Guilds Take Shape—and CardBrawler Gets New Tools

October 18–19 was a big stretch for CardBrawler. Guilds moved from roadmap to a complete first slice—from durable membership rules to an in-game home and a working Shop—while the Webserver and core match systems gained some much-needed attention of their own.

Guilds get a sturdy foundation

The first four Guild milestones established the server-side rules: PostgreSQL-backed creation and membership, discovery and recruitment, invitations and applications, role permissions, progression, and Guild upgrades. The system is designed to withstand retries and competition for the last open spot, with durable records and tests covering authorization, concurrency, and replay safety.

Guild progression now separates cumulative Guild XP from spendable Guild Development Points. Leaders can use those points to purchase upgrades, including additional membership capacity, with the server validating each purchase and recording it safely.

From server feature to game feature

Guilds are no longer just an API. The new Guild Hub Screen gives signed-out players, Guildless players, and Guild members their own views. Members can see the roster, roles, announcements, progression, upgrades, and recent activity; Leaders and Officers get the controls appropriate to their roles.

The first Guild Shop milestone is also in place. Members spend their own Elemental Shards on server-defined offers, while the server handles purchases and card-pack grants as durable transactions. Joining or switching Guilds starts a 24-hour wait before Shop transactions are allowed—browsing is still open, but the checkout line can wait.

Better tools behind the scenes

Reorganized the Webserver around a clearer boundary between the public Web app and a separate GameServer service. The operations side gained some more functionality, including Guild administration, and a foundation for managing hosted Card Catalogs.

Cleaner rules and a quicker match

A performance pass touched the Prototype Match, Offline Match, card rendering, and shared interaction flow. We simplified the Domain model: Basic Domains now have one clear classification and generate their primary Aeon during the Energy Step; non-basic Domain behavior comes from the card definition rather than legacy categories. Update the starter catalog, AI evaluation, rules, tests, and player-facing guides to match.

Taken together, these changes make Guilds feel like a real part of the game while giving the server and match code stronger foundations to build on.