I've just pushed version 0.5.5 of the HeroQuest Card Creator.

It's a smaller release compared to some of the recent updates, but it introduces one of the most requested improvements from the community: proper print-ready card exports with bleed support.

Alongside that, there are also improvements to card dimensions, interface polish across the editor, expanded language support, and a new theme system for the application.

Some of these changes are visible immediately. Others quietly make the editor feel more stable, more comfortable, and better aligned with the physical cards people ultimately print and use at the table.

🖨 Proper Print-Ready Exports

This is the main addition in this release.

You can now export cards with bleed, along with optional crop marks and cut marks.

If you've ever printed cards and ended up with thin white edges after trimming, that's exactly the problem bleed solves. Artwork now extends slightly beyond the card edge so that when the cards are cut, the colour reaches the edge cleanly.

Crop and cut marks help guide trimming when working with printed sheets, making it easier to line everything up correctly.

Together this makes it far easier to:

• print cards cleanly at home
• prepare files for professional printing
• trim cards accurately after printing

This has been a frequently requested feature for a while, so it's great to finally have it properly implemented.

Importantly, bleed only applies during export — the editor itself behaves exactly as before. You design your cards normally, and the export process prepares them for printing automatically.

📏 Cards Now Match Poker Card Proportions

Card dimensions have also been adjusted slightly to 756 × 1056 pixels.

This aligns the card canvas with the aspect ratio of standard poker cards, which are commonly used when printing custom HeroQuest cards.

In practice, this helps exported cards scale more reliably when printing and allows them to sit more naturally alongside physical cards on the table.

Existing cards adapt automatically, so no manual adjustments are required.

🎨 Interface Refinements

A lot of work in this release has gone into refining the editor itself.

Panels, spacing, inspector behaviour, and interaction details have all been tuned to make the application feel calmer and more consistent during longer editing sessions.

None of these changes are dramatic on their own, but together they reduce friction and make the editor feel more deliberate.

The goal remains the same: less fighting the tool, more focusing on the cards you're creating.

🌗 Light, Dark & System Themes

The editor now supports Light, Dark, and System themes.

You can switch themes directly from the header, or allow the application to follow your operating system preference.

This wasn't heavily requested, but it felt like a natural improvement as the interface continues to mature.

🌍 Expanded Language Support

HeroQuest Card Creator is also becoming more accessible internationally.

This release adds support for:

• Magyar (Hungarian)
• Polski (Polish)
• Português (Portuguese)
• Português (Brasil)
• Ελληνικά (Greek)

The language selector has also been improved to display languages using their native names, making it easier to identify your preferred option quickly.

Why I'm Happy With This Release

0.5.5 is one of those releases where several small improvements combine into something that feels meaningful.

Bleed export bridges the gap between designing cards digitally and printing them physically.

The poker-ratio card dimensions bring exports closer to real-world card proportions.

Interface refinements continue making the editor calmer and easier to work in.

And language support keeps expanding the reach of the tool.

It's another step toward making the HeroQuest Card Creator feel less like a collection of tools and more like a cohesive system for designing cards that look and feel authentic to the original game.

As always:

Please back up your library before upgrading. Please report anything strange if you encounter it. And please keep sharing the cards and projects you're building.

A lot of the improvements in this release exist because of community conversations.

Thank you for that.

👉 See full release notes here: https://itch.io/t/6071808/-heroquest-card-creator-version-055

👉 Download v0.5.5 here: https://mark-forster.itch.io/heroquest-card-creator

Version 0.5.5 introduces one of the most requested capabilities since the project began: print-ready card exports.

Alongside this headline feature, the release also includes improvements to card dimensions for more accurate printing, refinements to the editor interface, expanded language support, and the introduction of theme options for the application.

Some changes are immediately visible. Others quietly improve how the editor behaves and how cards translate from screen to physical print.

Together, these updates continue the goal of making the tool feel deliberate, dependable, and closely aligned with the physical HeroQuest components it aims to recreate.

🖨 Print-Ready Card Exports

Cards can now be exported with bleed, along with optional crop marks and cut marks.

Bleed extends the artwork slightly beyond the final edge of the card. When printed sheets are trimmed, this ensures colour and artwork reach the edge cleanly without leaving unwanted white borders.

Crop and cut marks provide visual guides that help align trimming when cutting printed cards from a sheet.

Together, these improvements make it significantly easier to:

• print cards at home with consistent results
• prepare files for professional printing services
• trim cards cleanly and accurately

Bleed export has been one of the most frequently requested features from the community over the past several months, and this release introduces the first complete implementation of that workflow.

Importantly, bleed is applied during export, meaning card editing and layout behaviour inside the editor remains unchanged. Cards continue to be designed normally, with print preparation handled automatically when exporting.

📏 Updated Card Dimensions

To further improve print accuracy, card dimensions have been adjusted to 756 × 1056 pixels.

This change aligns the canvas with the aspect ratio of standard poker cards, which are commonly used when printing custom HeroQuest cards.

The update improves scaling behaviour when printing and helps exported cards match real-world card proportions more accurately.

Existing cards automatically adapt to the updated dimensions without requiring manual adjustment.

🎨 Interface Refinements

A considerable amount of work in this release focuses on refining the editor interface.

These changes aim to make the application feel calmer, more consistent, and easier to navigate during longer editing sessions.

Areas that received attention include:

• improved layout consistency across panels
• smoother interaction behaviour within the inspector
• clearer visual grouping of controls
• subtle spacing and alignment improvements throughout the interface

Individually these adjustments are small, but together they make the editor feel more stable and deliberate.

🌗 Theme Support

The editor now supports Light, Dark, and System themes.

You can choose your preferred theme from the header menu, or allow the application to automatically match your operating system's theme preference.

While this feature was not heavily requested, it improves comfort when working in different environments and aligns the application with modern interface expectations.

🌍 Expanded Language Support

HeroQuest Card Creator continues to expand its international support.

This release introduces the following additional languages:

• Magyar (Hungarian)
• Polski (Polish)
• Português (Portuguese)
• Português (Brasil)
• Ελληνικά (Greek)

The language selection interface has also been refined to make it easier to identify and select your preferred language.

Improvements include:

• languages displayed using their native names
• alphabetical ordering for easier scanning
• flag indicators for visual recognition
• highlighting of the browser’s detected language

Language preference is remembered between sessions so the editor continues to open in the chosen language.

🧭 Continued Refinement

As with previous releases in the 0.5.x series, version 0.5.5 continues to focus on improving how the tool behaves rather than introducing entirely new systems.

This release strengthens the connection between the digital editor and the physical cards players ultimately print and use at the table.

With accurate card proportions, reliable print exports, and ongoing interface refinements, the editor continues moving toward its core goal: helping creators produce cards that feel authentic to the original HeroQuest components while remaining simple and reliable to design.

❤️ Thank you to everyone who continues to test the tool, share feedback, and create new content with it.

Run on download the app here https://mark-forster.itch.io/heroquest-card-creator

Hi everyone 👋

Over the past few months most of my development time has been focused on building and improving the HeroQuest Card Creator

It’s grown into a fairly substantial project and has ended up consuming a lot of my available development time while I worked to get it into a stable and highly functional place. That said, the Search Tracker was actually my first baby. Even while working on the Card Creator it’s been sitting in the back of my mind that I really needed to come back to it and give it the attention it deserves.

Now that the Card Creator is in a good place, it feels like the right time to start spreading some of that development love between the two projects again. Over the next little while I’ll be spending some focused time improving the Search Tracker. The immediate priorities will be improving the UI and overall performance, along with some general cleanup and refinements. After that I’ll begin exploring new features and ways to extend the app further.

My aim is to get a new version released in the coming weeks. Once that lands, I’d like to move towards regular updates, ideally on a bi-weekly or monthly cadence, depending on how much development time I can dedicate.

If you have ideas, suggestions, or things you’d like to see improved, I’d really love to hear them.

More updates soon 🙂

Quick heads up:

If you downloaded 0.5.3 very recently, please re-download the latest version from itch.

A user reported an issue where clicking New and selecting a template could return to the browser without creating a card. The template picker closed, but no new card was generated.  

This has now been fixed.

We also fixed a scaling/zoom behavior issue where zoom levels did not feel consistent in the editor. Zoom is now more predictable and usable across templates, with enough range to properly scale artwork when needed.

In addition, we fixed a second visual issue on small/large artwork cards: at high zoom levels, a thin line of image could sometimes appear at the left/right border edges. Border rendering has been adjusted so those edge artifacts no longer show through.

The build on itch has been updated.

If you are using the hosted version on itch, you are already on the latest build.  

If you downloaded the zip bundle, please download it again to get the patched version.

Apologies for the inconvenience, and thank you again to everyone who reported issues quickly.

Please read this post regarding upgrading in the event you have issues and wish to roll back to an earlier version of the app https://itch.io/t/6028864/-important-upgrade-notes-recovery-browser-reset-guide

Before upgrading to v0.5.3 (or any other version), please take a moment to read through these notes carefully.

This section is designed to help you upgrade safely, understand a few important visual changes, and recover your data if you ever need to roll back.

🔄 Library Upgrades & Backups

There should not be any issues upgrading your existing library with this release. Migration paths from earlier versions have been tested carefully.

However, as good practice, I strongly recommend:

• ✅ Exporting a backup of your library before running a new version
• ✅ Keeping a copy of the previous version (0.5.2) available

🔁 Reverting to an Earlier Version

If anything unexpected happens and you have a backup, you can revert to 0.5.2.

However, depending on the changes made in newer versions, you may first need to clear your browser's local database before running an older version.

Please see the section below titled "Resetting the Local Database" for step-by-step instructions.

Once the local database has been cleared, you can:

1. Run 0.5.2
2. Import your backup

You should be right back where you were.

Fingers crossed you won't need to --- but having that safety net is always wise.

✍ Text Spacing & Alignment Changes (Please Read)

This release includes significant refinements to text spacing and alignment.

The goal is simple:

Cards should look authentic "out of the box."

When placed next to real HeroQuest cards, they should feel almost indistinguishable without you needing to manually tweak fonts or spacing.

Because of this visual refinement:

• Some very text-heavy cards may shift slightly
• In edge cases, text that previously just fit may now overflow

If that happens, you may need to slightly shorten or adjust the wording.

This was a deliberate decision to establish a strong visual baseline first. Once that baseline is fully stable (around the 0.7.x phase), I will look at adding more flexibility such as additional font size controls.

For now, faithfulness comes first.

🐞 Known Issues & What's Next

There are still a small number of known bugs I am aware of.

Some are minor edge cases. Some are workflow refinements that need tightening.

These will either be:

• Addressed in a focused 0.5.4 release
• Or bundled into the planned 0.6.0 release

I will share more detail on that roadmap soon.

🗑 Resetting the Local Database (If You Need to Roll Back)

If you ever need to:

• Restore an older backup
• Run an earlier version of the app
• Completely reset your local data

...you may need to manually delete the app's local IndexedDB storage.

⚠️ Important: Deleting IndexedDB permanently removes locally stored cards and assets for that browser and version. Only do this if you have already backed up your library.

Below are simplified instructions for major browsers.

🌐 Google Chrome

1. Open the app in Chrome
2. Right-click anywhere on the page
3. Click Inspect (or press F12)
4. Click the Application tab
5. Expand IndexedDB in the left sidebar
6. Right-click the app's database
7. Click Delete
8. Refresh the page

🧭 Microsoft Edge

(Edge works almost exactly like Chrome.)

1. Open the app in Edge
2. Right-click → Inspect (or press F12)
3. Go to the Application tab
4. Expand IndexedDB
5. Right-click the app database
6. Click Delete
7. Refresh the page

🦊 Mozilla Firefox

1. Open the app in Firefox
2. Right-click → Inspect (or press F12)
3. Click the Storage tab
4. Expand Indexed DB
5. Right-click the app's database
6. Select Delete All
7. Refresh the page

🍏 Safari (macOS)

First enable the Develop menu:

1. Safari → Settings → Advanced
2. Enable Show Develop menu in menu bar

Then:

1. Open the app
2. Click Develop → Show Web Inspector
3. Go to the Storage tab
4. Select IndexedDB
5. Delete the app's database
6. Refresh the page

Alternatively, you can remove all stored website data via:

Safari → Settings → Privacy → Manage Website Data → Remove the app's site data.

🔄 After Deleting the Database

Once cleared:

• The app will behave like a fresh install
• You can import your backup
• Or safely run an earlier version

📚 Further Reading (Optional)

If you would like more detailed browser documentation, here are official resources:

• Chrome DevTools IndexedDB Guide https://developer.chrome.com/docs/devtools/storage/indexeddb/
• Microsoft Edge IndexedDB Documentation https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-edge/devtools/storage/indexeddb/
• Firefox Storage Inspector Documentation https://firefox-source-docs.mozilla.org/devtools-user/storage_inspector/indexeddb/index.html
• Safari Website Data Management https://support.apple.com/guide/safari/manage-cookies-sfri11471/mac

🛠 Future Improvement

I understand this process is slightly technical.

In a future release, I plan to add a built-in "Reset Local Database" option inside the app to make this much simpler.

For now, these steps will safely guide you through it if needed.

Thank you again for your continued support and patience as the app matures.

I'm genuinely excited to finally say that Version 0.5.3 is now live.

Since the 0.5.2 release I've been working flat out, evenings and early mornings, constantly iterating, because this was one of those versions that needed to feel solid before it could ship.

And it now does.

On paper, this might not look like a flashy feature explosion. But in terms of day-to-day usability, safety, export reliability, and creative flexibility, this is one of the most significant releases so far.

🃏 Pairing Now Properly First-Class

If you build double-sided cards such as equipment, artefacts, spells, or locations, this is a major shift.

Pairing no longer feels like a loose link you manually keep track of.

It now behaves like a deliberate relationship:

• Clearer front/back context
• Dedicated pairing workflow
• Visual previews
• Consistent thumbnail sizing
• Safer unpairing with confirmations

Editing feels cleaner. Deleting is safer. The connection between faces feels intentional.

You're no longer managing pieces. You're designing components.

That distinction matters.

📚 A Smarter Stockpile & Collections System

If your library is growing, this release will feel transformative.

You now get:

• Separate Cards and Collections panels for clearer structure
• Tree-view collections to organise large libraries naturally
• Table view for faster scanning of card details
• Drag-and-drop organisation for quicker management
• Recently Deleted with restore, so accidents aren't permanent

This isn't just visual rearrangement. It's workflow maturity.

If you're building full quest packs or expansions, managing your library now feels significantly more deliberate and scalable.

🖼 Stronger Asset Workflow & Safety

Artwork is at the heart of custom cards, so I spent serious time hardening this area.

This release fixes several key issues around missing or inconsistent asset references. More importantly, it adds safeguards so similar issues can't quietly resurface elsewhere.

You now benefit from:

• Safer asset replacement with dimension warnings
• Clearer asset visibility in a dedicated inspector
• Smarter Artwork vs Icon labelling and filtering
• Faster image selection with autocomplete search
• Stronger validation to prevent inconsistent states

If something can fail, it now fails safely.

The app protects your work more aggressively than before.

That's deliberate.

📦 Export With Confidence

Export reliability has been significantly improved.

You now get:

• Preflight checks that warn about missing artwork before export
• Clear visual signals in preview if something is wrong
• Large export progress feedback during ZIP finalising
• Safer handling of problematic cards (they're skipped, not catastrophic)

If you export full decks or large sets, this is a huge quality-of-life upgrade.

Export should feel dependable, not risky.

🎨 Visual & Layout Refinement

A lot of polish went into how cards actually look and behave.

• Improved image scaling defaults for cleaner artwork fitting
• Tinted textured borders for Small and Large Artwork templates
• More control over labelled-back title styles and colour
• Smarter text fitting and layout stability
• Cleaner inspector behaviour and reduced visual noise

Individually these are subtle.

Collectively, they make cards feel more official, more cohesive, and more intentional.

Less fighting the tool. More shaping the design.

🎲 Richer Text Formatting

Descriptions are now more expressive.

• Inline dice tokens
• Leader group formatting
• A new formatting cheat sheet with live examples

This makes spell descriptions, abilities, and special rules more dynamic without needing awkward workarounds.

It's creative flexibility without chaos.

🧭 A More Structured Workspace

The app now uses a cleaner, panel-based layout with proper routing.

That means:

• Fewer stacked modals
• Clearer navigation
• Better back/forward behaviour
• Smoother movement between Cards and Assets

Long sessions feel calmer and more predictable.

And that's intentional.

🛡 Stability Work You (Hopefully) Won't Notice

Some of the hardest work in this release isn't flashy.

I've:

• Fixed root causes behind missing asset issues
• Strengthened deletion and replacement safety
• Added guards around areas that could create inconsistent states
• Reduced the chances of silent breakage

You shouldn't notice these changes.

The app should simply feel harder to break.

And that's exactly how it should be.

Why I'm Excited About 0.5.3

This isn't a gimmick release.

It's a consolidation release.

It's the moment where:

• Pairing feels deliberate
• Stockpile management feels scalable
• Export feels dependable
• Assets feel safer
• Formatting feels more expressive
• The workspace feels structured

After pushing hard since 0.5.2, I wanted this version to feel mature, not experimental.

It now feels like a platform rather than a collection of features.

And that's a big step forward.

As always:

Please back up your library before upgrading. Please report anything strange. Please keep pushing the tool in interesting directions.

A lot of what's in this release exists because of community conversations, so thank you.

Onwards.

👉 Download v0.5.3 here: https://mark-forster.itch.io/heroquest-card-creator

Full release notes can be found here https://itch.io/t/6028837/-heroquest-card-maker-053-full-release-notes

As always the app and source code are 100% free. You can find the source code here https://github.com/markforster/heroquest-card-creator

🧭 A Note on Versioning & The Road Ahead

It is also worth remembering that we are still in the 0.5.x phase of development.

This is a minor release, not a final one.

There is still plenty of breathing room before we reach version 1.0.0.

That means a few important things:

• The tool will continue to evolve
• Some behaviours may change in future releases
• Layouts may refine further
• Features may expand, tighten, or shift direction

This is not instability. It is active development.

I will always be listening to feedback from the community. It genuinely shapes priorities and helps steer the choice and design of new features. At the same time, I also have a long term vision for where I want to take this tool. Sometimes that means making deliberate changes to move closer to that goal.

If something shifts between versions, it is not accidental. It is part of shaping the foundation properly before 1.0.0.

We are building toward something bigger.

And I will continue to keep everyone updated as things develop.

Version 0.5.3 is a consolidation and quality-focused release for HeroQuest Card Creator.

Rather than adding entirely new systems, this update strengthens the foundations of the app: library organisation, pairing behaviour, asset safety, export reliability, and visual rendering.

Library management is now more structured and scalable. Pairing has been redesigned to behave as a deliberate relationship rather than a loose link. Export includes clearer validation and safer handling of missing assets. Card layout and text spacing have been refined to better match the look and feel of original HeroQuest components.

Behind the scenes, additional safeguards improve data integrity and reduce the likelihood of inconsistent states.

In short, 0.5.3 focuses on making the tool more dependable, more deliberate, and better aligned with its long-term direction.

🔍 Overview

This release primarily affects the following areas of the application:

• Library and collection management
• Double-sided card pairing
• Asset handling and validation
• Export reliability and error handling
• Card rendering and layout behaviour

While no entirely new template families or export formats have been introduced, substantial refinement has been applied to existing systems to improve safety, clarity, and long-term stability.

📚 Library Management & Collections

Managing your card library has been significantly redesigned to better support growing collections and long-term projects.

Workspace Layout

The card management area now separates:

• A central Cards panel
• A dedicated Collections panel

On smaller screens, the collections area becomes a drawer.

This creates clearer separation between viewing cards and organising them.

Tree-Based Collections

Collections can now be displayed in a tree view that supports:

• Folder-style grouping
• Expand and collapse behaviour
• Nested collection structures
• Persistent expanded state between sessions

This makes large libraries easier to navigate and organise logically.

Folder counts aggregate correctly, and visual indicators reflect filtered states.

Table View Option

A new table view provides:

• Thumbnail preview
• Card name
• Card type
• Card face (front/back)
• Last modified date
• Pairing indicator

This view is designed for scanning and bulk management rather than visual browsing.

The grid and table preference is remembered between sessions.

Drag-and-Drop Collection Management

Cards can now be dragged into collections.

This supports:

• Multi-selection
• Correct selection rules
• No duplicate entries
• Clear visual feedback during drag

Drag-and-drop is disabled where inappropriate, such as pairing mode or Recently Deleted.

Soft Delete & Recently Deleted

Deletion is now safer.

Cards moved to delete are:

• Soft-deleted first
• Hidden from normal views
• Available for restore

Permanent deletion is only available inside the Recently Deleted view.

This reduces the risk of accidental loss.

🃏 Pairing System Improvements

Double-sided card relationships have been significantly improved.

Dedicated Pairing View

The inspector now separates:

• Card properties
• Pairing management

The pairing view is context-aware and adapts based on whether you are editing a front or back.

Clearer Relationship Display

Improvements include:

• Visual pairing previews
• Standardised thumbnail sizing
• Clear grouping of paired cards
• Collapsible grouping headers
• Persistent header visibility while scrolling

This improves clarity when cards are paired with multiple items.

Safer Pairing Changes

When removing multiple pairings at once:

• Confirmation prompts are shown

Single unpair actions remain unobtrusive.

Switching card faces warns only when multiple relationships would be removed.

Draft Pairing Persistence

Pairing selections made during editing are stored and applied on save.

This prevents accidental loss of pairing decisions during editing.

🖼 Asset Management & Safety

Artwork handling has been hardened significantly.

Dedicated Assets Inspector

The assets page now includes:

• Large preview
• File name
• Type
• Dimensions
• Date added
• Usage count

This makes it easier to understand how and where assets are used.

Replace-in-Place Workflow

Assets can now be replaced directly.

Safeguards include:

• Dimension mismatch warnings
• Optional backup creation
• Clear restriction to single-file replacement

This prevents silent layout breakage.

Automatic Artwork vs Icon Classification

Assets are automatically classified as:

• Artwork
• Icon

Filters allow quick separation.

Manual overrides are supported.

Classification improves image picker ordering so artwork fields prioritise artwork and icon fields prioritise icons.

Image Field Autocomplete

When selecting images inside card fields:

• Autocomplete search is available
• The current image remains pinned during search
• Results are ranked by relevance

This reduces friction when working with large asset libraries.

📤 Export Improvements & Missing Artwork Handling

Export behaviour has been significantly strengthened.

Preflight Checks

Before export begins:

• Cards are checked for missing assets
• A detailed modal lists affected cards
• You may choose to proceed

Problematic cards are skipped safely.

Bulk exports include an export-issues.txt file describing skipped items.

Missing Artwork Visibility

Missing artwork is now:

• Clearly shown in preview
• Marked in the interface
• Highlighted on startup

A persistent header reminder remains visible while missing assets exist.

Improved Large Export Reliability

Improvements include:

• Chunked asset loading
• Memory-aware processing
• Clearer finalising progress

Large exports should now feel more stable and predictable.

🎨 Card Rendering & Visual Refinement

A major goal of this release was improving visual fidelity.

Title Styling (Labelled Back Cards)

Labelled-back cards now support:

• Ribbon style
• Plain style
• Top or bottom placement
• Per-card title colour with reset

Controls appear only where supported.

Textured Border Tinting

Large and Small Artwork templates support textured border colour control.

This allows visual variation while maintaining consistent structure.

Improved Image Scaling

Image scaling now defaults to a cleaner contain-fit approach.

Legacy cards are normalised to preserve appearance.

Scaling range has been standardised.

Text Spacing & Alignment Refinements

Text layout has been adjusted to improve:

• Visual balance
• Spacing consistency
• Alignment behaviour

Some text-heavy cards may require minor adjustments due to improved spacing logic.

These changes were made to better align cards with the original HeroQuest visual style.

Inline Dice Tokens & Leader Groups

Card descriptions now support:

• Inline combat dice faces
• D6 pips
• Lettered dice variants
• Colour overrides
• Leader line grouping syntax
• Optional pivot and wrapping control

Formatting tools are documented in a compact cheat sheet with live preview examples.

Optional Copyright Footer

Cards can now include:

• A global default copyright line
• Per-card override
• Per-card hide toggle

This supports community publishing and content sharing workflows.

🧭 Navigation & Workspace Structure

The app now uses a clearer route-based layout.

Improvements include:

• Stable navigation between Cards and Assets
• A Current Card shortcut in navigation
• Cleaner inspector structure
• Standardised escape behaviour
• Reduced modal stacking

The editor and inspector remain stable across navigation changes.

🛡 Stability, Data Model & Migration

This release includes structural data improvements.

• Pairing relationships have been migrated to a dedicated pairing structure
• Legacy pairing fields have been removed
• Backup format updated accordingly
• Existing libraries are migrated automatically

Migration is automatic, but users are always encouraged to back up before upgrading.

⚠️ Known Limitations

• Some popovers are not yet integrated into centralised escape handling
• Auto asset classification is disabled in Safari due to browser limitations
• Missing artwork detection only checks for referenced asset IDs
• No restoration of previous pairings when restoring soft-deleted cards
• No new templates or export formats added in this release

🧾 Summary

Version 0.5.3 focuses on:

• Scalable library management
• Stronger pairing clarity
• Safer asset workflows
• More reliable exports
• Improved visual fidelity
• Structural data hardening

It represents a consolidation and stability phase in the 0.5.x cycle.

I’ve temporarily removed the native macOS build (heroquest-card-creator_0.5.2_aarch64.dmg).

A couple of users have reported that the DMG won’t open on their machines, and after testing on another Mac myself, I’ve confirmed that the current build isn’t reliable outside my own development environment. Rather than risk causing confusion or unnecessary frustration, I’ve taken the DMG down for now. The good news is that the HTML version works perfectly. You can download the ZIP file, unzip it, and open the index.html file in your browser — this is currently the most stable and recommended way to run the app locally.

I’ll revisit properly signed and tested macOS (and other platform) builds in the future, but for now the browser version remains fully supported and reliable.

Thank you for your patience and for reporting the issue — it genuinely helps.

I've just finished wrapping up v0.5.2, and I have to say... this one feels different.

It's not the loudest update. It's not packed with flashy "look at this!" features. But the more I worked on it, the more it started to feel like something important clicked into place.

This release is about intention. And I'm genuinely excited about what that means for all of you building decks, campaigns, artefacts, NPCs and wild homebrew systems.

🔁 Front & Back Pairing --- Finally!

This has been on my mind for a while.

You could always create a front. You could always create a back. But you had to remember they belonged together.

That always felt slightly unfinished.

Now, pairing is a proper part of the system. The app understands that two faces are connected. Exports understand it. Deleting one won't quietly break the other. You can still edit both independently --- but they belong together.

The moment this was working properly, it felt right.

If you're building two-sided cards --- equipment, spells, artefacts, monster or hero packs --- this genuinely changes the experience. It stops feeling like managing pieces and starts feeling like designing components.

And that's a big shift.

✍️ Drafts --- Making Creativity Feel Safer

This one surprised me.

Starting a new card now feels less permanent. You can rotate artwork, try an overlong title, hide it completely, change direction halfway through --- and nothing feels like you've "committed" too early.

Creative tools should feel safe to explore in.

This small change makes experimentation feel easier. And I think that matters more than it sounds.

🎨 Smart Border Swatches --- I Didn't Expect to Love This

I'll be honest... when I first added custom border colours, I didn't think I'd use them much.

Then I started experimenting.

Then I realised how hard it is to pick colours that genuinely complement artwork.

So I built a system that lets the artwork suggest the border colour.

The first time I saw it working, I just kept clicking through combinations. Suddenly decks started looking cohesive in a way that felt deliberate instead of accidental.

It's subtle. But it's powerful.

🔄 Rotation & Artwork Precision

Rotation isn't about spinning things for fun.

It's about those tiny frustrations: - artwork that's slightly angled

• compositions that almost fit
• portraits that just need a nudge

Combined with more predictable transform behaviour and better reset handling, artwork now feels much easier to shape without fighting the layout.

Less friction. More control.

📏 Bringing Cards Closer to the Official Look

A big part of this release has been quiet visual refinement.

I've spent time tuning: - font size relationships

• stat and icon alignment
• spacing and edge positioning
• overall proportions

The goal has been simple: make custom cards feel more at home next to official HeroQuest components.

Individually these changes are subtle. But together they make the cards feel more polished, more cohesive, and more intentional --- especially when printed and placed on the table.

That alignment really matters to me.

🧠 Text & Layout --- Quiet but Important

There's also been refinement in how text behaves.

Titles shrink more intelligently. Stats stay balanced. Edge cases are handled more gracefully. Alignment feels tighter. Spacing feels calmer.

It all adds up to something that feels less fragile and more deliberate.

🛡️ Stability You (Hopefully) Won't Notice

There's also structural work under the hood: stronger pairing validation, safer transform handling, fewer edge cases that could create odd states.

You shouldn't notice this.

The app should simply feel harder to break.

And that's one of the most satisfying kinds of progress.

🌱 Why I'm Genuinely Excited

What excites me about 0.5.2 isn't any one feature.

It's that the app feels more self-aware.

Cards relate properly. Artwork behaves predictably. Design decisions feel intentional. Exports understand structure.

It feels less like a collection of tools... and more like a cohesive system.

And that puts us in a really strong position for what comes next.

As always --- thank you. I genuinely can't wait to see what people build with this version.

Onwards. 🚀

Run or Download the latest version here https://mark-forster.itch.io/heroquest-card-creator

Full release notes can be found here https://itch.io/t/5939343/heroquest-card-maker-052-full-release-notes

Version 0.5.2 is a refinement-focused release.

Rather than introducing one single headline feature, this update strengthens how cards are created, connected, styled, adjusted, and exported. It's about making the workflow feel more deliberate, more stable, and more capable --- especially when you're building structured decks or double-sided cards.

There's a lot here. Some changes are visible immediately. Others quietly make the app feel more reliable and predictable.

🔁 Proper Front & Back Card Pairing

You can now formally pair two card faces together.

Instead of manually keeping track of which front belongs to which back, the app now understands that relationship.

This means:

• fronts and backs are intentionally linked
• exports recognise paired cards and handle them correctly
• deleting one side won't silently leave the other in a broken state
• you can still edit each face independently

If you're creating equipment with backs, artefacts, spells, NPCs, location decks, or any custom system that relies on two-sided cards, this removes friction and uncertainty.

It turns pairing into a feature --- not a manual habit.

✍️ A Clearer Draft Workflow

Creating new cards now behaves more like working on a draft.

When you start a new card, it isn't immediately treated as something permanent. You can experiment, adjust artwork, change titles, and explore layout ideas before explicitly saving.

This makes it easier to:

• try ideas without committing too early
• avoid accidental partial saves
• explore layout options safely

It's a subtle shift, but it makes the creative process calmer and more intentional.

🎨 Smart Border Colour Suggestions

Custom border colours have become a popular way to visually group decks.

In 0.5.2, the app can now analyse your artwork and suggest border colours pulled directly from the image itself.

That means:

• borders that naturally complement your artwork=
• more cohesive-looking decks
• less guesswork when choosing colours

You can still pick colours manually, but now you have intelligent suggestions as a starting point.

🔄 More Precise Artwork Controls

Artwork adjustments have been expanded and stabilised.

You can now rotate your main image, alongside scaling and positioning. Transform behaviour has also been refined to feel more predictable and consistent.

This helps when:

• portrait art needs slight correction
• compositions are slightly angled
• you're working with cropped or unconventional artwork

There's also improved reset behaviour, so returning to a clean default state is simple and reliable.

🧠 Smarter Text Handling

Text behaviour has been carefully refined across titles and stats.

The app is now better at:

• shrinking long titles to stay within their ribbons
• handling extreme values without breaking layout
• keeping stat blocks visually balanced
• maintaining alignment even with unusual inputs

These improvements reduce edge cases and make layout behaviour more predictable --- especially when experimenting with longer names or custom rule systems.

👁️ Better Control Over Title Visibility

You can now explicitly toggle whether a title is shown, without deleting its value.

This allows you to:

• temporarily hide titles for design purposes
• experiment with minimal layouts
• keep stored information without forcing it to render

It adds flexibility without compromising structure.

🧱 Continued Layout Refinement

A significant amount of quiet visual tuning has taken place.

Font relationships, stat alignment, icon positioning, and spacing have all been refined to bring cards closer to official HeroQuest proportions.

Individually these changes are subtle. Together, they make cards feel more polished and cohesive --- particularly when printed or viewed alongside official components.

📦 More Reliable Export Behaviour

Export logic has been strengthened to better understand paired cards.

When exporting:

• paired cards are grouped correctly
• ordering remains stable and predictable
• no manual reorganisation is required afterward

You can focus on design, not post-export housekeeping.

🧭 Inspector Improvements

The inspector has also been refined to feel smoother and more stable:

• reduced layout shifting when sections expand
• improved grouping for clarity
• more consistent preview behaviour during editing

These are small usability improvements, but they make longer editing sessions feel calmer.

🧭 Optional 3D Preview Improvements

The experimental 3D preview has been refined:

• smoother rotation
• improved interaction stability
• reset control for orientation

The 2D view remains the authoritative preview, but the 3D view is now more polished for those who enjoy using it.

🛡️ Increased Stability & Data Safety

Behind the scenes, additional safeguards have been added to prevent:

• broken front/back links
• inconsistent artwork transform states
• accidental structural inconsistencies

You won't necessarily notice these changes directly --- and that's the point. The app is simply harder to break accidentally.

🌱 A Stronger Foundation

Version 0.5.2 strengthens the structure introduced in earlier blueprint-based updates.

It improves:

• how cards relate to one another
• how layout decisions are handled
• how artwork behaves
• how exports are organised

All without introducing breaking changes.

❤️ Thank You

This release reflects continued feedback around pairing, layout precision, colour workflows, and editing stability.

If you're building structured decks, experimenting with custom systems, or refining the visual identity of your cards, 0.5.2 should make that process smoother and more deliberate.

As always, I'd love to see what you create.

Highlights

• A new blueprint-based renderer makes templates more consistent and easier to expand, while keeping the same export fidelity.
• A flexible, metadata-driven inspector improves how editing forms are built and managed.
• A three‑pane editor layout adds a persistent left navigation and a clearer editing workflow.
• Custom border colours arrive for labelled-back cards, with saved swatches and easy restore.
• Double stats support brings split values, wildcards, and a polished stat editor.
• Safer storage and exports with version guards, export compression, and persistence improvements.
• Optional desktop wrapper via Tauri for native packaging.

Editor & Workflow Improvements

New three‑pane layout

• Left navigation, central workspace, and right inspector are now organized into a consistent three‑pane layout.
• Cards, Assets, and Settings live in the left nav for faster access.
• The header is cleaner, with a dedicated Library menu for export/import.
• The template chooser is now pinned at the top of the inspector; export/save actions stay pinned at the bottom.
• The language selector is now a compact flag+code popover.

Recent cards

• A new Recent section in the Cards modal makes it faster to jump back to the cards you were just working on.

Rendering & Editing Upgrades

Blueprint-based rendering

• Templates now render through a blueprint system, which keeps layout more consistent across different card types.
• Hero and Monster cards use smarter bottom-stacked layout rules so long text doesn’t break the stats area.
• Everything still exports from the same SVG source, keeping preview and PNG output aligned.

Generic inspector framework

• The editor form is now built from template metadata, making it easier to add or adjust fields without custom UI for every template.

Card Styling

Custom border colours (labelled-back)

• Labelled-back cards can now be tinted with custom border colours.
• Pick colours quickly with a compact inline picker or enter an exact hex value.
• Save favourite swatches for reuse, and restore the default HeroQuest brown at any time.
• A revert option lets you roll back to the last saved colour.
• Swatches are included in backups, so your palette travels with your library.

Stat Editing Enhancements

Double stats support

• Stats can now be single or double values (e.g. 4/6).
• A split toggle lets you expand/collapse a stat without losing the second value.
• Wildcards are supported (*) for special stat cases.
• The stat editor has been restyled to a cleaner pill-and-buttons design.

Inline stat input

• You can now type stat values directly inside the stat editor.
• Accepted inputs are 0–999 or * only, with invalid characters blocked immediately.
• The stepper buttons stay in sync (at 999 the + button disables; at *, the - button disables and + converts to 0).
• Larger values automatically shrink to fit inside the stat box.

Reliability, Storage & Export Improvements

Safer data compatibility

• The app now detects if you open a newer database with an older build and shows a clear, blocking message instead of failing silently.
• The warning tells you which app version last migrated your data for easier troubleshooting.

Export improvements

• ZIP exports (images and backups) can now be compressed, reducing download sizes.
• The app makes a one‑time request for persistent storage support to reduce the risk of browser data eviction.

Desktop Packaging (Optional)

• A lightweight Tauri wrapper lets the app be built as a native desktop version using the same static export as the web app.
• Optional native behavior can open your Downloads folder after export, without changing web behavior.

Small UX Polishes

• Footer version labels now link directly to the GitHub release tag.
• Asset deletion confirmations are more accurate, with live counts and better handling of affected cards and drafts.

I’m really happy to share that version 0.5.1 of the HeroQuest Card Creator is now live. This update builds on the workflow improvements in 0.5.0 and focuses on refining the experience, adding flexibility where people have asked for it, and preparing the app for the next wave of features.

While some of the work in this release is under the hood, there are also a number of visible improvements that should make day-to-day card creation feel more comfortable and expressive.

🎨 More Control Over How Cards Look

One of the most common requests has been more flexibility in card styling, especially for house rules and alternative designs.

With 0.5.1 you can now:

• Use custom border colours on supported card templates
• Work more comfortably with double stats for custom rules or layouts
• Edit stat values more quickly using direct numeric input, rather than relying only on step buttons
• Adjust cards in ways that better reflect your version of HeroQuest, while still keeping a consistent look and feel

Stat fields now support free numeric entry alongside the existing stepper controls. This makes it much faster to enter larger values or special cases when working through lots of cards, while still keeping sensible limits and validation in place.

These options are deliberately controlled rather than completely free-form, so cards stay readable and cohesive.

🧭 A Calmer, More Polished Interface

There have also been a number of UI and navigation improvements aimed at making longer sessions feel smoother:

• A refined left-hand navigation that better reflects how people move through the app
• A recent cards view to quickly jump back into what you were just working on
• Small layout and interaction tweaks that reduce friction and visual noise

Individually these are subtle changes, but together they make the app feel more predictable and easier to live in as your library grows.

💻 Desktop App Builds (and a Call for Help)

The Card Creator has always been downloadable and runnable locally, but 0.5.1 introduces the ability to build the app as a desktop application.

At the moment, I’m only able to produce desktop builds for my own platform. I’m working on a MacBook Pro (M-series), so the desktop build I’m sharing is likely to run on Apple Silicon Macs (M2, M3, M4, M5). Alongside that, I’m also sharing the standard HTML/JavaScript version, which can still be run locally in a browser as before.

If anyone in the community is comfortable building software and would be willing to build and share desktop versions for:

• older Intel Macs
• Windows
• Linux

that would be hugely appreciated. The source code is available, and contributions here would really help make the app more accessible across platforms.

⚠️ Important: Backups & Upgrading Safely

As always, it’s strongly recommended to back up your library before using a new version of the app.

In practical terms, this means:

• Export your library as a backup before running 0.5.1
• If you overwrite your existing 0.5.0 folder, your data should carry over as expected
• If you run 0.5.1 from a different folder, the app may not automatically see your existing library, as it uses browser storage (IndexedDB)

If you’re hosting the app behind a local or remote server, upgrading should be seamless as long as the new version is served from the same domain and port. Even then, keeping a backup is always a good idea.

🔧 Foundations for What Comes Next

A big part of 0.5.1 has been about preparing the ground for future features. Internally, templates and layouts have been reworked into a more structured foundation. While you won’t see all of the benefits of that immediately, it puts the app in a much better position to support:

• More card templates
• Greater template flexibility
• Sharing parts of a library rather than whole databases
• A more mobile-friendly interface over time

I didn’t want to rush those bigger features out until this groundwork was in place.

🐞 Bugs, Feedback & Issue Reporting

Although I’ve worked hard to maintain quality in this release, there’s always a chance that new bugs have slipped in. If you do run into issues, please report them using one of the following:

• Community bug report thread:
  https://itch.io/t/5671014/bug-reports-issue-tracking
• GitHub issues (and project board):
  https://github.com/markforster/heroquest-card-creator/issues
  https://github.com/users/markforster/projects/9/views/1

Reports, screenshots, and reproduction steps are all hugely helpful.

As always, thanks to everyone who’s been using the app, sharing feedback, and contributing ideas. It genuinely helps shape where the project goes next.

👉 Download v0.5.1 here:

• HTML Assets (to run or serve locally)
  
• Installable Mac app (DMG for m2 > m5)

https://mark-forster.itch.io/heroquest-card-creator#download

As always source code for the project is available here https://github.com/markforster/heroquest-card-creator

Full release notes can be found here https://itch.io/t/5895025/heroquest-card-maker-051-full-release-notes

Now that the latest update is out, I wanted to do something a bit different.

While building and testing the Card Creator, I’ve accumulated my own working library of cards, artwork, and assets. These are things I’ve used to experiment, prototype ideas, and generally put the tool through its paces. Rather than keeping that to myself, I’ve decided to share it openly for anyone who wants it.

If you’re just getting started, this gives you something tangible to explore straight away. You can browse cards, reuse artwork, tweak things, or just use it as inspiration for your own creations. Nothing here is meant to be “official” or definitive. It’s simply a practical library that grew alongside the tool itself.

I’ve always felt that HeroQuest homebrew thrives when ideas are shared, adapted, and built upon, and this felt like a natural extension of that spirit. Hopefully it helps lower the barrier to jumping in and makes the first experience with the app a bit more fun.

A few important notes before importing!

• This library requires version 0.5.0 of the Card Creator. The version currently hosted on itch.io is already up to date, so if you’re using the app there, you’re good to go. If you’re running a downloaded or local copy, please make sure you’ve updated it to version 0.5.0 first, as older versions (such as 0.4.2) won’t be able to load this file.
• If you already have your own cards or assets, please back up (export) your existing library first. Importing this file will overwrite your current cards and artwork library.
• At the moment, there’s no way to merge libraries or import only part of this one. Partial import and export (for collections or selected cards) is something I’m planning to add soon, but for now this is an all-or-nothing import!. Again I need to re-iterate that you should backup (export) your library first!!!

You can download the library from https://public.markforster.info/Heroquest/Tools/heroquest-card-maker-backup-2026...

Try the card creator here https://mark-forster.itch.io/heroquest-card-creator and Import the library

Note: The library file is fairly large and not especially optimised. It’s very much a working collection rather than a curated pack, so depending on your connection it may take a little while to download. Whats in the library? All of the cards you may have seen in screenshots todate along with all of the assets.

I’m really excited to share that version 0.5.0 of the HeroQuest Card Creator is now live 🎉 

This release has been a big one for me. Ever since the early versions, I knew that once people started creating more than just a handful of cards, the real challenge wouldn’t be makingcards - it would be managing them comfortably and confidently. v0.5.0 is all about solving that.

🗂️ Collections

You can now organise cards into Collections - quests, expansions, campaigns, experiments, or anything else that makes sense to you.

• Cards can belong to multiple collections
• Nothing is ever duplicated or hidden
• There’s always a clear All Cards view underneath everything
• An Unfiled view helps you spot cards that still need organising

This makes working with larger libraries far calmer and more focused.

🖼️ Bulk Image Upload (with safety built in)

Artwork management has been a big quality-of-life improvement in this release.

• Upload multiple images at once
• Duplicate images are automatically detected and skipped
• Files with the same name but different content are safely renamed
• Clear feedback shows you exactly what happened

You can work faster without worrying about accidentally cluttering or breaking your asset library.

📦 Bulk Export

When you’re ready to use your cards, you no longer have to export them one by one.

• Export multiple cards - or an entire collection - in one go
• Everything is bundled into a single ZIP of images
• Clear progress and safe cancellation during export

It’s designed to make the final step - printing, sharing, or archiving - feel just as smooth as the creative process.

🌍 Language Support & Localisation

v0.5.0 also introduces proper localisation support across the app.

The interface now supports multiple languages, with language selection that behaves reliably and layouts that adapt more gracefully to translated text. This work was driven largely by feedback from users across Europe, and it lays the groundwork for supporting many more languages going forward.

If there’s a language you’d like to see supported, please let me know and I’ll do my best to get it added in a follow-up patch.

🏷️ Custom Stat Labels (optional)

For tables using house rules or alternative terminology, you can now optionally override shared stat labels globally via a settings modal, so your cards better match your game and language.

This release represents a big step forward for the project. The workflow now feels complete:

organise → iterate → export, without friction at any stage.

As always, feedback is very welcome - whether it’s ideas, issues, or just seeing what people are creating with it. Thanks to everyone who’s been following along so far ❤️

👉 Download v0.5.0 here:  https://mark-forster.itch.io/heroquest-card-creator#download

:) I'll definitely find a use for it. I'm thinking of getting small stickers printed (mine and my kids faces) and using that space for them. great job!

Nice work! really like the layout. Do feel the shield takes up a lot of useful space that could be used for artefacts and potions but overall the design is beautiful!

Definitely going to be grabbing this and using instead of the base game sheets. Bravo and Kudos

That’s a really great idea, and you’ve described the problem perfectly.

What you’re outlining is very much the direction I’d like to take things in long term: separating content (text, stats, images) from presentation (fonts, colours, borders, layouts), so you can iterate on the look and feel without having to revisit every card individually. Being able to evolve from “OG HQ style” into something more custom or experimental without rework is exactly the kind of workflow pain I want the tool to help with.

I’ve got a few features I want to tackle first that move things in that direction in smaller steps, things like more control over border colours, additional card layouts, better text formatting, and safer partial export/import so changes don’t require touching an entire library. Those pieces are important groundwork before something as impactful as full templating can land properly.

I’m working pretty flat out at the moment, so realistically it may be a few months before I can step back and design something of this size properly, but it’s absolutely going onto the roadmap. I really appreciate you taking the time to describe the use case so clearly, and I’d definitely be open to chatting more about it when I get closer to that stage.

Thanks for the great suggestion, it’s exactly the kind of feedback that helps shape where this goes next.

I'm very conscious i haven't been working on this tool but i've been so caught up with https://mark-forster.itch.io/heroquest-card-creator/community lately. I'm in the process of wrapping up some key features for the card creator then i'll be spending a bit of time polishing and refining the search tracker and planning out a more clear and detailed roadmap! 🤞

Nice quest! I'm in between quests from the base game and one of 4 expansions we got this christmas. Playing with my 3 boys (10, 9 and 6).. I think they're really going to love this as an transition quest from base quests to to kellars keep! thank you !

I wanted to share a quick follow-up for anyone who grabbed the free artwork assets I posted recently.

I’ve now made an updated version of my current working artwork library available. This one is more organised and better optimised, based on how I’m actually using the assets day to day while building cards.

Everything is still free to use, and the idea is the same as before — to give people something solid to start with. If you’re new to the Card Creator or don’t yet have your own artwork, this should make it much easier to dive in and start experimenting straight away.

Hopefully it’s useful, whether as a starting point, reference material, or something to build on.

You can download the assets in zip format from here. Enjoy and happy card making!

Hi all,

Just a quick heads-up that version 0.4.2 of HeroQuest Card Creator is now available.

If you download the app and run it offline by opening index.html directly from your computer (rather than using the hosted itch.io version or a local server), you’re strongly encouraged to update to this release. Without this fix card exports will NOT include a background image of the card or the required heroquest styled fonts 

This version includes a fix for an issue that could affect exported cards when running from the local file system.

👉 Full details are in the devlog here: 

The hosted itch.io version is unaffected, as is any self-hosted version served via an HTTP server. However, if you rely on the downloadable offline version (running directly from your filesystem), we recommend downloading the latest build.

Thanks again for all the feedback and reports — it really helps keep things running smoothly!

HeroQuest Search Tracker is a lightweight, table-friendly companion that tracks which heroes have searched which rooms for treasure during a quest. It removes the need for coins, tokens, or memory checks and keeps the game flowing without changing the rules.

This release focuses on clarity, reliability, and real-table usability.

✨ Core Features

Board & Room Tracking

• Faithful HeroQuest board layout with clearly defined rooms

• Each room tracks treasure searches per hero

• At-a-glance indicators show who has and hasn’t searched a room

• Rooms can be disabled if they are not used in the current quest

Hero Management

• Supports any number of heroes (beyond the base four)

• Classic heroes supported out of the box (Barbarian, Dwarf, Elf, Wizard)

• Heroes can be added or removed at any time

• Removing a hero also removes them from all tracked room searches

Visual Search Status

• Room-level view shows which heroes have searched

• Hero-focused view highlights which rooms a single hero has searched

• No need to click through lists to understand board state

• Designed to be readable from across the table

State Persistence & Sharing

• Automatically saves progress between sessions

• Export the entire board state as a shareable link

• Import a saved state on another device (phone, tablet, laptop)

• Ideal for swapping devices mid-game or sharing with your group

Session Controls

• One-click Reset Searches (heroes and rooms remain intact)

• Board image toggle for clearer contrast when needed

• Designed for touch and mouse input

⚠️ Known Limitations (Current Version)

• Board layout is fixed to the classic HeroQuest map

• Treasure search tracking only (no traps, secret doors, or monsters)

• Import replaces the current state (no merge)

• Hero colour markers repeat if many heroes are added

• Reset clears search progress only (not heroes or room configuration)

These limitations are intentional to keep the tool focused and fast during play.

This roadmap reflects direction, not promises.

The Search Tracker is intentionally focused and aims to stay simple, stable, and table-friendly.

🎯 Short-Term Goals

• Minor UI refinements for readability on small screens

• Copy and micro-interaction polish

• Clearer visual distinction for disabled rooms

• Improved affordances for hero-focused views

🧩 Quality-of-Life Improvements

• Optional alternate board visuals or contrast modes

• Subtle animation or feedback when marking searches

• Small accessibility improvements (contrast, tap targets)

🧪 Exploration (Non-Guaranteed)

• Optional annotations or notes per room

• Optional “table view” summaries (per hero / per room)

• Additional board layouts (only if they do not complicate core use)

These ideas will only be pursued if they do not increase table friction.

🛑 Out of Scope (By Design)

• Full quest management

• Monster, trap, or secret-door tracking

• Dice rolling or combat helpers

• Rule enforcement or automation

The Search Tracker is designed to support the game, not replace it.

If you run into a bug, unexpected behaviour, or something that doesn’t work as you’d expect, the best place to report it is on GitHub:

👉 https://github.com/markforster/heroquest.search-tracker/issues and the active board here https://github.com/users/markforster/projects/7/views/2

That’s where issues can be properly tracked, discussed, and followed up over time, and it gives them the best chance of being seen and addressed. The code itself will be published to the repository in the coming weeks, but issues can already be logged there now.

You’re still very welcome to share feedback, ideas, and general thoughts here on the forum — I do read them — but I have limited time to pull actionable bugs out of forum threads and comments. If something feels broken or needs fixing, GitHub is the most reliable way to make sure it doesn’t get missed.

Thanks for taking the time to report issues and help improve the app — it’s genuinely appreciated.

Also, if you’re struggling for artwork to play about with check out this topic https://itch.io/t/5673541/free-heroquest-style-artwork-for-anyone-who-wants-it