  • The hard part of a card HUD is not the cards but the edges: everything that is not illustration has to hold the frame without stepping into it.
  • Three finished directions beat ten sketches. Choosing between things that already look real is a decision; choosing between sketches is a guess.

Next

Aetherlords