🧭 Executive Summary

Version 0.6.0 introduces one of the largest additions to HeroQuest Card Creator so far: Decks.

Until now, the app has primarily focused on creating and managing individual cards. This release expands that workflow into something much larger - the ability to organise cards into structured, reusable decks made up of grouped sets and front-face entries.

Decks introduces a completely new workspace dedicated to building, organising, managing, and eventually exporting playable collections of cards.

Alongside the new Decks system, this release also includes:

• drag-and-drop deck building
• grouped set organisation
• quantity controls
• deck-aware inspector features
• export preparation workflows
• safer removal and recovery flows
• deep-link navigation support
• major interface and interaction refinements

A large amount of work in this release also focused on stability, consistency, and long-term workflow foundations - particularly around drag-and-drop behaviour, data integrity, and preparing the app for future PDF and print workflows.

In short, 0.6.0 represents a major step toward turning HeroQuest Card Creator from a card editor into a complete deck-authoring platform.

🃏 Decks

Dedicated Decks Workspace

HeroQuest Card Creator now includes a completely new Decks workspace.

This introduces:

• a deck grid view
• focused deck editing workflows
• grouped set organisation
• contextual editing panels
• deck preview fans
• deck-specific actions and controls

The new workflow is designed to make managing larger collections and playable card sets significantly easier.

Deck Grid Management

The Decks grid allows you to:

• create decks
• rename decks
• duplicate decks
• delete decks
• search decks
• multi-select decks for bulk actions

Deck previews now display visual card fans, making it easier to identify decks at a glance.

Search also understands deck contents, helping surface decks based on included cards rather than only deck titles.

📚 Group and Set Organisation

Structured Deck Building

Decks are built using a new structure:

• Groups
• Sets
• Front-face entries

This allows cards to be organised in a much more deliberate and flexible way.

For example, creators can now:

• separate treasure sets
• organise hero abilities into categories
• build encounter decks
• structure expansions into grouped sections
• keep large projects manageable

Groups automatically clean themselves up when empty, helping keep decks tidy during editing.

Drag-and-Drop Deck Building

Deck building is now heavily drag-and-drop driven.

You can:

• drag sets between groups
• reorder sets
• reorder entries
• create groups through insertion controls
• drag front-face cards directly into sets

A substantial amount of work in this release focused on making these interactions feel more stable, predictable, and visually clear.

This includes improvements to:

• drop targeting
• hover guidance
• insertion behaviour
• drag previews
• empty-state handling
• reorder consistency

🎴 Front-Face Entry Management

Entry Workflows

Within sets, you can now:

• add front-face entries
• reorder entries
• remove entries from sets
• multi-select entries
• perform bulk remove-from-set actions

Importantly, removing entries from a set no longer implies deleting or destroying the underlying pairing relationship.

This makes deck editing safer and more flexible.

Quantity Controls

Entries inside sets now support quantity values.

This makes it possible to:

• duplicate cards within a deck
• control encounter frequencies
• create weighted treasure distributions
• manage repeatable card counts more easily

Quantity controls are integrated directly into the deck editing workflow.

Recover Paired Cards

The Decks system now includes workflows for recovering paired cards that are not currently present in a set.

This helps prevent cards from becoming “lost” while editing larger decks and makes deck management more forgiving during experimentation.

🧭 Inspector & Deck Awareness

Deck Membership Visibility

Cards can now expose where they are used across decks.

The inspector now includes:

• deck membership visibility
• deck usage counts
• links into related deck contexts
• deck preview fans

This makes it significantly easier to understand how cards are being reused across larger projects.

🖼 Right Panel & Source Browsing

Improved Source Filtering

The right-side source panel has been redesigned to improve deck-building workflows.

Enhancements include:

• front/back face modes
• improved searching
• collection-aware filtering
• clearer used vs available card visibility
• larger previews
• improved active-state behaviour

The panel also remembers its state between sessions for a smoother editing experience.

📤 Deck Export Preparation

Deck Export Workflow

Deck export actions are now available from both:

• the Decks grid
• deck detail view

This release focuses on establishing the export workflow and deck structure needed for future print and PDF functionality planned for later releases.

Export actions now include:

• confirmation prompts
• clearer safety messaging
• deck-aware export flows

⚠️ Safer Editing Workflows

Improved Remove & Delete Safety

Several workflows in Decks were redesigned to reduce accidental destructive actions.

Changes include:

• confirmation dialogs
• clearer warning states
• improved remove wording
• safer unpair behaviour
• recover-oriented workflows

These changes are especially important when working with larger interconnected deck structures.

🌍 Localization Improvements

Decks-specific UI and workflows have been localized across all supported languages.

This includes:

• confirmations
• hints
• labels
• metadata/details panels
• insert controls
• empty states
• recovery workflows

Additional terminology refinements were also made to improve clarity and consistency throughout the interface.

🎨 Interface & Visual Refinement

A significant amount of polish work was completed across the new Decks experience.

Areas improved include:

• hover behaviour
• toolbar consistency
• spacing and alignment
• placeholder styling
• empty-state presentation
• drag guidance
• panel consistency
• deck fan presentation
• light/dark theme behaviour

Many of these changes are subtle individually, but together they make the Decks workflow feel more deliberate and stable during longer editing sessions.

⚡ Stability & Reliability Improvements

A large portion of development time for 0.6.0 focused on improving interaction reliability and long-term stability.

This includes improvements to:

• drag-and-drop consistency
• reorder persistence
• delete/unpair cleanup behaviour
• deck metadata updates
• selection behaviour
• navigation synchronization
• empty-state handling
• deck integrity safeguards

Additional regression coverage was also added across Decks workflows to improve long-term reliability as the system evolves further.

🧱 Foundations for Future Releases

Although Decks is fully usable in 0.6.0, this release also lays important groundwork for future functionality planned later in the roadmap.

In particular, the new Decks structure is intended to support future:

• PDF export workflows
• print layout generation
• larger-scale deck management
• improved collection/export tooling

This release focuses on establishing the organisational and workflow foundations needed before those features can be introduced cleanly.

❤️ Thank You

Decks has been one of the largest and most challenging additions to the project so far, and a huge amount of iteration went into making the workflow feel flexible without becoming overwhelming.

A big thank you to everyone continuing to test the app, provide feedback, share ideas, and experiment with custom HeroQuest content.

It’s genuinely exciting seeing the kinds of systems, expansions, campaigns, and homebrew content people are building with the tool - and Decks is intended to make managing those projects significantly easier moving forward.

I'm really excited to finally say this Version 0.6.0 is now available.

This release introduces something that's been part of the long-term vision for the project for a very long time:

Decks.

Not as a quick add-on feature. Not as a reactionary system. But as a foundational part of where the Card Creator has always been heading.

Looking back, a lot of the work across earlier releases was quietly preparing for this moment:

• pairing becoming first-class
• collections becoming more structured
• export workflows becoming safer
• navigation becoming more deliberate
• larger library management improving
• card relationships becoming more meaningful

  0.6.0 is where many of those foundations finally come together into something much bigger.

And honestly... it feels important.

🃏 Decks - Finally Arriving Properly

From very early on, I never really saw the HeroQuest Card Creator as just a way to make isolated cards.

The long-term goal has always been larger than that.

Because once people begin building:

• quest packs
• spell schools
• treasure systems
• hero classes
• monster ecosystems
• campaign expansions

...you eventually stop thinking in terms of individual cards.

You start thinking in terms of complete playable systems.

Decks is the first major step toward supporting that properly.

📚 Structured Deck Building

Decks are built around a structured workflow using:

• groups
• sets
• front-face entries

Which means cards can now be organised intentionally rather than simply stored together.

You can separate:

• treasure pools
• encounter categories
• hero abilities
• spell groups
• expansion chapters
• progression systems

in ways that actually reflect how the content is used during play.

That distinction matters a lot to me.

This release starts shifting the app away from simply "holding cards" and toward helping creators build cohesive tabletop systems.

🖱 Drag-and-Drop That Feels Deliberate

A huge amount of development time in this release went into interaction behaviour.

Probably far more than most people would ever guess.

The challenge wasn't making cards draggable.

The challenge was making deck building feel:

• stable
• predictable
• understandable
• flexible
• difficult to accidentally break

Groups can now be reordered. Sets can move between groups. Cards can be inserted dynamically. New groups can be created while building.

And importantly, the workflow now feels much more intentional and structured rather than fragile or temporary.

That was the goal the entire time.

🎴 Quantity Support Quietly Changes Everything

One feature I'm particularly excited about is quantity support inside sets.

It sounds small initially.

But it fundamentally changes what Decks can represent.

You can now create:

• weighted treasure decks
• repeat encounters
• rarity systems
• balanced card pools
• duplicated spell distributions
• structured loot tables

Suddenly the app isn't just organising cards visually.

It's starting to model actual gameplay structures.

That opens a lot of possibilities moving forward.

🧭 The App Understands Relationships Better

One thing I've been steadily working toward over multiple releases is making the app feel more relationship-aware.

0.5.2 introduced proper front/back pairing.

0.5.3 improved collection structure and library organisation.

0.6.0 builds on that idea further.

Cards can now understand where they are used across decks. The inspector can surface deck membership. You can jump directly into related deck contexts.

The app is slowly becoming more aware of how projects fit together rather than simply storing disconnected records.

And as projects grow larger, that becomes increasingly important.

📤 This Release Lays Important Foundations

Although Decks is fully usable today, a lot of the work in this release also exists to support where the project is going next.

Especially around:

• export workflows
• print preparation
• PDF generation
• larger-scale deck management

Decks needed to exist before those systems could really make sense.

So while 0.6.0 already changes the workflow significantly, it's also an important foundational release for future versions of the app.

⚠️ Safer Editing & More Confident Experimentation

As projects become larger and more interconnected, safety becomes increasingly important.

A lot of this release focused on making experimentation feel less risky.

You now get:

• clearer confirmations
• safer remove workflows
• recovery-oriented behaviour
• stronger cleanup handling
• better integrity safeguards

Creative tools should feel safe to explore in.

You shouldn't constantly feel worried about accidentally damaging the structure of your project.

That's something I care about a lot.

🎨 A Huge Amount of Polish Behind the Scenes

This release also contains an enormous amount of smaller refinement work.

Hover behaviour. Spacing. Toolbar consistency. Panel alignment. Fan rendering. Selection logic. Empty states. Theme consistency. Insert guidance.

Individually these things are subtle.

Collectively they make the Decks workflow feel calmer, clearer, and significantly more stable during longer editing sessions.

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

The app should simply feel harder to confuse and harder to break.

And honestly, those are some of my favourite kinds of improvements.

Why This Release Feels Important To Me

0.6.0 feels less like a feature release and more like a milestone release.

Not because it introduces one giant flashy mechanic.

But because it finally reveals the shape of where the project has been heading for quite a while.

The Card Creator is steadily evolving toward supporting:

• complete expansions
• interconnected systems
• structured campaigns
• reusable deck ecosystems
• larger tabletop workflows

Decks is a huge part of that vision.

And while there's still a lot more I want to build, this release finally feels like the point where those longer-term foundations become visible.

As always:

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

A huge amount of this project continues to be shaped by community conversations, ideas, testing, and feedback.

Thank you for that.

Onwards.

👉 Full release notes here: https://itch.io/t/6422703/-heroquest-card-creator-version-060

👉 Download v0.6.0 here: https://mark-forster.itch.io/heroquest-card-creator

Thanks, please do share what you create.. i'd love to see it! As a developer part of the fun of creating an app is knowing people use it and see what they create 

👉 Read the full release notes here https://itch.io/t/6104593/-heroquest-card-creator-version-056
👉 Download v0.5.6 here https://mark-forster.itch.io/heroquest-card-creator

I'm really happy to finally say: Version 0.5.6 of the HeroQuest Card Creator is now available.

This release has been building for a while and it focuses on two things I've been thinking about a lot recently:

• giving creators more visual control over their cards
• making sure the app remains fast, stable, and safe even with large libraries

Some of the changes are immediately visible. Others quietly improve how the app behaves when you're working with bigger projects.

Either way, this release solves a few pain points that have come up repeatedly in the community.

🎨 Background Tint - Now Available on All Cards

This is probably the biggest change in this release.

A while back I added border tinting for some templates, and it quickly became clear people wanted to push that idea further.

With 0.5.6, you can now apply background tinting across all card types.

That means you can now:

• create colour-coded decks
• visually group cards by theme
• experiment with darker designs
• build entirely new visual identities for custom expansions

This has been one of the most requested visual features for a long time, so I'm really pleased it's finally here.

✍️ Body Text Colour Control

Once background tinting was working, something else became obvious.

If you darken the background of a card, you also need control over the text colour.

So body text can now be coloured as well, allowing you to maintain readability regardless of how you style the card background.

It's a small addition, but it unlocks a lot more freedom when designing custom cards.

🃏 Treasure Card Artwork Improvements

Treasure cards received some internal improvements that should make them behave more cleanly.

The artwork frame, parchment background, and border layers were restructured so they behave more predictably. This helps artwork sit more naturally in the treasure window and ensures everything aligns correctly.

More importantly, it also allows treasure cards to fully support the new background tint system.

So treasure cards now behave consistently with the rest of the templates.

🖼 Smaller Libraries & Faster Exports

One thing I'm always slightly paranoid about is browser storage limits.

The app stores everything locally in your browser, which is great for privacy and portability, but it also means large libraries can eventually start consuming a lot of storage.

So this release introduces some tools specifically aimed at keeping libraries smaller and more portable.

You can now convert certain artwork from PNG to JPEG directly inside the asset inspector.

For many images - especially card backs and large illustrations - PNG transparency isn't needed, and converting them can dramatically reduce file size.

For example, one of my own libraries went from 178 MB down to 38 MB after optimisation.

Smaller libraries mean:

• faster exports\
• quicker imports\
• reduced risk of browser storage issues

Which is a win across the board.

📦 Smaller, Safer Library Backups

Library exports have also been redesigned internally.

Backups are now:

• smaller
• faster to export
• faster to import
• less likely to be accidentally broken

If you've ever opened a backup file out of curiosity and accidentally edited something inside it... this should now be much harder to do.

For compatibility, the older export format is still available if you ever need to move between versions.

📊 Understanding Your Library Size

Another small but useful addition: the app can now show how large your library actually is.

You'll be able to see storage usage and system information directly inside the application.

This makes it easier to understand when artwork optimisation might be useful - especially if your library is starting to grow.

💡 In-App Hints (Without Full Documentation)

I've been asked many times about adding documentation.

The problem is the app is still evolving quickly during the 0.5.x phase, and any large documentation system would likely become outdated quite quickly.

So instead, I've started introducing small contextual hints inside the interface.

These appear in places like the stockpile area and gently highlight useful interactions and workflows.

Think of them as little signposts while the app continues to evolve.

More may appear over time.

🌐 Easier Offline Version

If you download the offline version of the app, you now have a new option available.

The bundle now includes a tiny built-in local server, which lets you run the app through a local web address without installing or configuring anything yourself.

You can still launch the app the usual way by opening index.html, but this option makes things easier for people who prefer running the app through a local server.

✨ Lots of UI Polish

This release also includes a lot of small interface improvements.

Spacing, formatting, layout behaviour, and rendering have all been refined across the editor to make the app feel smoother and more comfortable to use.

Individually these tweaks are small.

But together they make longer editing sessions feel calmer and more predictable.

Which is always the goal.

Why I'm Excited About 0.5.6

This release is one of those updates where several different improvements all reinforce the same goal.

Creators now have:

• more visual control over their cards
• better tools for managing large libraries
• faster and safer exports and backups
• a smoother overall editing experience

And behind the scenes there's been a lot of work making sure the app continues to scale as people build larger and more ambitious card libraries. It's another step toward making the tool feel less like a prototype and more like a proper creative platform for HeroQuest cards.

As always:

Please back up your library before upgrading. Please report anything strange if you encounter it. And please keep sharing the cards and expansions you're building. A lot of the improvements in this release exist because of conversations with the community.

Thank you for that.