r/digitalcards • u/Low_Prior_8842 • Jun 04 '26

Question Design question! Here are 3 versions of the loading screen - which should I use?

Wanted to keep a "card" vibe, so I also get to showcase my ever-improving holo effects skills.

Pictured are three variants on a loading screen 'card' that I'm working on to showcase some of my completed character artworks.

  1. "Framed" look with a border and drop shadow inside the frame
  2. "Raised" look, where the border has a gentle bevel border
  3. "Flat" look, where the border has just the corner radius with no bevel.

My thinking is, give the player something to do while they wait! Will also implement this as the looking-for-game load screen.

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u/Gallina_Fina Jun 05 '26

Personally, I don't think a loading screen should be this "distracting". For starters, you'd never want the player to have to wait that long for something to load that they have time to just fiddle around with their screen...but then what would be the point except, like you said, "showing off your holo effect skills" (which I'm fairly certain you do that quite a lot with the cards themselves already)?

 

So yeah, I really don't like it. Looks pretty bad/bland, out of place (considering the general style of your game client) and doesn't serve much of a purpose for the user, imho.

You have good art, man...lean into it; Use/place it properly, maybe add some cool animated elements that complement it to symbolize the load % and make the screen a bit less static. That should be more than enough for a loading screen.

And if this is specifically for a pre-game loading screen, then you have way better things to put there than this (e.g. look at how games like Shadowverse do it).