A Clearer HUD, Livelier Effects, and Cards That Stay Put

October 17 was a focused polish pass on the Prototype Match: the HUD gained more character, visual effects got a reusable animation path, and tapped cards became easier to read without turning sideways and taking up extra real estate.

A more complete match HUD

The Prototype Match HUD grew with updated hero-stat presentation, new hero artwork, and the content and font wiring to support it. Hero art now passes through a dedicated mask effect using two render-target passes, giving the stats panel a cleaner fit. The shared match HUD and Offline Match screen were adjusted alongside the prototype so the presentation stays consistent.

Sprite-sheet effects become reusable

Visual effects moved into a more organized Textures/VFX content layout. A new .anim content pipeline imports sprite-sheet animation definitions, resolves atlas regions, and makes named animations available at runtime through SpriteSheet and AnimatedSprite2D. The Prototype Match now has a small sprite-VFX system to play these effects, including new Impact Hit and Spark animations.

Tapped cards stay in place

Tapped cards no longer rotate. Instead, the board draws the atlas-backed overlay.Tap over the card and dims the full face. A brief fade-and-pulse brings the overlay in; after that, it remains steady for as long as the card is tapped. The card itself stays aligned with its board slot, which is a less dramatic maneuver and a much clearer one.

The common thread was making the prototype feel more like a match and less like a collection of useful experiments: clearer status at a glance, visual effects that can be reused, and card states that read without rearranging the board.