2. Getting started¶
The Tutorial makes a card, shows it, makes a deck and opens a pack. This section covers what's behind those steps. The pieces (Content Browser → right-click → QuickCards):
| Piece | What it is |
|---|---|
| Template | The look a kind of card shares: shape, picture layers and their depth, frame, fields, back. Presets: Simple, Full Art |
| Card | One card: a template plus its pictures, name, text and values |
| Deck | Cards with copies, kept in a table (one row per card) |
| Finish | A foil (holo, shine, gold) on a card's art or frame |
Presets live in QuickCards/Data (Templates, Finishes, FeelPresets, Examples). A new card widget shows
DA_QC_Card_Example, the demo's Kappa.
2.1 One card¶
Right-click → QuickCards → Card. Its Art list shows the template's layers: pick a texture per layer (empty =
the template's, e.g. its frame). Any size or shape works; QuickCards fits each image and sets the texture up for cards
(a notification says what changed). Fill in Display Name, Description (Deal {Attack} damage. shows the
card's Attack) and Fields. Show it with a QuickCards Card widget (set Card Definition) or a 3D card
(Hand and Finishes cover both).
A card on screen in a new level: in the Level Blueprint, from BeginPlay: Create Widget (your widget) → Add to Viewport → Set Show Mouse Cursor (on) → Set Input Mode Game and UI.
2.2 A deck¶
A deck's cards are the rows of its table, so you don't make a Card asset per card.
- Shared art (optional): duplicate a template (e.g.
DA_QC_Template_Simple) and set its layers' Default Texture: the background and frame every card shows unless it has its own. - Make a Deck (right-click → QuickCards → Deck, e.g.
DA_Goblins). Its tableDT_Goblinsappears next to it, with an example row. - Add cards: Open Table → + Add, name the row (your game finds the card by it, e.g.
EmberImp), and fill in its sections: - Card: Count (copies), name, Template (one deck can mix templates), Description, Fields, Tags.
- Art, back to front: Background Override, Illustration (with Scale, Offset and an optional finish), Frame Override (and an optional frame finish), and Template Layers (the template's other layers). Empty art shows the template's.
- Check them: the deck's Cards section lists every card with a live preview (drag it to tilt) and names any problem.
Art too big or off-center? Set the row's Illustration Scale (0.8 smaller, 1.2 larger) and Illustration Offset (in card sizes: Y 0.05 moves it down a little).
Other layers out of place? Tick the row's Advanced Layer Placement (in Art): Layer Placement lists the template's other layers, each with Scale and Offset (e.g. Pop-out: Scale 0.8, Offset X -0.05 pulls it in). Untick to go back to the template's placement; your values are kept.
From a spreadsheet: export a table (right-click → Asset Actions → Export as CSV), edit it, drag the CSV back in
with row type QuickCards Deck Row, and set it as the deck's Table. Fields look like
((Cost,"1"),(Attack,"3")); art is an asset path (/Game/Art/T_Imp.T_Imp); Layer Placement like
((Pop-out,(Scale=0.8,Offset=(X=-0.05,Y=0.0)))).
DA_QC_Deck_Example (in Examples) has commons, an uncommon, a holo rare, a reverse holo rare, a Full Art legendary
and a row pointing to a Card asset.
2.3 Changing a deck¶
| To... | Do this |
|---|---|
| Add a card | + Add in the table (or a CSV line, then reimport) |
| Add a Card asset | Add Card in the deck (a row pointing to it, Count 1) |
| Start a hand-tuned card | New Card... in the deck: it makes the Card and its row |
| Change copies | the row's Count |
| Change values, text or art | edit the row (or the Card it points to) |
| Remove a card | select the row, Remove |
| Reorder | the arrows in the row editor, or right-click → Move Row to Top / Bottom |
When is a Card asset worth it? For cards that need more than a row: every layer's own visibility and foil, or a field moved or recolored on that card only.
2.4 The deck in your game¶
- Read it: Get Cards, Get Copy Count, Get Card At, Find Card (by row name), Get Shuffled Copies (seeded).
- Change it during play: Create Play Deck at the start of a run, then Add Card / Remove Card on that copy. The table stays as you designed it. To save, store each row name and Get Count Of in a SaveGame; to load, Create Play Deck → Clear Cards → Find Card + Add Card per saved row.
- One copy changed: Create Instances gives a card instance per copy; Set Stat on one (Attack 10 → 20) redraws that card only. Show it with the widget's Card Instance.
2.5 Template or row?¶
The template holds what every card of that kind shares; the row holds what makes this card different.
| Template | Row (or Card) |
|---|---|
| Shape, corners, thickness | Name, description, copies |
| Which layers, their depth and fit | The pictures |
| The shared background and frame | Its own background or frame |
| Which fields and where (Attack bottom left) | The values (Attack 3) |
| The text layout and the back | A finish on its art or frame; the illustration's Scale and Offset |
To vary something the template sets (deeper layers for legendaries), duplicate the template: rows pick their template, so one deck mixes both.