FAQ

What is CardForge?

CardForge is a browser-based RPG card creator. Mix presets, AI-generated art, color palettes, layouts, effects, and typography to design original character cards — over 40 million combinations are reachable.

Do I need an account?

You can design and preview cards without signing in. To save, publish to the gallery, or build decks, sign in with the link in the top nav.

Is it free?

Yes — the editor and all visual effects are free. AI generation has a small daily quota per account so the lights stay on. We may add optional paid tiers in the future, but the core creator stays free.

Which should I pick — Quick Build, Preset, or Blank Canvas?

Quick Build is fastest: describe a character in a sentence and the wizard fills in art, stats, and styling in about ten seconds.

From a Preset gives you eleven curated starting points (cinematic, minimal, celestial, etc.) — great when you have an art direction in mind but want to skip layout decisions.

Blank Canvas opens every dial. Use it when you want full control over palette, layout, effects, typography, and stats.

What can I customize?

Six layers, each independently composable: presets, image container, color palette, content alignment, effects (background / border / glow / image filters), and typography. The numbers compound — that's where the 40M+ figure comes from.

Does my card have a back?

Yes. The card flips between a front face (portrait, name, stats, traits) and a back face (biography, attributes, buffs). Click any zone on either face to jump to the right editor.

What are stats, traits, and attributes?

Stats are flexible numeric meters — up to 10 of them, each 0–100 with a custom name and icon (e.g. Charisma 72, Stealth 41).

Traits are short tags that show on the card front (Cunning, Loyal, Reckless — up to 6).

Attributes are RPG-style descriptors that live on the card back (race, alignment, faction, etc. — up to 10).

Can I bring my own art?

Yes — upload any portrait image. You can also pan and zoom by dragging or scrolling on the portrait directly.

How does AI generation work?

Quick Build and the in-editor AI tools call Google Gemini to generate portraits, names, traits, and bios from your description. The generated content lands directly in the card — you can keep it, regenerate, or edit by hand.

Is there a daily limit?

Each signed-in account gets a daily AI quota that resets every 24 hours. Manual edits, presets, and saving don't count against it — only AI generations do.

What's the gallery?

The gallery is the public feed of cards published by the community. Publishing is opt-in — saved cards stay private until you choose to publish.

What's a deck?

A deck is a collection of cards you've curated. Build one from your own cards or from gallery favorites, then publish or share it. See the deck builder.

Can I keep cards private?

Yes. Saving stores the card to your account only. Publishing is a separate, explicit action — nothing reaches the gallery unless you push it there.

How do I share a card?

Every published card has a permalink with social-friendly preview metadata. Copy the link from the card's gallery view and post it anywhere — the preview image and details render automatically.

Does CardForge work on mobile?

The splash, gallery, and deck pages are mobile-friendly. The editor is best on desktop — the 3-panel layout with sliders, color pickers, and detailed controls really wants the screen real estate.

What happened to the arena?

The CardForge arena was retired in April 2026 so the project could focus on being the best card creator it can be. Card-based combat now lives in Blindspot, our standalone arena game.

Where do I report a bug or request a feature?

Drop a note via any of the AmbientPixels social links in the footer, or check the roadmap to see what's already queued.