Dumb Device for the future.
Magic life totals drift to phones, dice, and scraps of paper. That breaks flow at the table. I wanted a dumb device that stays out, reads in one glance, and fits the hobby physically: playing-card footprint, round corners, room in the deck box. Own several so each deck gets its own color, saved starting life, and LED theme. No dice bag required for routine play
Simple Device, big thoughts.
Designed and built a card-scale game peripheral with a documented interaction system (Figma → Arduino firmware → 4-layer PCB), mapping complex tabletop state to few controls, glanceable UI, and health-driven lighting.
Device Iterations
Breadboard
This device was a breadboard shield made to work with an Arduino board underneath, it simply slotted into place, with a portable battery I could use it as it was intended and feel out my use case for the device in real time.
The OG Construction
PCB Prototype
At this point in the process I was selecting the BOM and what parts where available and the most cost effective, removing parts of the Arduino board I really didn’t need anymore and making sure I had enough memory to support all of my firmware.
Several Iterations
Final FirmwareLocking In
Now is the time making sure everything feels right and is smooth within the menus and interactions. Packaging coming soon.