Fragment Forge

This game initially arose out of a need to work on something concrete in order to help the Card Game Framework mature in capabilities. It is meant to push the capabilities of the framework to the max and where lacking, push the framework’s improvement as well.

Why this specific game concept? I’ve always been a big fan of the results demo effect coders achieve. They are amazing works of art and receive criminally little attention. Typically only by other coders.

I felt that the awesome graphics of a Fragment Shader would fit very well in a digital card game as card illustration and animation which infinite more variability than any other card game could achieve, at only a small fraction of the size. However it would be very hard to make the varied art out there git a game’s theme…unless that game was about the demoscene itself!

This is further helped by the fact that demo effect coders, unlike a lot of more traditional artists, release their art directly to the common, which a commons-game like this could utilize in order to kickstart their visuals.

TL;DR: I thought it would look fucking cool to have animated shaders as card art. And I think the results speak for themselves!

Credits and Thanks

The game is only possible due to the amazing work that is the Godot Game Engine.

It would also not be what it is, without all the shader arts released into the commons via Shadertoy. Go check it out and especially the artists whose art I’ve reused for Fragment Forge.

However not all art can be Shaders and this is where Artbreeder comes in, where professional-quality art for personality-based cards can be procured.

And finally a ton of thanks to everyone who releases assets into the commons and helps improve humanity as a whole. I only hope this little game of mine adds something worthwhile as well.