In fact, it does the complete opposite, augmenting the player experience to new heights! The secret to its success lies within the cropped illustration itself. Compared to other artistic assets in a game space (e.g., full-screen environments, 3D character turnarounds, original sized splash art, extended level soundtracks), the card aesthetic feels lacking, but this is not true whatsoever. On the note of limited space, another potential issue is card art’s inability to push a “greater” aesthetic due to the traditional 2D nature of card games.

In order to conserve space while enabling legibility, in-game card illustrations are always cropped, minimized versions of the original art. While this aesthetic sounds flawless, there are several things to consider. This illustration is usually supplemented by additional aesthetics, including interface design (e.g., card border, card shape), voice lines, sound effects, visual effects, and other small animations. Like how splash pages in comic books capture the attention of its readers, the card’s illustration attracts the player’s eye. The primary part of the card aesthetic is the illustration, comprising 50 to 100% of the card’s structure. First, we need to understand what exactly is card art, or more specifically, the card aesthetic.

Legends of runeterra card art